Ukraine war briefing: defeating Russia an ‘illusion’, says Putin, as he welcomes Trump deal

Original article by Guardian staff and agencies

• Vladimir Putin says Ukraine is being unrealistic if it does not accept the US plan to end the war, declaring: “Ukraine is against it. Apparently, Ukraine and its European allies are still under illusions and dream of inflicting a strategic defeat on Russia on the battlefield”. The positive response from the Russian president adds weight to the views of European and Ukrainian officials that the deal amounts to a “capitulation”. Addressing Russia’s national security council, Putin called the 28-point plan “a new version” and “a modernised plan” of what was discussed with the US ahead of his Alaska summit with Donald Trump in August, and said Moscow has received it. Putin said the plan “could form the basis of a final peace settlement”.

• Volodymyr Zelenskyy has reacted to the deal by saying Ukraine faces one of the most difficult moments in its history. Luke Harding, Pjotr Sauer, and Andrew Roth report that Donald Trump has demanded Kyiv accepts the plan by Thursday. Agreeing to the US-Russian plan, which would force it to give up territory and make other painful concessions, could leave Ukraine “without freedom, dignity and justice”, Zelenskyy said in a sombre 10-minute speech outside the presidential palace. In a radio interview, Trump said he thought Thursday was an “appropriate time” for Zelenskyy to sign the deal.

• US vice president JD Vance has said any plan to end the war should preserve Ukrainian sovereignty and be acceptable to both countries but that it was a “fantasy” to think Ukraine could win if the US just gave Kyiv more money or weapons or imposed more Russian sanctions.

• Zelenskyy has signalled Ukraine must confront the possibility of losing US support if it makes a stand. Sounding out his European allies, Zelenskyy spoke on Friday by phone to the leaders of Germany, France and the UK. German chancellor Friedrich Merz, French president Emmanuel Macron and British prime minister Keir Starmer assured Zelenskyy of “their unchanged and full support on the way to a lasting and just peace” in Ukraine, Merz’s office said. They reaffirmed their support for Kyiv and said any agreement to end the conflict had to be genuinely fair and take into account Ukraine’s own red lines.

• EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has warned that how the Ukraine war ends matters. She said: “Russia’s war against Ukraine is an existential threat to Europe. We all want this war to end. But how it ends matters. Russia has no legal right whatsoever to any concessions from the country it invaded. Ultimately, the terms of any agreement are for Ukraine to decide.” In a radio interview on Friday, Trump pushed back against the notion that the settlement would embolden Putin to carry out further actions against his European neighbours. “He’s not thinking of more war,” Trump said of Putin. “He’s thinking punishment. Say what you want. I mean, this was supposed to be a one-day war that has been four years now.”

• The Trump administration has told Ukrainian and European officials there is little room to negotiate on its plan to end Russia’s war, the Financial Times (paywall) reports. The paper reported “a volatile meeting” between US army secretary Daniel Driscoll and European ambassadors and western officials late on Friday. “We are not negotiating details,” Driscoll said, according to a senior European official present at the meeting. Another described the tone of the meeting as “nauseating”, the paper reported.

• Keir Starmer is set to meet Ukraine’s allies at the Johannesburg G20 summit on Saturday to seek to “strengthen” the US-drafted plan. “Ukraine’s friends and partners will meet in the margins of the G20 summit to discuss how we can secure a full ceasefire and create the space for meaningful peace negotiations,” he said. “We will discuss the current proposal on the table, and in support of President Trump’s push for peace, look at how we can strengthen this plan for the next phase of negotiations.”

• Poland’s ambassador to South Korea on Friday voiced “great concerns” over North Korea’s involvement in Russia’s war against Ukraine, according to reports. “Security between the Korean Peninsula, central Europe and the so-called eastern flank has become intertwined. We are crystal clear that the DPRK’s involvement in the brutal war and aggression against Ukraine is a source of great concerns to us,” ambassador Bartosz Wisniewski said. Hundreds of North Korean troops have been killed in the conflict, as reported previously by the Guardian.