That’s it for another eventful day as leaders continue their hunt for peace in Ukraine.

It’s been a day of parroting diplomatic achievements and speculating over when the much-awaited Zelensky-Putin bilateral meeting might actually take place.

Some, including President Trump, have been warning, however, that such a summit will not guarantee an end to the conflict and both sides will have to show more ‘flexibility’.

Do join us tomorrow for more reaction to these historic peace efforts.

Remember Mike Pence? Trump’s first Vice President has been distancing himself from his former running mate since the pair were defeated by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in 2020.

He’s now weighed in on the discussions in the US over the past few days, claiming it will not be as easy to put an end to the Russia-Ukraine war as many think.

Pence said: ‘Putin is not going to stop until he is stopped.’

He called on the Senate to demand the President to impose harsh sanctions on the Russian leader, adding that ‘Putin only understands strength’.

Trump has been coy on the prospect of sanctions ever since he failed to act on his August 8 deadline levied against Putin.

In the last few moments, President Trump has been chatting to radio host Mark Levin about the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

The President admitted peace efforts have been ‘probably instinct more than process’.

Echoing previous remarks, he added: ‘They’re in the process of setting it up, but we’ve got to stop the killing, it’s too much killing.

‘I’ve saved hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of people, it’s a good feeling.’

Trump, who is on the hunt for a Nobel Peace Prize after playing a role in settling numerous conflicts this year, also said he felt ‘a little bit optimistic’ about reaching an agreement between Ukraine and Russia, but insisted it is ‘complicated’.

Things got a bit heated at the White House press briefing tonight as Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt lashed out at a New York Times reporter for asking a question ‘only the NYT would ask’.

The poor journalist had asked whether it was slightly rude for President Trump to leave the meeting of European leaders and chat to President Putin.

Leavitt responded by stringing off a list of quotes from the ‘Coalition of the Willing’ praising Monday’s summit in Washington.

Watch the confrontation here:

Search and rescue teams have been moving through the rubble in Kharkiv, Ukraine over the last 24 hours after yet another Russian overnight attack.

Seven people from the northeastern city are believed to have died, including two children, with at least three more killed in separate raids on Poltava and Kremenchuk, while world leaders discussed a potential end to the war in Washington.

The search mission has now been called off.

President Donald Trump and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban chatted about Ukraine potentially joining the EU, according to a White House official.

Ukraine has been busy making a host of reforms to satisfy the stringent conditions for membership of the bloc.

The two leaders are also said to have discussed the possibility of Budapest hosting a future bilateral meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Trump and Orban are known to be good friends, with the Hungarian leader detaching himself from the rest of the EU to back him in 2016, also meeting up with him on the campaign trail ahead of last year’s presidential election.

Coalition of the Willing defence officials are meeting in person tomorrow, Sky News reports.

An in-person discussion in the US is set to ‘plan and define real measures to ensure Ukraine has robust security guarantees in the event of a ceasefire or a peace deal’.

Britain’s chief of the defence staff Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, pictured below, is expected to be there, joining the likes of Italy’s chief of the defence staff General Luciano Portolano.

When Mark Warren, a 66-year-old Alaskan, was told Vladimir Putin intended to bring him a new motorbike he understandably thought it was a far-fetched scam. In fact, he thought it sounded ‘bats**t crazy.’

But, astonishingly, the Russian president did indeed bring a motorbike and sidecar to his summit with Donald Trump, and his officials then delivered it to Warren in a hotel parking lot in Anchorage.

As publicity stunts go it was perhaps the most bizarre Putin has ever performed and Warren, a retired fire inspector, is still trying to make sense of it.

Read the full story below:

President Donald Trump has offered his assurances that US troops would not be sent to help defend Ukraine against Russia after seeming to leave open the possibility the day before.

Mr Trump also said in a morning TV interview that Ukraine’s hopes of joining Nato and regaining the Crimean Peninsula from Russia are ‘impossible’.

While answering questions from journalists, Mr Trump did not rule out sending US troops to participate in a European-led effort to defend Ukraine as part of security guarantees sought by Mr Zelensky.

Mr Trump said after his meeting in Alaska last week with Vladimir Putin that the Russian leader was open to the idea of security guarantees for Ukraine.

But asked on Fox News Channel’s Fox & Friends what assurances he could provide going forward and beyond his term that American troops would not be part of defending Ukraine’s border, Mr Trump said: ‘Well, you have my assurance, and I’m president.’

Mr Trump would have no control over the US military after his terms ends in January 2029.

Speaking later, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that ‘US boots will not be on the ground;’ as part of any potential peacekeeping mission.

In a call today, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and NATO chief Mark Rutte discussed security guarantees for Ukraine.

Ankara has the second largest army in NATO and have therefore been involved in the talks.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt faced questions on what US contributions to security guarantees in Ukraine could look like.

It comes after Donald Trump denied that it would involve ‘boots on the ground’.

Speaking to reporters, Ms Leavitt said air support was ‘an option and a possibility’.

‘I won’t certainly rule out anything as far as military options that the president has at his disposal,’ she said.

Ms Leavitt also brushed off questions that Trump had been influenced by Putin.

The White House has said the United States can assist in the coordination of security guarantees for Ukraine.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said while American boots would not be on the ground in Ukraine, they can help protect the country through other means.

She also told reporters at a press conference Donald Trump had ‘restored American status as the undisputed leader of the free world’.

The European Union’s foreign policy chief has warned that any security guarantees for Ukraine must be ‘strong enough’ to deter Russia.

‘Putin cannot be trusted to honour any promise or commitment,’ Kaja Kallas wrote in a post on X.

NATO defence chiefs of staff will hold a video meeting about Ukraine on Wednesday, an official has announced.

It comes as the US said this week Ukraine would be able to obtain ‘Artice 5-like security guarantees’.

European stock markets rose while Wall Street diverged on Tuesday as investors warily eyed signs of progress in talks to end Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Markets were also waiting for a key speech by the US Federal Reserve chief this week for clues on interest rate cuts that could bolster the world’s biggest economy.

Wall Street opened mixed, as the broad-based S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq indexes retreated while the Dow rose.

London, Paris and Frankfurt stocks all closed higher following a lacklustre session for Asian stock markets.

Defence stocks fell sharply as chances grew for a breakthrough in Ukraine peace talks, with Germany’s Rheinmetall dropping 4.7 percent and France’s Thales down 4.1 percent.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will lead talks on Ukraine’s security guarantees ahead of any bilateral talks with Vladimir Putin, Axios is reporting.

Senior officials from the US, Ukraine and Europe will draw up detailed proposals to protect Ukraine going forward which may involve US air support.

Donald Trump has already ruled out American boots on the ground but said European troops could be deployed in any plan.

Volodymyr Zelensky gave Donald Trump a golf club that belonged to a serviceman fighting Russia’s invasion during his visit to the White House.

Trump, an avid golfer who owns several courses, accepted the gift and presented Zelensky with symbolic keys to the White House in return, the Ukrainian leader’s office said.

The warm exchange marks a stark turnaround from February, when Zelensky left the White House early following a televised shouting match with Trump and US Vice President JD Vance.

Since that tense encounter, Zelensky has sought to repair ties, flattering Trump in public appearances and praising his efforts to secure peace.

‘The president of Ukraine presented the president of the United States with a golf club,’ Zelensky’s office said Tuesday.

The club previously belonged to Kostiantyn Kartavtsev – a Ukrainian soldier who ‘had lost a leg in the first months of Russia’s full-scale invasion while saving his brothers-in-arms’, the office said.

This is the moment Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was caught rolling her eyes at German Chancellor Friedrich Merz during the Ukraine peace talks in Washington on Monday.

In the clip, Merz is heard highlighting to Donald Trump the importance of a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia before any peace agreement can be reached.

Trump was believed to have been in favour of a ceasefire before insisting instead to move to a full peace agreement, which is thought to be backed by Vladimir Putin.

Meloni was one of several European leaders in Washington on Monday as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met Trump for crunch peace talks.

Watch the video below:

Trump with European leaders in Washington on Monday

More details have emerged on Vladimir Putin’s proposal for a peace summit with Volodymyr Zelensky in Moscow during a phone call with Donald Trump.

The discussion between Trump and Putin came during high-stakes talks in Washington between Trump, Zelensky and several European leaders that back Ukraine in its fighting against Russia’s invasion.

‘Putin mentioned Moscow’ during their call on Monday, one of the sources told AFP, adding that Zelensky had said ‘no’ in response.

A diplomatic source close to the talks said that European leaders told Trump that Putin’s proposal ‘did not seem like a good idea.’

After the summit in the White House on Monday that included the German, French, Finnish, Italian and UK leaders, Trump said a next step to stopping the fighting now its fourth year would be a face-to-face meeting between Putin and Zelensky.

The Ukrainian leader has said repeatedly in recent weeks that he is prepared to sit down with Putin to end the Russian invasion, which has cost tens of thousands of lives and displaced millions.

Putin told Trump during the call on Monday that he was open to the ‘idea’ of direct talks with Ukraine, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said, according to state media.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan discussed potential steps to end the Russia-Ukraine war in a phone call on Tuesday, a Turkish foreign ministry source told Reuters.

The insider said the two also discussed the outcomes of talks between the US and Russian presidents in Alaska and a meeting in Washington involving European leaders, Ukraine and the United States.

Fidan and Rubio also discussed ceasefire efforts in Gaza and the latest situation in Syria, the source said, adding Fidan had called for an immediate truce in Gaza and unhindered access of humanitarian aid.

European Council President Antonio Costa has today said the process to make Ukraine a member of the European Union needs to advance and Europe has to be part of future peace negotiations alongside Ukraine, Russia and the United States.

Costa, who debriefed council members about Monday’s summit in Washington via a video call from Lisbon, told reporters afterwards that although there was much to be done and no guarantees of success, the very possibility of a bilateral meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Russian leader Vladimir Putin was ‘an enormous progress’.

‘Now we all need to transform this possibility into reality, for the meeting to take place and be a success,’ he said, calling for wider talks involving Europe to take place ‘as soon as possible’.

Donald Trump suggested US air support could be part of security guarantees for Ukraine, warning of a ‘rough’ situation if talks between Moscow and Kyiv fail.

‘When it comes to security, they’re willing to put people on the ground,’ he told Fox News, referring to European allies whom he met in the White House on Monday.

He added:

He added his ‘assurance’ that no US ground troops would deploy to Ukraine, and he categorically ruled out Ukraine joining the Western military alliance NATO.

NATO military leaders are expected to meet on Wednesday to discuss Ukraine and the way forward, a US official and NATO official told Reuters today.

The American official, who was speaking on condition of anonymity, said US General Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was expected to attend the meeting virtually, but plans could still change.

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Chair of NATO’s Military Committee has convened what the NATO source described as a regular meeting at the level of chiefs of defense.

Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico has said Western countries must accept that Ukraine cannot join NATO and that discussions about changes to its territory will be necessary to help end the war.

Speaking after a meeting of European Union leaders, Fico said:

Donald Trump has spoken to US TV show Fox and Friends this morning hours after his White House summit reignited hopes in Europe for a peace deal after an apparent breakthrough in security guarantees for Ukraine.

Here’s five key takeaways from his interview:

The second Oval Office meeting in six months between US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy went off smoothly Monday, in sharp contrast to their disastrous encounter in February.

European leaders joined the discussions in a show of transatlantic unity and both they and Zelenskyy repeatedly thanked Trump for his efforts to end Russia’s three-year war on Ukraine.

But despite the guarded optimism and friendly banter among the leaders, there was little concrete progress on the main obstacles to ending the war – and that deadlock likely favors Putin, whose forces continue to make steady, if slow progress on the ground in Ukraine.

Let’s take a look at four obstacles in the way of a Russia-Ukraine peace deal:

To agree to a peace deal with Russia, Ukraine wants assurances that it can deter any future attacks by the Kremlin’s forces.

It could potentially also mean offering Ukraine a guarantee resembling NATO’s collective defense mandate, which sees an attack on one member of the alliance as an attack on all. But Trump has all but ruled out Ukraine joining NATO. Russia has today said it also wants security guarantees.

Ukraine and its European supporters have repeatedly called for a ceasefire while peace talks are held. Putin has balked at that prospect. With his forces inching forward in Ukraine, he has little incentive to freeze their movement. Ahead of his meeting with the Russian leader last week, Trump threatened Russia with ‘severe consequences”‘ if it didn’t accept a ceasefire. Afterward, he dropped that demand and said it was best to focus on a comprehensive peace deal – as Putin has pushed for.

Zelensky and European leaders said that Putin has demanded that Ukraine give up the Donbas, an industrial region in eastern Ukraine that has seen some of the most intense fighting but that Russian forces have failed to capture completely. Moscow’s forces also hold Crimea as well as parts of six other regions – all adding up to about one-fifth of Ukraine. Zelensky has long noted the Ukrainian Constitution prohibits breaking up his country.

Zelensky has repeatedly suggested sitting down with Putin, even challenging the Russian leader to meet him as part of direct peace talks between the two sides in Turkey in May. Putin snubbed that offer, saying that significant progress on an agreement would have to be made before the pair met in person. On Monday, Trump appeared to back Zelensky’s plan and arrangements for a meeting between leaders had started.

by Boris Johnson

It would be fair to say that the mood among my Ukrainian friends yesterday morning was positively bubbling – the most optimistic I have heard them for ages.

The series of Trump-Zelensky-Europe meetings in Washington were not just good, they said. They were the best, the best so far.

After the horror of watching Putin get the red-carpet treatment in Alaska, they think they are on the verge of gaining something priceless, a prize that Donald Trump has now offered where none of his predecessors had the balls.

Read more here:

Coalition of the willing planners will meet their US counterparts ‘in the coming days’, amid efforts to advance on ‘robust security guarantees’ for Ukraine, Downing Street has said.

The group of 31 nations, set up to support Ukraine towards a lasting peace, met virtually today in a meeting co-chaired by Sir Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron.

A No 10 spokesperson said:

by Phillip Nieto, US Political Reporter

One of Donald Trump’s most outspoken critics over his handling of the Russia-Ukraine war completely changed his tune after Monday’s meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky.

Trump met with a delegation of European leaders and Zelensky in the Oval Office throughout Monday following his Alaska summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Following Trump’s Alaska summit last week, Barack Obama’s US ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul, criticized the commander-in-chief for providing ‘no details’ regarding talks with the Russian leader.

However, McFaul changed his tune following the White House summit by calling the meeting ‘very positive’ in an interview with NBC News.

Read the full story here:

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he hoped Russian President Vladimir Putin would move forward toward ending the war in Ukraine, but conceded that it was possible the Russian leader didn’t want to make a deal.

‘I don’t think it’s going to be a problem, to be honest with you. I think Putin is tired of it. I think they’re all tired of it, but you never know,’ Trump said in an interview with the Fox News “Fox & Friends” program.

‘We’re going to find out about President Putin in the next couple of weeks … It’s possible that he doesn’t want to make a deal,’ Trump said, adding that Putin faced a ‘rough situation’ if that was not the case.

Donald Trump has said the relationship between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky is ‘doing a little bit better’ in new remarks today.

Asked what has surprised him, Trump told Fox:

President Trump said there will be no US boots on the ground.

He told Fox:

On NATO assurances, he said:

Pushed further, he said that there will be ‘some form of security’ but ‘it can’t be NATO because that’s just mnot something that would ever, ever happen.’

Donald Trump has confirmed he did not call Vladimir Putin in front of European leaders out of respect for the Russian President.

Trump says he called Putin at around 1am Russian time during his meeting with European leaders in the White House.

According to reports, Trump broke off his meeting to make contact with Putin.

Speaking today, Trump said he believes it would have been ‘disrespectful’ to Putin to speak to him in front of world leaders and maintained he has a good relationship with him.

He told Fox:

Donald Trump has said Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has to show ‘some flexibility’ while adding he hopes Vladimir Putin is ‘good’ during talks to bring an end to the Russia-Ukraine war.

Speaking on Fox and Friends this morning, the President said he believed resolving the conflict would be ‘one of the easier ones’ after claiming he has settled seven wars since returning to the White House.

Ukrainian authorities have said the bodies of 1,000 nationals have been returned from Russia.

The remains are said to belong to service members killed in action in the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk, and Kursk regions.

‘Unfortunately, among those repatriated are the bodies of five Ukrainian servicemen who died in captivity,’ a statement by the government agency in charge of repatriation said.

Moscow received 19 bodies of its own fallen soldiers in return, the state -run TASS news agency reported.

Ukrainian forensic experts will now carry out examinations to identify the bodies.

The announcement made by Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War comes following a deal struck in Istanbul in June in which Russia and Ukraine agreed to repatriate around 6,000 bodies of fallen Ukrainians.

Vladimir Putin has been pictured at the Kremlin today as the world waits for more details on upcoming peace talks with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Putin was pictured meeting with Rostislav Goldshtein, acting head of the Komi Republic, in Moscow earlier today.

It comes as Donald Trump revealed arrangements have started for the first meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian leaders since Moscow’s brutal invasion nearly three and a half years ago.

Trump, 79, wrote on his Truth Social network that ‘everyone is very happy about the possibility of PEACE for Russia/Ukraine.’

‘At the conclusion of the meetings, I called President Putin, and began the arrangements for a meeting, at a location to be determined, between President Putin and President Zelensky,’ Trump said.

Trump said he would then hold a three-way summit with the Ukrainian and Russian leaders.

Switzerland would grant Russian President Vladimir Putin immunity from prosecution if he came to the country for talks on peace in Ukraine, Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis said today.

Putin faces an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court.

But last year, the Swiss government defined ‘the rules for granting immunity to a person under an international arrest warrant. If this person comes for a peace conference, not if they come for private reasons’, Cassis told a press conference.

It comes after Emmanuel Macron suggested Geneva could host talks between Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky.

Neutral Switzerland is a signatory to the ICC but Cassis told Swiss national broadcaster SRF that provided Putin was coming for peace purposes, the country could receive him.

The ICC issued its warrant in 2023, just over a year after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, accusing Putin of the war crime of deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine.

Pictures have emerged of the Coalition of the Willing talks co-chaired by Sir Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron.

The Prime Minister and French President Emmanuel Macron have been leading the talks between nations looking to assist Ukraine.

The coalition of the willing is an international effort to support Ukraine towards a lasting peace, led by the UK, France and Ukraine.

It is made up of 31 countries that have pledged strengthened support for Kyiv, including 27 European countries, as well as Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan.

We’ll bring you details of the talks as and when we can.

Former world heavyweight boxing champion Wladimir Klitschko has claimed Vladimir Putin is seeking more time to rebuild the Russian army to launch more attacks on Ukraine.

Ukrainian Klitschko, whose older brother Vitali is the mayor of Kyiv and himself a former heavyweight boxer, said he was pleased to see Europe taking its ‘historic responsibilities seriously’.

The 49-year-old retired sportsman tweeted:

Take a look behind the scenes at the White House on Monday as Ukraine’s President and European leaders met Donald Trump following his meeting with Vladimir Putin in Alaska last week.

Russia has today insisted it has security guarantees ahead of a possible peace deal with Ukraine.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said no-long term deal can be reached ‘without respect for Russia’s security and full recognition of the rights of Russians in Ukraine’.

Lavrov’s remarks came a day after Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky met and expressed hope that their discussions could pave the way for three-way talks involving Vladimir Putin.

Speaking on state TV’s Rossiya-24 channel, Lavrov said Russia remained committed to efforts aimed at resolving the conflict in Ukraine, including both bilateral and trilateral formats.

‘The president has reiterated this many times,’ Lavrov said.

Volodymyr Zelensky has insisted there will be security guarantees for Ukraine but details have yet to emerge on what they will be.

As European allies hold further talks today, the world is waiting for a clearer picture on the protections in place for Ukraine when the war is over.

Donald Trump said he discussed security guarantees for Ukraine, adding Putin had agreed to them despite ruling out Kyiv’s dream of joining the NATO alliance.

NATO membership would offer the protections of Article 5 – an attack on one member is to be treated as an attack on all, and members would be bound to come to Ukraine’s aid in the event of a renewed offensive.

Russia would see this as an aggressive advance towards its borders, and Donald Trump has ruled out Ukraine’s accession.

The Financial Times, citing a document seen by the newspaper, said Ukraine had undertaken to buy $100 billion of US weapons financed by Europe in return for US guarantees for its security.

Zelensky later spoke to reporters about a $90-billion package, and said Ukraine and its allies would formalise the terms of the security guarantees within 10 days.

The presence of the European leaders however also underscored continuing nervousness about whether Trump will pivot towards Putin as he has on a number of occasions.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has insisted there ‘will be security guarantees’ for his country as talks continue today following the White House summit.

Zelensky said discussions with Trump were the best he had held so far to resolve the conflict.

Writing on X today, he said:

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov today said it was clear at Friday’s US-Russia Alaska summit that Donald Trump and his team sincerely wanted to achieve a long-term and sustainable peace in Ukraine.

Lavrov (pictured) said the atmosphere at the Putin-Trump summit was ‘very good.’

‘It was clear that the head of the United States and his team, firstly, sincerely want to achieve a result that will be long-term, sustainable, reliable,’ Lavrov told the Rossiya 24 state television channel.

Lavrov contrasted what he said was the constructive U.S. position to that of Europe, some of whose leaders took part in an extraordinary summit at the White House on Monday with Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to discuss Ukraine.

Lavrov said ‘the Europeans had… insisted at every turn only on a cease-fire, and that after that they would continue to supply weapons to Ukraine.’

by Mark Almond for the Daily Mail

Donald Trump emphasised several times, during the course of a raucous and sometimes rambling press conference prior to talks at the White House, that he wants lasting peace, not a temporary respite, between Russia and Ukraine.

A cynic might say that’s because the Nobel committee awards a Peace prize, not a Ceasefire prize.

Trump is widely believed to covet that bauble, which his predecessor Barack Obama got almost on his arrival in the White House in 2009.

The European leaders, as well as Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, played pleased in front of the cameras with Donald Trump’s talks with Putin, but Trump’s desire for a quick peace settlement is fraught with dangers.

Read more here:

Sir Keir Starmer will co-chair a call of the so-called ‘coalition of the willing’ this morning.

The Prime Minister and French President Emmanuel Macron have been leading the talks between nations looking to assist Ukraine.

Sir Keir and several European leaders travelled to Washington for talks with Volodymyr Zelensky and Donald Trump on Monday.

The coalition of the willing is an international effort to support Ukraine towards a lasting peace, led by the UK, France and Ukraine.

It is made up of 31 countries that have pledged strengthened support for Kyiv, including 27 European countries, as well as Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan.

NATO was forced to scramble warplanes overnight as Vladimir Putin launched brutal missile and drone strikes, which left the smoke-choked Ukrainian city Kremenchuk looking like a scene from Armageddon.

The horrific Russian attacks came even as Donald Trump claimed the Russian tyrant had agreed to peace talks with Volodymyr Zelensky, with hopes that a meeting would take place by the end of August.

This followed the Trump-Zelensky talks and the involvement of Sir Keir Starmer and European leaders in a White House session aimed at ending the war.

But there were immediate doubts on Putin’s sincerity, both from his overnight use of strategic bombers to hit Ukraine, and his aide Yury Ushakov failing to specify that the Kremlin leader would personally take part in talks with Zelensky while accepting the level of seniority of the delegation could be raised.

Read the full story here:

Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey has urged the UK government to ‘call out’ a ‘massive concession’ to Putin after Donald Trump backed away from demands for a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine.

Speaking this morning on LBC, Sir Ed said European leaders should make clear to the Kremlin and the White House that they will not back a peace agreement ‘just because Trump wants to do a deal’.

Macron, Trump and Zelensky at the White House summit on Monday

Emmanuel Macron today warned his European allies not to trust Russian President Vladimir Putin whom he called ‘an ogre at our gates’.

The French President’s remarks came as Russian and Ukrainian leaders Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky look set for a peace summit after fast-moving talks between Donald Trump and Europe on security guarantees for Kyiv.

‘Putin has rarely honoured his commitments,’ Macron told the LCI broadcaster. ‘He has constantly been a force for destabilisation. He has sought to redraw borders to increase his power.’

Macron said he did not believe that Russia would ‘return to peace and a democratic system from one day to the next’.

Describing how Putin ‘needs to keep eating’ in order to ensure his survival, Macron added: ‘That means he is a predator, an ogre at our gates.’

European shares opened higher this morning and oil prices slid as traders evaluate diplomatic signals toward ending the war between Russia and Ukraine.

The euro crept up against the dollar after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said security guarantees for his nation will likely be worked out within 10 days after talks with U.S. President Donald Trump and European leaders.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index inched up 0.1% as did Britain’s FTSE 100. France’s CAC 40 rose 0.2% and Germany’s DAX tacked on 0.1%.

Oil slipped as market participants contemplated a potential end to the conflict, which could lead to an end to sanctions on Russian crude.

U.S. crude sank 0.9% to $62.88 a barrel. Brent crude fell 0.8% to $66.07. Spot gold rose 0.3% to $3,339.54 per ounce.

Shares were muted in the Asian session as traders awaited policy hints from the Federal Reserve ahead of its annual gathering in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has taunted European leaders by claiming they failed to ‘outplay’ Donald Trump.

In a social media post written in English, Medvedev said:

Medvedev added there was a question about ‘what tune’ Zelensky would play about security guarantees once ‘he’s put on his green military uniform again.’

Trump told Zelensky on Monday that the United States would help guarantee Ukraine’s security in any deal to end the war in Ukraine, though the extent of any assistance was not immediately clear.

The Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk was hit by a Russian drone attack overnight in an act the mayor claims is a sign Vladimir Putin is not interested in a peace deal.

According to the Ukrainian air force, the offensive was the largest so far in August with Russia launching 270 drones and 10 missiles. Ukraine said it downed 230 drones and six missiles but recorded strikes at 16 locations.

Vitalii Maletskyi, mayor of the city that lies in the Poltava region, said:

Maletskyi said scores of blasts shook the city, targeting energy and transport infrastructure, leaving hundreds of people in the Poltava region without power.

There was no immediate comment from Russia.

China has said it supports ‘all efforts’ towards peace between Russia and Ukraine after presidents Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky looked set for a summit in the coming weeks.

‘China always believes that dialogue and negotiation are the only solution to the Ukraine crisis,’ foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said, adding: ‘We support all efforts that are conducive to peace.’

French President Emmanuel Macron has suggested Geneva host a peace summit between Russian and Ukrainian leaders Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky.

Speaking after he and other European leaders joined the Ukrainian president for high-stakes meetings at the White House on Monday, Macron said the announced Zelensky-Putin summit would be held in Europe.

‘It will be (hosted by) a neutral country, maybe Switzerland – I’m pushing for Geneva – or another country,’ Macron said in an interview aired today on French news channel LCI.

‘The last time there were bilateral talks, they were held in Istanbul,’ he added, referring to the three rounds of lower-level negotiations between Russia and Ukraine held in Turkey between May and July.

Macron said France and Britain would hold a meeting Tuesday with other Ukrainian allies to ‘keep them up to date on what was decided’ in Washington on providing security guarantees for Ukraine, a key talking point in the meetings with Trump.

Geneva has been touted as a possible base for peace talks

Here are six of the top photographs selected by the AFP news agency of the summit held by US President Donald Trump in the White House yesterday:

Welcome to the Daily Mail’s liveblog if you’re just joining us.

US President Donald Trump says he has called Russian President Vladimir Putin and begun to arrange a meeting between Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

This is seen as a critical step toward bringing a possible end to Russia’s war on Ukraine. Mr Trump said the meeting’s location will be determined later.

Mr Trump, Mr Zelenskyy and European leaders met at the White House yesterday for hastily assembled multilateral talks, which came after Trump met with Putin last Friday.

European political leaders joined discussions as they pursue means to safeguard Ukraine and the continent from any widening aggression from Moscow.

Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska has shared her gratitude to American First Lady Melania Trump for her letter challenging Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Read the full story from US reporter Melissa Koenig here:

Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte said Nato membership for Ukraine was not under discussion but that there was a discussion on ‘Article 5’-type security guarantees for the country.

Article 5 of Nato’s founding treaty enshrines the principle of collective defence, in which an attack on any of its 32 members is considered an attack on all.

Joining the Atlantic alliance is a strategic objective for Ukraine – and Mr Rutte’s comments noted that a security guarantee of that scale could be offered to Ukraine in lieu of Nato membership.

You can also read this article from US senior reporter Stephen M. Lepore which looks at how Zelensky delivered a masterful charm offensive to win over Donald Trump and set up a potential meeting with Vladimir Putin.

You can also keep up to date with all the latest news via the Daily Mail’s Facebook page, which includes a link to this article about Zelensky wearing more formal attire for his meeting:

Here is today’s Daily Mail front page, which leads with a piece by Quentin Letts and the headline: ‘It was electric with jeopardy, a chess match with live grenades’.

You can buy a copy of today’s newspaper for £1.20, or it’s 90p to subscribers.

In a hot mic moment, President Trump appeared to be reassuring French President Emmanuel Macron that Russian President Vladimir Putin was serious about making peace in Ukraine.

Read what he said in this piece from the Mail’s Nikki Schwab in the US:

Mr Zelensky, whom Mr Trump greeted at the door of the West Wing with a handshake earlier in the evening, wore a black shirt with buttons and a black blazer to the meeting at the White House.

His attire had appeared to become a point of irritation for Mr Trump during a previous meeting in February.

Mark Almond, director of the Crisis Research Institute in Oxford, has given his analysis of the White House talks.

In this piece for Mail+, he says: ‘It won’t be the Europeans or President Zelensky who had the last word in Donald Trump’s ear.’

Posting on his Truth Social platform after the meeting, Mr Trump described the talks as ‘very good’, adding: ‘During the meeting we discussed security guarantees for Ukraine, which guarantees would be provided by the various European countries, with a coordination with the United States of America.

‘Everyone is happy about the possibility of PEACE for Russia/Ukraine.

‘At the conclusion of the meetings, I called president Putin and began arrangements for a meeting, at a location to be determined, between president Putin and president Zelensky.

‘After the meeting takes place, we will have a trilat which would be the two presidents plus myself.’

Before the White House talks, the US president said he would ‘probably’ be able to find common ground with the leaders on a plan to ward off future attacks on Ukraine.

He previously met with Mr Putin in Anchorage, Alaska, on Friday, where he declared there was ‘no deal until there’s a deal’ to end more than three years of fighting in eastern Europe.

Sir Keir Starmer has hailed ‘real progress’ made during the White House summit yesterday with European leaders aimed at bringing an end to the war in Ukraine.

The Prime Minister was one of several European leaders, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, French President Emmanuel Macron and Nato secretary general Mark Rutte, in attendance for the discussions in Washington.

Speaking after the event, Sir Keir described the talks as ‘good and constructive’, adding: ‘There was a real sense of unity between the European leaders that were there, and president Trump and president Zelensky’.

The Prime Minister highlighted ‘two material outcomes’ from the talks, firstly that the coalition of the willing ‘will now work with the US’ on security guarantees.

‘That’s really important for security in Ukraine, for security in Europe, and for security in the UK,’ Sir Keir said.

‘The other material outcome was the agreement that there will now be a bilateral agreement between president Putin and president Zelensky, that was after a phone call between president Trump and president Putin during the course of this afternoon, followed by a trilateral which will then add in President Trump.’

Let’s start with a look at the Daily Mail’s top story, which is that Vladimir Putin has failed to commit to peace talks with President Zelensky after yesterday’s summit.

This is fuelling fears the Russian leader will pull out of efforts to end the Ukraine war at the last minute. Read the full article here:

Good morning and welcome to the Daily Mail’s live coverage, after Donald Trump said Presidents Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky will meet.

It follows a dramatic White House summit yesterday with European leaders aimed at bringing an end to the war in Ukraine.

The US President spoke directly with the Russian president to begin planning a meeting between the two warring leaders, which will then be followed by a three-way meeting involving himself.

Stay with us throughout today for all the latest updates.