Ukraine-Russia war latest: Zelensky willing to freeze current battlefield frontlines for peace talks

Ukraine-Russia war latest: Zelensky willing to freeze current battlefield frontlines for peace talks Zelensky’s offer comes after he asked Roman Abramovich to send peace talks plea to Putin - Bookmark - CommentsGo to comments Europe to ramp up defence against Putin’s hypersonic missiles after Ukraine strike Sir Keir Starmer and the leaders of France and Germany have warned of the “urgent need” to ramp up production of defensive weapons against Russia’s hypersonic Oreshnik missiles, after a late-night summit in Downing Street on Sunday. Alongside Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky, the leaders also called on Vladimir Putin to agree “an immediate and complete ceasefire” and said the “current line of contact” between the two sides should be the starting point for any negotiations. Ahead of the talks, President Zelensky had warned his country could maintain its recent attacks deep into Russia if the war continues, as he pledged Ukraine will not “silently die”. The renewed pressure on Russia comes after it suffered a series of military setbacks in recent months. But in a sign of the continued havoc the conflict is wreaking on Ukraine, the talks took place hours after a drone strike struck a storage facility for spent nuclear fuel near the Chernobyl power plant. Latvia's military issues air threat alert Latvia's armed forces on Monday issues an air threat alert for its eastern regions, asking people there to stay indoors. European leaders ready to support ceasefire talks between Ukraine and Russia The leaders of Britain, Germany and France said they supported a proposal for talks between Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian president Vladimir Putin to try to secure a ceasefire, and Europe would play a role. In a joint statement, British prime minister Keir Starmer, German chancellor Friedrich Merz and French president Emmanuel Macron commended Zelensky's call for an end to the war and the proposal for direct dialogue between Ukraine and Russia, with active US and European participation. The three leaders, who head an informal security alliance called the E3 that is one of Ukraine's main sources of international support, were joined on Sunday by Zelensky in Downing Street. "Leaders commended President Zelensky's call for an end to the war, negotiated by diplomatic means, as set out in his letter to the president," Sunday's joint statement said. Zelensky said in a post on X that he also told Sir Keir that Ukraine needed more missiles for air defence systems, just days after he published an open letter to Putin proposing face-to-face talks about ending the war, now in its fifth year. Zelenskiy's proposal was rebuffed by the Russian president. Over 1,000 without power in Odesa after Russian attack Russian attacks on energy infrastructure in Ukraine's Odesa region caused power outages for over 1,000 customers, regional governor Oleh Kiper said on the Telegram messaging app this morning. Both sides, Ukraine and Russia, have exchanged heavy attacks in the early hours today with damage reported in Crimea, Mariupol, Zaporizhzhia and Russia’s Novorossiysk and Volgograd regions. Watch: Zelensky asked Roman Abramovich to send peace talks plea to Putin Drones hit pipeline pumping station in Russia's Volgograd region Russian air defence units repelled an overnight drone attack on energy infrastructure in the Volgograd region, with falling debris sparking a fire at a pipeline pumping station in the Zhirnovsky district, governor Andrei Bocharov said. An oil pipeline runs through the district. The blaze at the dispatching facility was quickly extinguished and no casualties were reported, the governor added. Ukrainian drone kills one in Russia-annexed Crimea A Ukrainian drone struck a train in Crimea, killing its assistant driver and injuring the driver, the peninsula's Russian-installed governor Sergei Aksyonov said in a Telegram post early on Monday. Passengers on the train, commuting between Moscow and Simferopol, the main city of the Russia-annexed Black Sea Crimea peninsula, were not harmed, Aksyonov said. Drone raid sirens were sounded in the early hours of Monday in the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, a major export hub for oil and grains in Russia's Krasnodar region about a two-hour drive from the bridge Moscow built to connect to Crimea, local authorities said on Telegram. The most recent Ukrainian drone strikes, attacking fuel infrastructure, have forced the Russian-controlled Crimea to tighten its rationing of fuel supplies. Drone attack causes fire at loading complex in Russia's Novorossiysk A Russian Black Sea port has come under attack from Ukrainian drones overnight, local officials said. A loading complex has caught fire at the port in Novorossiysk after a drone attack, local authorities said on Monday. They said no one was injured, while 130 firefighters have been battling the blaze. Zelensky says he will freeze the Ukraine war frontline, but that will not end the war Volodymyr Zelensky said he can freeze the battlefield frontlines as they exist amid the warfare between the Ukrainian and Russian forces as he explained what a ceasefire can look like. On being asked if would want the lines to be frozen where they are at the moment if a ceasefire was agreed tomorrow, Zelensky said: “Yes. It’s the quickest way”, he told Sky News in an interview yesterday. "[But] We want to stop the war in a way where the war will not come back. "It's not the idea just to freeze, but the quickest way to is to freeze and to move it to a diplomatic setting,” Zelensky said, explaining that freezing alone will not help. The war-time president denied that it would not entail handing Russia what they want in this moment. "No, it's not just to give. To stay where we are means to give the people of Ukraine more possibilities to save their children, and for soldiers to come back. I think this is important for us,” he said. Russian attack kills five and injures 14 in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region A Russian attack killed has killed five and injured fourteen in Ukraine's southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, the regional governor said this morning. Ivan Fedorov said Russia attacked the region with air strikes, drones and shelling, damaging infrastructure, residential buildings and cars. Join our commenting forum Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies Comments