Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.
Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in
Top US diplomat Steve Witkoff holds talks with Russian leader in St Petersburg
I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice
US president Donald Trump will use his influence over Russia to negotiate a peace deal, his spokeswoman has insisted, as his special envoy Steve Witkoff held talks with President Vladimir Putin.
White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said: “We believe we have leverage in negotiating a deal to a peace deal, and we’re going to use that leverage, and the president is determined to see this through.”
Earlier, Mr Trump warned on social media that “Russia has to get moving” on a ceasefire.
He posted: “Russia has to get moving. Too many people ere DYING, thousands a week, in a terrible and senseless war.”
Top US diplomatic envoy Steve Witkoff has been in talks with Mr Putin for more than two hours. The pair shook hands when they first met in St Petersburg.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Western allies have agreed a record £18 billion (€21bn) of military support for Kyiv, Britain has announced.
UK defence secretary John Healey opened the meeting of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group (UDCG) in Brussels with a plea to his fellow defence ministers to “step up our support for Ukraine in the fight”. Mr Healey added: “2025 is the critical year for the war in Ukraine, and this is the critical moment.”
Ukraine’s foreign minister Andrii Sybiha has accused Russia of launching “almost 70 missiles, over 2,200 (exploding) drones, and over 6,000 guided aerial bombs at Ukraine, mostly at civilians”, since agreeing to a limited deal to pause strikes on energy infrastructure.
“This clearly shows to the world who wants peace and who wants war,” Mr Sybiha said.
An artist who has worked on films and shows, including Star Wars: The Mandalorian, is raising funds for a fellow creative who recently lost his sight fighting in the Ukraine war.
Andrey Kozyrenko, a 3D artist from Dnipro, in eastern Ukraine was wounded in December when a drone exploded near his trench, causing him severe eye damage.
Mr Kozyrenko, 40, who is recovering in western Ukraine, has had his right eye removed and replaced with a prosthetic.
His left eye’s retina was damaged, but the optical nerve remains intact with the hope that his vision could be restored in future with possible medical advances.
Jama Jurabaev, a London-based concept artist and art director who has collaborated with Mr Kozyrenko over the years, is raising funds to help him to adapt, heal and find new ways to create.
Lynn Rusk reports:
The UK has announced a “surge” of military support to Ukraine, as Kyiv’s Western backers gathered at Nato’s headquarters to drum up more weapons and ammunition to help fight off Vladimir Putin’s invasion.
Britain said that, in a joint effort with Norway, some £440m will be spent to provide hundreds of thousands of military drones, radar systems and anti-tank mines, as well as repair and maintenance contracts to keep Ukrainian armoured vehicles on the battlefield.
Moscow has been sharing purported intelligence with the United States regarding supposed Ukrainian attacks in breach of a ceasefire regarding energy infrastructure, Russia’s foreign ministry has told state media.
Also speaking inTurkey on Saturday, Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov claimed that Russia would provide a list of such attacks to the United States, Turkey and international bodies.
Russia and Ukraine’s top diplomats have used a high-level conference in Turkey to once again trade accusations of violating a tentative US-brokered deal to pause strikes on energy infrastructure.
While Moscow and Kyiv both agreed in principle last month to implement a limited, 30-day ceasefire, they issued conflicting statements soon after their separate talks with US officials in Saudi Arabia. They differed on the start time of halting strikes, and alleged near-immediate breaches by the other side.
The two foreign ministers spoke at separate events at the annual Antalya Diplomacy Forum on Saturday. Russia’s Sergei Lavrov claimed: “The Ukrainians have been attacking us from the very beginning, every passing day, maybe with two or three exceptions.”
Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has reiterated that Moscow will not implement a prospective US-backed ceasefire agreement to ensure safe navigation for commercial vessels in the Black Sea uuntil restrictions are lifted on Russian access to shipping insurance, docking ports and the Swift international payment system.
Details of the prospective deal were not released, but it appeared to mark another attempt to ensure safe Black Sea shipping after a 2022 agreement that was brokered by the UN and Turkey but halted by Russia the following year.
The Black Sea ceasefire was discussed in Saudi Arabia during parallel US talks with Ukrainian and Russian officials. Despite Russia entering those talks saying its main objective was to broker such a truce, Kyiv said it was effective immediately once the talks concluded, while Russia sought to impose further conditions on the agreement.
Ukraine’s air force has announced that a second F-16 fighter jet supplied by Western allies has been lost and its pilot killed.
Ukraine’s general staff said the F-16 crashed while repelling a Russian missile strike. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday offered condolences to 26-year-old Pavlo Ivanov’s family, saying: “We are proud of our soldiers. We will give a strong and apt response.”
Ukraine said the first F-16 was shot down last August, after it intercepted three Russian missiles and a drone.
Since last July, Ukraine has received multiple batches of the fighter jets from Denmark and the Netherlands, with US approval. Their total number has not been disclosed.
“The theme of the meeting – aspects of a Ukrainian settlement,” the Kremlin said after Vladimir Putin met with Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff in St Petersburg.
The Kremlin posted a photo on its website of the two men shaking hands, saying the meeting had taken place. It was reported by Russian media to have lasted for more than four hours.
One of the “Easter eggs” Ukraine has found in Washington’s latest set of proposals for a minerals deal is a demand that the US government’s International Development Finance Corporation take control of a natural gas pipeline from Russian energy giant Gazprom across Ukraine to Europe, a source has told Reuters.
Prospects for a breakthrough on a deal granting the US access to Ukraine’s mineral and energy assets were scant during a meeting on Friday in Washington, given the talks’ “antagonistic” atmosphere, a source has told Reuters.
“The negotiating environment is very antagonistic,” the source said, pointing to the “maximalist” proposals submitted by the Trump administration last month, which would essentially grant the US control over all of Ukraine’s mineral and energy assets, along with related infrastructure such as roads and railways – without any security guarantees in return.
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in
Ukraine war live: US boasts ‘leverage’ over Moscow as envoy meets Putin for talks – The Independent
