Ukraine may need to give up land to Russia in order to achieve peace, Vitali Klitschko, the mayor of Kyiv has said.
Speaking hours after the Ukraine capital was rocked by one of the biggest attacks of the war so far, which killed 12 people, Mr Klitschko said: “One of the scenarios is… to give up territory. It’s not fair. But for the peace, temporary peace, maybe it can be a solution.”
Mr Klitschko, a former world heavyweight boxing champion, also told the BBC that Ukraine would “never accept occupation” by Russia.
It is the first time a senior Ukrainian politician has admitted the country may have to cede territory since US-led negotiations began in February.
Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, suggested in November that he may be willing to cede land temporarily as long as the rest of Ukraine were given Nato protection. Earlier this week, Mr Zelensky rejected a US proposal to recognise Crimea as Russian.
On Thursday, Donald Trump responded to the attack by issuing a rare rebuke to Vladimir Putin, urging him to “stop”.
Steve Witkoff, Mr Trump’s envoy, will be in Moscow today for his fourth meeting with the Russian president in three months.
Steve Witkoff, special envoy for Donald Trump, has arrived in Moscow, according to state media.
Mr Witkoff is expected to meet Vladimir Putin for a meeting on ending the war in Ukraine.
How can anybody have supported Donald Trump in the first place? Looking back, all the signs were there. The Capitol Hill insurgency of January 6, for one thing; the fondness for Vladimir Putin for another, writes Jake Wallis Simons.
The embrace of norm violation on a scale never previously seen. The relentless post-truth improv that characterised his public rhetoric.
It was a sign of desperation, I suppose, as the alternative – president Harris – promised to solidify the cult of identity politics, both in American life and around the world, undercut the West’s commitment to Israel and drive us all further into the quicksands of decline.
It’s a little bit insane, but maybe Trump is the radical answer for radical times, we thought, biting our nails. Maybe he’ll be as restrained as he was in 2017.
Only this time there has been nobody to restrain him. The Donald 2.0 has used his vast mandate to purge his circle of dissenters and stuff it full of sycophants who are willing to trade their principles on a dime.
A dossier on Ukraine’s demands, seen by The Telegraph, makes it clear that Ukraine hopes to effectively strip out any formal international recognition of Russian sovereignty over Crimea or other occupied territories.
Points one and two focus on framing any peace deal as “rooted in international law, not capitulation”, with a specific warning over China’s possible invasion of Taiwan.
They also stress the importance of clear “security guarantees” as the price for any prospective peace agreement that would see Ukraine cede territory to Russia, even on a temporary basis.
Point three is an attempt to wrestle back control of the negotiations from Mr Trump and put Ukraine back at the heart of the peace process. A fourth point serves as a warning to both the US and Nato that allowing Russia’s control over Crimea enables it to threaten not only attacks on Ukraine but also Black Sea allies Turkey, Romania and Bulgaria.
The fifth and final point makes it clear that Russia should not be allowed to use the deal to limit the size of Ukraine’s armed forces or defence industrial base.
A Cabinet minister has rejected the suggestion that the UK was set to abandon plans to send British troops to Ukraine as part of a peacekeeping force.
A report in The Times on Friday said the UK was likely to drop the idea of putting troops on the ground because the risks were deemed to be “too high”, citing a source involved in “coalition of the willing” talks.
Instead, the UK and its allies would focus efforts on rearming Ukraine and on providing air and sea support.
But Steve Reed, the Environment Secretary, said “all options remain on the table”.
Asked if the Government was still committed to sending British troops, he told Sky News: “Those negotiations are still underway. There haven’t been any decisions taken yet but all options remain on the table whether that is land, air or sea.”
Sir Keir Starmer has insisted that Ukraine must be allowed to decide the terms of any peace deal with Russia in a challenge to proposals by Donald Trump.
The Prime Minister contradicted Mr Trump by saying that the “courageous” Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, was not to blame for the failure to strike an agreement ending the war.
Sir Keir also refused to back US plans to formally recognise Crimea as Russian in any negotiated settlement with Vladimir Putin, and demanded that Moscow agree to an “unconditional ceasefire”.
In an interview with The Telegraph aboard the Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, he said: “We are at an intense stage in the negotiations.
“In the end, I’m always mindful of the fact that it is Ukraine that must decide on those issues – it’s not for other people to decide on behalf of Ukraine. It is for Ukraine to decide. And Russia must come to the table for that unconditional ceasefire.”
Steve Witkoff, special envoy for Donald Trump, will be in Moscow today for his fourth meeting with the Russian president in three months.
The real estate negotiator, and Mr Trump’s golfing companion, was originally brought in as envoy for the Middle East but has also been at the centre of Ukraine peace negotiations.
Mr Witkoff came away from his last meeting with Putin, which took place in St. Petersburg, saying that peace in Ukraine centred around five regions: Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson, which were annexed in 2022, and Crimea, which was invaded in 2014.
Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, said peace was “moving in the right direction” and insisted Moscow was “ready” to reach an agreement with Ukraine.
Lavrov told CBS News that “some specific elements of this deal need to be fine-tuned” but praised Donald Trump’s deal-making skills.
He said Mr Trump was “probably the only leader on Earth who recognised the need to address the root causes of this situation”, but said the US president “did not spell out the elements of the deal”.
Asked about Russia’s deadly attack on Kyiv, which killed 12, Lavrov said: “We only target military goals or civilian sites used by the military.”
Three people were killed, including a child, and eight more were wounded in a Russian attack on the Ukrainian city of Pavlohrad, the regional governor said this morning.
“The aggressor again conducted a mass attack on the region with drones,” Serhiy Lysak, governor for the central Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, said on Telegram, adding that 11 drones were destroyed over the region.
Mr Lysak said that several fires had broken out in the city, posting a photo of a fire raging on several floors of a multi-storey building.
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of the war in Ukraine.
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Ukraine-Russia war live: We may have to give up land for peace, says Kyiv’s mayor Klitschko – The Telegraph
