Volodymyr Zelenskyy hailed “clear support from Europe … the United Kingdom, the European Union, Türkiye” as he headed back to Ukraine from the London summit convened by Britain’s prime minister, Keir Starmer. “Even more unity, even more willingness to cooperate. Everyone is united on the main issue – for peace to be real, we need real security guarantees. And this is the position of all of Europe.”
“Of course, we understand the importance of America,” Zelenskyy continued, “and we are grateful for all the support we’ve received from the United States. There has not been a day when we haven’t felt gratitude. It’s gratitude for the preservation of our independence – our resilience in Ukraine is based on what our partners are doing for us – and for their own security. What we need is peace, not endless war. And that’s why we say security guarantees are the key to this.”
Zelenskyy earlier sought to move the conversation forward from his difficult meeting on Friday with the US president, Donald Trump, Dan Sabbagh writes, saying it was “best left to history”, as he signalled Ukraine’s readiness to sign a minerals deal and hoped for “constructive” talks with the US administration on the next steps.
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, suggested a one-month limited ceasefire that would apply to air, sea and attacks on critical energy infrastructure. Zelenskyy did not indicate whether he would accept, but said he was “aware of everything”. Starmer also confirmed plans to form “a coalition of the willing” to enforce a potential peace deal in Ukraine, which he said the UK was prepared “to back with boots on the ground and planes in the air”. Zelenskyy said he hoped the UK-French initiatives would bear fruit “in coming weeks”, with a number of other countries declaring their interest in being involved in providing security guarantees for Ukraine.
Zelenskyy said he would not accept giving any occupied territory away to Russia and insisted on remembering that Russia was the aggressor in the conflict. Ukraine needed security guarantees or otherwise would face the risk of Russia seeking to restart hostilities.
Britain will provide 5,000 air-defence missiles to Ukraine, Starmer announced. Britain will spend £1.6bn (US$2bn) on the lightweight-multirole missiles, also known as Martlet, made by the armourer Thales. The missiles have a range of more than 6km (3.7 miles) and can be fired from a variety of platforms on land, sea, and air.
King Charles met Volodymyr Zelenskyy at his Norfolk estate, Sandringham, shortly after Ukraine’s president attended Starmer’s summit for European leaders, Caroline Davies reports. The two heads of state had first met in 2023 at Buckingham Palace. Last year, on the second anniversary of Russian’s invasion, the king issued a strongly worded message of support for Ukraine, speaking of the “indescribable aggression” faced by Ukrainians and hailing the “determination and strength of the Ukrainian people”.
Russian shelling killed a teenager and injured two more in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk as Russian forces attacked Ukraine with 79 drones that were mostly destroyed by air defences, Ukraine’s authorities said on Sunday. “A boy born in 2006 was killed,” said the Kramatorsk mayor, Oleksandr Goncharenko, adding that a man and a woman were injured.
A Russian drone struck a multi-storey apartment building late on Sunday in Ukraine’s second largest city, Kharkiv, triggering a fire and injuring eight people, said the city’s mayor, Ihor Terekhov. Three other residential buildings were damaged.
A Russian drone attack on the city of Zaporizhzhia in south-western Ukraine injured one civilian, said Ivan Fedorov, the governor of the region. The attack sparked a massive fire at a residential building, destroying its roof, which partially collapsed. Two people were rescued from underneath the wreckage. The blast wave damaged neighbouring houses, leaving tens of people homeless.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry said on Saturday it condemned the “breach of territorial sovereignty” by a group of IAEA employees who visited the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine via Russian-occupied territory. In an emailed statement, the foreign ministry blamed “Russian blackmail and systematic attempts to impose upon international organisations illegal and contradictory mechanisms of operating on the temporarily occupied territories.”
The Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, offered a passionate defence of Zelenskyy, saying that in his comments in the Oval Office on Friday “he pointed out in so many words that Vladimir Putin is a liar and a criminal and cannot be trusted to keep his word in any way”.
