Russia Ukraine war latest: Trump claims peace deal ‘closer than ever’ after long call with Zelensky

Russia’s air defence units destroyed a drone flying towards Moscow, mayor Sergei Sobyanin said this morning on his Telegram channel.

“Emergency services are working at the site where the debris fell,” Sobyanin said.

The Defence Secretary will meet allied counterparts today after an apparent breakthrough in talks on security guarantees for Ukraine.

John Healey will chair the meeting of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group (UDCG) alongside German defence minister Boris Pistorius.

The group, which was chaired by the US until Donald Trump returned to the White House in January, brings together around 50 nations committed to providing military support for Kyiv.

It follows a meeting in Berlin on Monday night that saw European leaders including Sir Keir Starmer set out conditions for any peace deal with Russia.

And US officials reportedly offered Ukraine unspecified security guarantees in the event of an end to hostilities.

Asked whether negotiations to end Putin’s invasion of Ukraine could be over by Christmas, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said trying to predict a time frame for a peace deal was a “thankless task.”

“I can only speak for the Russian side, for President Putin,” Peskov said.”He is open to peace, to a serious peace and serious decisions. He is absolutely not open to any tricks aimed at stalling for time,” Peskov said.

Putin has himself been accused of stalling for time during US-led peace talks while his forces continue to try and seize more territory in eastern Ukraine.

Russia has set out a number of red lines during the negotiations, while demanding Ukraine hand over swathes of land, and does not seem to have budged from those positions.

The Russian president has cast Ukraine’s bid to join Nato as a major threat to Moscow’s security and a reason for launching the full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Ukraine has now offered to end its efforts to join the alliance in exchange for other forms of security guarantees, saying it is open to compromise.

President Donald Trump has claimed that a peace agreement is “closer than ever” after speaking directly with Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky.

“We had numerous conversations with President Putin of Russia, and I think we’re closer now than we have been ever and we’ll see what we can do. We want to save a lot of lives.”

He added: “We have to get them on the same page. But I think that’s working along.”

Envoys sent by Trump made an offer of Nato-style guarantees for Ukraine at talks with Zelensky in Berlin, US officials said, but warned such a deal would not be on the table forever.

European leaders gathered in Berlin said they and the US committed to work together to provide “robust security guarantees,” including a European-led “multinational force” in Ukraine supported by the US.

They said the force’s work would include “operating inside Ukraine” as well as assisting in rebuilding Ukraine’s forces, securing its skies and supporting safer seas.

They said Ukrainian forces should remain at a peacetime level of 800,000.

German chancellor Friedrich Merz said the guarantees by the US are “truly remarkable” and a “very important advancement” that he greatly welcomes.

The United States has offered to provide Nato-style security guarantees for Kyiv as US and European negotiators reported progress in talks to end the war with Russia.

Envoys sent by US president Donald Trump made the unprecedented offer at talks with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky in Berlin, US officials said, but warned such a deal would not be on the table forever.

Under the deal being discussed in Berlin, Ukraine would receive security guarantees similar to those provided in Article 5 of the Nato treaty, which requires the alliance to come to the defence of any member that comes under attack, a US official aware of the matter said.

Another US official said Russia was open to Ukraine joining the European Union and that Trump wanted to prevent Russia from encroaching further westwards in Europe.

One official said security guarantees, including deconfliction and oversight of any deal, were the major focus of Monday’s talks and that an Article 5-like guarantee was something Trump believed he could get Moscow to accept.

Working groups are expected to meet in the US during the coming weekend, possibly in Miami, one of the officials said. “Are we prepared to go to Russia if needed? Absolutely,” the official added.

Ukraine will ask the US for more sanctions pressure on Russia and additional weapons, including long-range, if Moscow rejects diplomatic efforts to end the war, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said.

Ukraine supports the idea of a ceasefire, in particular for energy strikes, during the Christmas period, he told reporters in a WhatsApp chat.

Russia has long opposed the idea of Ukraine joining Nato, warning against the perceived ‘enlargement’ of the military alliance on its border. Crucially, this is also opposed by the Trump administration.

Ukraine’s president Zelensky said on Sunday it was willing to give up on Nato membership – if Europe and the United States can offer tangible security guarantees to ward off future invasion.

These will have to be clearly defined and binding; Ukraine was offered security assurances before, in 1994, when it gave up its nuclear weapons. Russia then annexed Ukrainian territory in 2014.

Zelensky has asked for Article 5-style guarantees without Nato membership as part of a potential peace deal. Nato’s Article 5 clause commands all members to treat an attack on any Nato ally as an attack on all.

This would not necessarily require all members to attack Russia in the event of an invasion of Ukraine.

“Thanks to the growing Russian threat against Europe and Nato – at a time when AI is changing the very nature of warfare – the new head of MI6 is right to caution that ‘the front line is everywhere’. The appropriate response can be summed up in one word: deterrence.”

Russia is a growing threat to the UK and the nation’s “sons and daughters” must be ready to fight in the event of an attack, the head of the British armed forces has warned.

Making the case for a society-wide approach to “defence and deterrence”, chief of defence staff Sir Richard Knighton said the situation is “more dangerous than I have known during my career”.

He called on “people who are not soldiers, sailors or aviators to nevertheless invest their skills – and money” on building up national resilience.

Sir Richard said: “Sons and daughters. Colleagues. Veterans. …will all have a role to play. To build. To serve. And if necessary, to fight. And more families will know what sacrifice for our nation means.

“That is why it’s so important we do explain the changing threat and the need to stay ahead of it.”