Trump says he believes Putin ‘wants peace’ with Ukraine as Zelenskyy warns not to trust Russian leader’s claims – as it happened | Ukraine

Summary of the day

Léonie Chao-Fong

It’s nearly midnight in Kyiv, 1pm in Moscow and 5pm in Washington. Here’s a recap of the latest developments:

• Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned world leaders “against trusting [Vladimir] Putin’s claims of readiness to end the war”. He called for the US to agree a “plan to stop Putin” before any negotiations, a day after Trump said he and the Russian leader had agreed to begin negotiations to broker a ceasefire in Ukraine.

• US president Donald Trump insisted he believed Putin “wants peace”. “I think he would tell me if he didn’t,” Trump said on Thursday, adding that Ukraine will be “part of” negotiations. Trump also said he would “love” to see Russia return to the G7.

• Trump’s defense secretary Pete Hegseth said “everything is on the table” to bring peace to Ukraine, and insisted the US had not already given too much away when he had said on Wednesday that Ukraine could not restore its pre-2014 borders.

• The Kremlin said plans were under way for Putin and Trump to meet, possibly in Saudi Arabia. Ukraine would be in “one way or another” involved in talks, it said, but there would also be a “bilateral Russian-American track”.

• Trump’s announcement on Wednesday stunned Ukraine and European allies. Zelenskyy, who also spoke to Trump on Wednesday, said it was “not very pleasant” that Trump called Putin before calling him.

• Nato secretary general Mark Rutte said any peace deal in Ukraine must be enduring and that any discussions must include Kyiv. “It is crucial that whatever comes out of those talks, it is durable, it is enduring,” Rutte told reporters in Brussels ahead of talks with the alliance’s defence ministers.

• German chancellor Olaf Scholz rejected any “dictated peace”, arguing that “a Russian victory or a Ukrainian collapse will not lead to peace – on the contrary”. “This would put peace and stability in Europe at risk, far beyond Ukraine,” he said.

• The EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas accused Washington of “appeasement” towards Russia, insisting that no deal “behind our backs” could work. “You need the Europeans, you need the Ukrainians, she said. “Any quick fix is a dirty deal.”

• At least 30 people were injured after a24-year-old Afghan asylum seeker drove a car into a trade union demonstration in Munich, German police have said, in a suspected attack that is expected to inflame tensions before this month’s election.

Jessica Elgot

In the UK, prime minister Keir Starmer’s Labour government has been at pains to keep Donald Trump’s on side. But the US president’s call with Russia’s Vladimir Putin has left UK ministers and officials doing some extraordinary contortions not to provoke Trump’s ire, writes the Guardian’s Jessica Elgot.

Here’s more from her analysis:

There is no greater priority in the UK’s foreign policy than keeping the volatile occupant of the White House on side. And that has meant over the past 24 hours that some pronouncements by the British government have seemed at odds with reality.

In the real world, we have just seen the US president make extraordinary concessions in a call with the Russian president – no return to pre-2014 borders and a dismissal of Ukraine’s hopes of joining Nato.

The response by British ministers is then to say that of course Trump is right to want peace in Ukraine, but the priority is “putting Ukraine in the strongest possible position”.

That makes very little sense just hours after Ukraine’s position was so undermined by Trump’s decision to engage with Putin directly on the terms of a possible peace deal.

Keir Starmer’s spokesperson said there could be “no negotiation about Ukraine without Ukraine”. But that is what the US president has just done.

US president Donald Trump said he would “love” to see Russia return to the Group of Seven (G7) nations.

“I’d love to have them back,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.

I think it was a mistake to throw them out. It’s not a question of liking Russia or not liking Russia. It was the G8.

Russia was removed from the group, then known as G8, in 2014 after Moscow annexed Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula. He added:

I said, ‘What are you doing? You guys – all you’re talking about is Russia and they should be sitting at the table.’ I think [Vladimir] Putin would love to be back.

Here’s more on Donald Trump’s remarks to reporters from the Oval Office, during which he said he believes that Russian president Vladimir Putin “wants peace” with Ukraine.

“I believe he wants peace,” Trump said.

I believe President Putin when I spoke to him yesterday. I know him very well. I think he wants peace. I think he would tell me if he didn’t.

“I trust him on this subject. I think he’d like to see something happen,” Trump added.

We reported earlier that Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a call on Thursday with Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk. According to Zelenskyy, the pair “agreed that no negotiations with Putin can begin without a united position from Ukraine, Europe and the US.”

Tusk has also posted a social media update following his call with Zelenskyy, as well as with European council president António Costa, Swedish prime minister Ulf Kristersson, and German chancellor Olaf Scholz.

The message is clear: Ukraine, Europe and the US must be fully united and engage in peace talks.

The day so far – summary

Jakub Krupa

I am handing this blog over to my US colleague Léonie Chao-Fong in Washington now, as we’re expecting these discussions on Ukraine to continue into late hours (European time), and we may hear from president Donald Trump on this topic later today.

Here are the three things you need to know from today’s Europe Live (so far):

• Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned world leaders “against trusting Putin’s claims of readiness to end the war” (18:08), after dramatic developments over the last 24 hours that involved a phone call between US president Donald Trump and the Russian president in an attempt to start the peace talks. His comments come after first reports about what shape the peace talks could take (17:36) and after multiple European leaders raised their concerns about the way they are organised as they insisted both Ukraine and Europe must be represented (8:51, 9:08, 9:26, 10:06, 10:55, 12:06).

• US defence secretary Pete Hegseth has said European allies “must make Nato great again” (17:00) by increasing their spending and taking more responsibility for the security of the continent, as he warned that the Trump administration “will not allow anyone to turn Uncle Sam into Uncle Sucker” (17:04). He also rejected all criticism of Trump’s approach to talks with Putin, saying that pointing out realities is not the same as making concessions (17:07, 17:10).

• At least 28 people are injured, some seriously, after a 24-year-old Afghan citizen, who reportedly had his asylum application rejected (16:01), drove his car into crowds in the Bavarian city of Munich in Germany (15:35). The suspected attack is expected to inflame tensions before this month’s federal election, with migration and asylum policies already high on the list of voters’ concerns after a string of attacks by perpetrators with migrant background (13:40, 14:23, 14:34).

I will be back tomorrow to guide you through what promises to be a really significant milestone in these talks on the future of Ukraine, the Munich Security Conference.

But don’t go anywhere – it’s now over to Léonie in Washington for more updates on Ukraine.