On Friday’s instalment (April 11) of Good Morning Britain, TV presenter Sean Fletcher interrupted hosts Charlotte Hawkins adn Rob Brinder as he issued a “breaking news” update on the ITV show. The broadcaster revealed: “In the past few minutes, it’s been reported that President Trump’s diplomatic envoy Steve Witkoff will meet the Russian President Vladimir Putin today after travelling to Moscow.

“It will be the third meeting between the pair as the White House pushes for a ceasefire in the war between Russia and Ukraine.” The trip comes a week after Putin’s envoy, Kirill Dmitriev met Witkoff and other U.S officials in Washington and experssed “cautious optimism” about the renewed diplomatic engagement between the States and Russia. Trump’s push for a ceasefire has stalled as Moscow rejected a fill 30-day truce backed by Washington and Kyiv and has repeatedly violated the energy ceasefire agreed on March 25.

The news follows after UK announced a military aid package for Kyiv ahead of a meeting with the Ukraine Defence Contact Group at NATO’s headquarters in Brussels.

The group is an alliance of approximately 50 countries – all 32 NATO member states, including the US, and about 20 other nations – that has been supporting Ukraine by sending military equipment there since April 2022, a few weeks after Russia launched its full-scale invasion.

German defence minister Boris Pistorius will host the meeting the day after the UK defence secretary and his Frence counterpart Sebastien Lecornu led 30 defence ministers from the “coalition of the willing” in Brussels yesterday (April 10).

The UK’s defence secretary John Healey addressed members of of the group and explained that his US counterpart Pete Hegseth and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky are both joining the meeting virtually.

He began: “Our job as defencce ministers is to get urgent military aid into the hands of Ukrainian warfighters. Today, we will pledge billions more [in more funding to Ukraine‘s militairy.”

The defence secretary acknowledged the £350million the UK has committed this morning – part of a wider £450million British-led package – which he says will strengthen British-Ukrainian industrial links as well as putting more weapons in Kyiv’s hands.

He concluded: “2025 is the critical year for the war in Ukraine, and this is the critical moment. We stand with you in the fight and we stand with you in the peace.” Prince Harry also showed his support on Thursday when he visited war victims in Ukraine as part of his work with wounded veterans.

The Duke of Sussex was in central London this week for a Court of Appeal hearing over his security arrangements in the UK. The visit to Lviv in western Ukraine, which has frequently been targeted with Russian missiles, was not announced until after he left the country.

Good Morning Britain airs on weekdays from 6am on ITV1 or catch up on ITVX.