No one will impose peace deal on Zelensky - US envoy; European leaders huddle over Kyiv war strategy

Britain said it was ready to send peacekeeping troops to back up any Ukraine peace deal as European leaders gathered on Monday to agree on a unified strategy, while Russian and US officials prepared to meet for their own talks to try to end the conflict.

Yuri Ushakov, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s foreign policy adviser, said on Monday that Moscow and Washington had yet to agree on how to embark on Ukraine peace talks as the US had not yet appointed a chief negotiator to talk to Russia.

US Ukraine envoy says no one will impose peace deal on Zelensky

Keith Kellogg, US President Donald Trump’s Ukraine envoy, said on Monday that no one would impose a peace deal on Kyiv and that questions about whether Washington would provide guarantees for any future European peacekeepers would be addressed later.

Senior US officials including Secretary of State Marco Rubio — but not Kellogg — were due to meet on Tuesday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov for talks focused on ending the war in Ukraine and on Russia-US ties.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, visiting the United Arab Emirates, dismissed the Saudi talks.

“Ukraine regards any negotiations on Ukraine without Ukraine as ones that have no result, and we cannot recognise ... any agreements about us, without us,” he told reporters.

Kellogg, who said he would visit Zelensky in Kyiv this week, told reporters at Nato headquarters in Brussels that nobody would impose a deal “on an elected leader of a sovereign nation”.

He also reiterated that he was speaking with European allies, who have been pushing to be included in negotiations, but that in his view it was not feasible to have everyone sitting at the table.

European officials have been shocked by the Trump administration’s moves in recent days to court Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine almost three years ago, triggering a barrage of Western sanctions and ostracism.   

European leaders meet to discuss Ukraine

Britain said it was ready to send peacekeeping troops to back up any Ukraine peace deal as European leaders gathered on Monday to agree on a unified strategy, while Russian and US officials prepared to meet for their own talks to try to end the conflict.

The emergency European summit in Paris came together after President Donald Trump’s US administration, Kyiv’s main military backer, announced it would sit down with Russia to seek an end to the war. Russia has ruled out conceding territory, while Zelensky has dismissed the US-Russia talks taking place without him.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s comments on Sunday reflect a realisation among European nations that they will have to do more to ensure Ukraine’s security. Washington has made clear that Europe must stop relying on the US for its defence.

A peacekeeping force would not only raise the risk of a direct confrontation with Russia, which launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but also stretch European armies, whose arsenals have been depleted by supplying Ukraine and decades of relative peace.

There are also difficult questions about how some European nations, whose public finances are groaning, will pay for such expanded military commitments.

European leaders including Starmer, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Nato Secretary-General Mark Rutte were welcomed to the Élysée Palace by President Emmanuel Macron, who had already spoken with Trump.

Germany said it “will not shy away” from contributing ground troops, but that no concrete agreements were expected in Paris.

Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said there was “absolutely a possibility” of sending Swedish peacekeepers, if and when there was a clear mandate. The Dutch government over the weekend also signalled it could contribute, given a clear mandate and a pledge of US support in any escalation.

However, Ukraine’s neighbour Poland, which has Nato’s third largest army, said it would not provide troops, while Spain said it was too early for such an offer.

US and Russia yet to agree on how to start Ukraine talks

Yuri Ushakov, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s foreign policy adviser, said on Monday that Moscow and Washington had yet to agree on how to embark on Ukraine peace talks as the US had not yet appointed a chief negotiator to talk to Russia.

Ushakov, along with Foreign Minister Lavrov, was due to take part in bilateral talks with US officials in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.

In comments broadcast on Russian state TV, Ushakov said the Russian delegation was approaching the discussions with a “business-like” attitude and that its brief was clear.

The aim of the meeting was “to discuss the restoration of normal relations [with the US], to discuss the beginning of possible negotiations on Ukraine, and to discuss prospects for contacts at the highest level [between Putin and Trump],” Ushakov told Channel One.

“Now the question is about agreeing on how to start negotiations on Ukraine because the American side hasn’t appointed a chief negotiator to conduct business with us,” he said.

Russian finance minister visits Saudi Arabia ahead of Russia-US talks 

Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov visited Saudi Arabia on Sunday ahead of Tuesday’s talks between Russia and the US.

Siluanov was speaking at an event called AlUla Conference for Emerging Market Economies, organised by the Saudi Ministry of Finance and the International Monetary Fund.

Speaking at an event in Saudi Arabia, Siluanov highlighted Russia’s willingness to restructure the debt of foreign countries.

“During the last 25 years, we restructured the debt of 22 countries for the amount of almost $30-billion. A similar amount we had restructured through bilateral agreements,” said Siluanov.

Russia launches 147 drones in overnight attack

Russian drone attacks on Ukraine damaged storage facilities and private residences after Russia launched 147 drones to attack the country overnight, said Ukrainian military and officials on Monday.

Out of 147, Ukraine’s air force shot down 83 drones and 59 more did not reach their targets, probably due to electronic countermeasures.

It did not specify what happened to the remaining five drones.

The drone attack on the Kyiv region caused a fire at an industrial facility and damaged four private residences, according to regional governor Mykola Kalashnyk. One man was injured in the attack, he said.

In the Kharkiv region, the drones damaged three storage facilities of an enterprise, an administrative building and windows in 14 residential homes, said Governor Oleh Syniehubov on Telegram. DM