Trump plan to end war must include security guarantees, Zelenskyy says
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he would be ready for talks in any format if he has “an understanding that America and Europe will not abandon us”.
Donald Trump’s plan for a quick settlement in Ukraine must not only stop the war but also ensure that there can no longer be any more Russian aggression, Zelenskyy said in an interview broadcast on Sunday.
He said Ukraine wanted no repeat of the experience of peace accords and talks that failed to produce results in the years running up to Moscow’s February 2022 full-scale invasion. He said that meant putting security guarantees in place.
“A frozen conflict will lead to more aggression again and again. Who then will win prizes and go down in history as the victor? No one. It will be an absolute defeat for everyone, both for us, as is important, and for Trump,” Zelenskyy told Britain’s ITV.
“If I had an understanding that America and Europe will not abandon us and they will support us and provide security guarantees, I would be ready for any format for talks,” he said.
The comments were broadcast as Trump indicated he had been in contact with Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, and that progress was being made in talks to end the war. This would mark the first officially acknowledged conversation between Putin and a US president since early 2022. Asked by reporters onboard Air Force One on Sunday whether he had had his conversation with Putin since becoming president on 20 January or before, Trump said: “I’ve had it. Let’s just say I’ve had it … And I expect to have many more conversations. We have to get that war ended.”
Here are some of the other latest developments:
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Chinese President Xi Jinping has accepted Russia’s invitation to Moscow to attend second world war commemorations, Tass state news agency reported on Monday.
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Trump’s national security adviser Mike Waltz said on Sunday that senior US diplomats would be in Europe this week “talking through the details of how to end this war and that will mean getting both sides to the table”. In an interview on NBC Waltz said the Russian economy was not doing well and that Trump “is prepared to tax, to tariff, to sanction” Moscow to get Putin to the negotiating table. He added that the Trump administration is looking to use this week’s engagements to begin talks on clawing back some of the United States’ assistance to Ukraine nd said European allies would need to take a greater role in supporting Ukraine.
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Russia’s deputy foreign minister said Moscow had yet to receive a good offer to start talks on Ukraine, in remarks published on Monday. “It is important that words be backed up by practical steps that take into account Russia’s legitimate interests, demonstrating a readiness to eradicate the root causes of the crisis and recognise the new realities,” Mikhail Galuzin told Ria state news agency in an interview. “Concrete proposals of this nature have not yet been received,” he said.
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Russia launched an overnight drone attack on Kyiv, injuring a woman and damaging several houses in the northeastern city of Sumy, Ukrainian officials said on Monday. The Ukrainian military said on Monday that it had shot down 61 out of 83 drones with 22 more likely downed by electronic warfare.
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Russia said on Sunday that its forces had captured the eastern Ukrainian village of Orikhovo-Vasylivka, near the strategic military hub of Chasiv Yar that Moscow is attempting to seize.
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An explosion on Sunday on an oil tanker at a port in north-west Russia forced the crew to evacuate and was being investigated, the country’s federal shipping agency said. The Rosmorrechflot maritime and river transport agency wrote on Telegram that “an explosion took place in the engine room” of the Koala in Ust-Luga port west of St Petersburg on Sunday morning.
Key events
Zelenskyy expected to attend the Munich Security Conference
Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected to attend the Munich Security Conference (MSC), where the war with Russia and how to end it will be high on the agenda, organisers said on Monday.
Agence France-Presse reported that senior representatives from the new US administration will also be at the gathering which takes place from Friday to Sunday.
“We assume that talks will take place on the sidelines,” MSC chair Christoph Heusgen told a Berlin press conference.
Ukraine’s teen soldiers: the cadets who hold the country’s future in their hands
Photojournalist Jelle Krings joined youngsters training to become Ukraine’s next generation of soldiers at a military school in Kyiv. Here is his piece for the Guardian.
At the boarding school in Kyiv, cadets are training to become Ukraine’s youngest soldiers – and help defend their country against Russia’s devastating invasion. The Ivan Bohun military high school – one of three such establishments in Ukraine – is home to hundreds of teenagers.
The lives of the cadets, who stay at the facility for two years before they turn 18, are strictly choreographed, according to Dmytro Yermolenko, the deputy head. He says the teenagers are given systematic military training and learn strict discipline.
One of the recruits is 16-year-old Yevhen, whose childhood dream was to join the school. His grandfather, a decorated general, had set the example. Generations of the family have served as artillerymen, submariners and intelligence officers but Yevhen wants to become a fighter pilot. “It’s a very necessary job right now,” he explains. If Yevhen is successful, he could be training on Dutch or Danish F-16s by next year.
You can see the full picture essay here.
Here are some images coming to us over the wires from Ukraine.
Russia has lost 850,490 troops in Ukraine since the beginning of its full-scale invasion on 24 February 2022, the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces reported today. This number includes 1,170 casualties Russian forces suffered over the past day.
According to the report, Russia has also lost:
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10,001 tanks
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20,813 armored fighting vehicles
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22,879 artillery systems
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36,638 vehicles and fuel tanks
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24,623 drones
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1,273 multiple launch rocket systems
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3,054 cruise missiles
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1,059 air defence systems
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370 aircraft
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331 helicopters
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28 warships and boats
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one submarine
Trump plan to end war must include security guarantees, Zelenskyy says
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he would be ready for talks in any format if he has “an understanding that America and Europe will not abandon us”.
Donald Trump’s plan for a quick settlement in Ukraine must not only stop the war but also ensure that there can no longer be any more Russian aggression, Zelenskyy said in an interview broadcast on Sunday.
He said Ukraine wanted no repeat of the experience of peace accords and talks that failed to produce results in the years running up to Moscow’s February 2022 full-scale invasion. He said that meant putting security guarantees in place.
“A frozen conflict will lead to more aggression again and again. Who then will win prizes and go down in history as the victor? No one. It will be an absolute defeat for everyone, both for us, as is important, and for Trump,” Zelenskyy told Britain’s ITV.
“If I had an understanding that America and Europe will not abandon us and they will support us and provide security guarantees, I would be ready for any format for talks,” he said.
The comments were broadcast as Trump indicated he had been in contact with Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, and that progress was being made in talks to end the war. This would mark the first officially acknowledged conversation between Putin and a US president since early 2022. Asked by reporters onboard Air Force One on Sunday whether he had had his conversation with Putin since becoming president on 20 January or before, Trump said: “I’ve had it. Let’s just say I’ve had it … And I expect to have many more conversations. We have to get that war ended.”
Here are some of the other latest developments:
-
Chinese President Xi Jinping has accepted Russia’s invitation to Moscow to attend second world war commemorations, Tass state news agency reported on Monday.
-
Trump’s national security adviser Mike Waltz said on Sunday that senior US diplomats would be in Europe this week “talking through the details of how to end this war and that will mean getting both sides to the table”. In an interview on NBC Waltz said the Russian economy was not doing well and that Trump “is prepared to tax, to tariff, to sanction” Moscow to get Putin to the negotiating table. He added that the Trump administration is looking to use this week’s engagements to begin talks on clawing back some of the United States’ assistance to Ukraine nd said European allies would need to take a greater role in supporting Ukraine.
-
Russia’s deputy foreign minister said Moscow had yet to receive a good offer to start talks on Ukraine, in remarks published on Monday. “It is important that words be backed up by practical steps that take into account Russia’s legitimate interests, demonstrating a readiness to eradicate the root causes of the crisis and recognise the new realities,” Mikhail Galuzin told Ria state news agency in an interview. “Concrete proposals of this nature have not yet been received,” he said.
-
Russia launched an overnight drone attack on Kyiv, injuring a woman and damaging several houses in the northeastern city of Sumy, Ukrainian officials said on Monday. The Ukrainian military said on Monday that it had shot down 61 out of 83 drones with 22 more likely downed by electronic warfare.
-
Russia said on Sunday that its forces had captured the eastern Ukrainian village of Orikhovo-Vasylivka, near the strategic military hub of Chasiv Yar that Moscow is attempting to seize.
-
An explosion on Sunday on an oil tanker at a port in north-west Russia forced the crew to evacuate and was being investigated, the country’s federal shipping agency said. The Rosmorrechflot maritime and river transport agency wrote on Telegram that “an explosion took place in the engine room” of the Koala in Ust-Luga port west of St Petersburg on Sunday morning.
