Donald Trump has accused Vladimir Putin of stringing him along over Ukraine peace talks. “There was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days,” the US president posted on Truth Social on Saturday. “It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along.” Mr Trump’s criticism of the Russian president followed his meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, at the funeral of Pope Francis at the Vatican.
Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It came as Putin declared victory in Kursk, with the Russian army claiming Ukrainian forces had been expelled from the region nearly nine months after a surprise Ukrainian incursion. 06:50 PM BST That brings an end to our live blog Thank you for following our updates 06:24 PM BST Has Trump really turned on Putin? Is Donald Trump’s rare rebuke of Vladimir Putin a true change of heart or just political theatre?
Our Senior Foreign Correspondent Roland Oliphant has his say on an extraordinary day of diplomacy and drama in Rome at a crucial point in the war in Ukraine. You can read his full analysis here. 06:13 PM BST Support for Ukraine from US Senate Following Trump’s remarks, Republican US Senator Lindsey Graham said the Senate is poised to move forward on bipartisan legislation that would impose trade sanctions on countries that purchase Russian oil, gas and other products.
Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement “The Senate stands ready to move in this direction and will do so overwhelmingly if Russia does not embrace an honorable, just and enduring peace,” Graham posted on X. 06:08 PM BST ‘Ukraine can count on us’ says Starmer 05:11 PM BST Ukraine agent detained over Moscow car bomb, says Russian secret service Russia detained a man suspected of killing a Russian general in a car blast outside Moscow on Ukraine’s orders, the FSB secret service said on Saturday. Moscow had previously accused Kyiv of being behind the blast on Friday which killed senior Russian general Yaroslav Moskalik, deputy head of the main operational directorate of the military’s General Staff.
“Ukrainian special services agent Ignat Kuzin, born in 1983, a resident of Ukraine, who planted explosives in a Volkswagen Golf in the city of Balashikha in the Moscow region, killing Lieutenant General Yaroslav Moskalik, was detained,” the FSB said in a statement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to the FSB, Kuzin had rigged the car with a homemade explosive device, which he took from a Ukrainian special service stash in the Moscow region, and the bomb was then detonated remotely from Ukraine. The suspect, who might be facing a life sentence on terrorism charges, is now being questioned by the officers, Russia’s investigative committee said.
Kyiv has not commented on the blast, which bore the hallmarks of previous attacks on military figures and high-profile backers of the Kremlin’s offensive over the last three years. Yaroslav Moskalik, deputy chief of the main operations directorate of Russia’s army, was killed in a car bomb attack in Moscow on Friday, 04:59 PM BST ‘EU will back you’, Zelensky told The EU will back Ukraine in negotiations “to achieve a just and lasting peace”, Ursula von der Leyen has said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The president of the European Commission, the EU’s main executive body, met with Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines of Pope Francis’s funeral on Saturday.
In a message to Ukraine’s president on X, she said: “Europe will always stand by Ukraine in the pursuit of peace. You can count on our support at the negotiating table to achieve a just and lasting peace.” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen meets Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines of Pope Francis’s funeral at the Vatican 04:33 PM BST Trump-Zelensky meeting was ‘Pope’s miracle’ Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky’s meeting was “Pope Francis’s miracle”, a priest has said. Professor Father Francesco Giordano, who attended the Pope’s Vatican funeral on Saturday, told Sky News: “It was very a moving experience.
“It was also moving to see what they are now calling ‘Pope Francis’s miracle’ with Trump and Zelensky meeting, there’s so many things that happened today – it was just overwhelming.” 04:06 PM BST How Trump’s meeting with Zelensky came about As world leaders descend on the Vatican for the funeral of Pope Francis, all eyes were on two men. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky came face-to-face for the first time since their bitter Oval Office fall-out in February. During recent peace talks in London, Ukrainian officials broached the idea of using the Pope’s funeral in Rome as a backdrop for the pair to meet.
It was an idea that is understood to have generated a sense of unease among Emmanuel Macron and Sir Keir Starmer, with British officials fearing a row like the one played out in the Oval Office could have been repeated in the Vatican. “The Ukrainian thinking is that if everyone was in town bar Putin and the wheels of a peace deal were about to come off, it would be a good time,” a European source with knowledge of the negotiations said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement During talks in London on Wednesday, British officials encouraged their Ukrainian counterparts to move closer to the American position in peace negotiations in order to keep the US president onside.
“They need to come to a position where a response is with European input to help Ukrainians understand that this is a take it or leave it deal,” the source added. Donald Trump meets Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky at the Vatican 03:49 PM BST Meloni adds to growing pressure on Putin Giorgia Meloni expects Russia to show concrete signs of its willingness to pursue peace in Ukraine. The Italian prime minister, who met Volodymyr Zelensky at the funeral of Pope Francis on Saturday, stressed “the urgency of an immediate and unconditional ceasefire, as well as the need for a concrete commitment by Moscow to launch a peace process”.
Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni meets Volodymyr Zelensky at the funeral of Pope Francis on Saturday 03:44 PM BST Kremlin: ‘Putin is ready to resume talks’ Vladimir Putin is ready to hold peace talks with Ukraine “without preconditions”, the Kremlin has said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Russian president is said to have told US envoy Steve Witkoff at a meeting on Friday that he is willing to resume negotiations over a peace deal. “During yesterday’s talks with Trump’s envoy Witkoff, Vladimir Putin reiterated that Russia is ready to resume negotiations with Ukraine without any preconditions,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, adding that Putin has stated that several times in the past.
The Russian president has regularly set out his demands on the regarding Ukraine, which include control of the five Ukrainian regions that Moscow claims to have annexed, Ukraine’s renunciation of NATO membership and its demilitarisation. Putin and Witkoff discussed the possibility of direct talks between Russia and Ukraine during a three-hour meeting in Moscow, which was described by a Kremlin aide as constructive. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Russia and Ukraine have not held direct talks on the fighting since the start of Moscow’s offensive in 2022.. 03:31 PM BST Putin claims victory in Kursk On the same day that Donald Trump has turned on him, Vladimir Putin has declared victory in Kursk after the Russian army claimed Ukrainian forces were expelled from the final village in the region.
Putin said the expulsion of Ukrainian forces from Russian soil opened the way for further Russian military successes. Valery Gerasimov, Chief of the General Staff for Russia’s Armed Forces, told Putin the news in a meeting on Saturday, saying his forces had pushed Ukrainians out of the territory while fighting “shoulder to shoulder” with North Koreans. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If true, it would mark the end to Ukraine’s eight-month offensive into Russia that began on August 6, 2024.
Kyiv had hoped it could use land in the Kursk region as a bargaining chip in future peace talks with Russia. Ukraine’s military however denied the Russian claims. The Ukrainian military’s general staff, in a statement posted on social media, said its forces were continuing their operations in some districts of Kursk region.
Vladimir Putin listens to a report from head of the Russian army Valery Gerasimov via video link at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow – via REUTERS 03:21 PM BST Macron: ‘Putin must prove he wants peace’ French president Emmanuel Macron says Volodymyr Zelensky is willing to work with the US on peace talks. He said he had a “very positive exchange” with Mr Zelensky in Rome on Saturday where world leaders have gathered for the funeral of Pope Francis. “Ending the war in Ukraine.
This is the goal we share with President Trump,” he said in a post on X. “Ukraine is ready for an unconditional ceasefire. President Zelensky reiterated this to me today.
He wants to work alongside the Americans and Europeans to implement it. “Now it’s up to President Putin to prove he truly wants peace. “We will continue our work within the framework of the coalition of the willing launched in Paris last March, to achieve both this ceasefire and a complete and lasting peace in Ukraine.” 03:13 PM BST Zelensky reacts to Trump meeting Credit: X / @wartranslated 03:10 PM BST ‘Zelensky will be satisfied’ Volodymyr Zelensky will be satisfied with the results of his tete a tete with Mr Trump in the heart of the Vatican on the day of Pope Francis’ funeral.
Buried deep in a lengthy rant about a journalist on his Truth Social platform was a sentence that will have given the under-pressure Ukrainian president hope. Mr Trump attacked Putin for firing on civilians before accusing him of “tapping me along” in peace negotiations over Ukraine. It was a talking point taken straight from Kyiv, London and Paris, and Mr Zelensky will hope, to Mr Trump’s heart.
Mr Trump followed it up with a renewed threat to hit Russia with sanctions. It is a volte face after his blaming of Mr Zelensky for the war and his urging of him to sacrifice territory to Moscow. Mr Zelensky made the most of his one to one with the President to forcefully make his case and successfully get into Mr Trump’s ear.
He will now have to hope his points are forceful enough to withstand the counter-arguments of those in the Trump administration who want the war in Ukraine over, no matter the cost to Ukrainians. 03:02 PM BST Trump’s post in full Here is Donald Trump’s full post on Truth Social in which he turned on Vladimir Putin. “No matter what deal I make with respect to Russia/Ukraine, no matter how good it is, even if it’s the greatest deal ever made, The Failing New York Times will speak BADLY of it.
Liddle’ Peter Baker, the very biased and untalented writer for The Times, followed his Editor’s demands and wrote that Ukraine should get back territory, including, I suppose, Crimea, and other ridiculous requests, in order to stop the killing that is worse than anything since World War II. “Why doesn’t this lightweight reporter say that it was Obama who made it possible for Russia to steal Crimea from Ukraine without even a shot being fired. It was also Liddle’ Peter who wrote an absolutely fawning, yet terribly written Biography, on Obama.
It was a JOKE! Did Baker ever criticize the Obama Crimea Giveaway? NO, not once, only TRUMP, and I’ve had nothing to do with this stupid war, other than early on, when I gave Ukraine Javelins, and Obama gave them sheets.
“This is Sleepy Joe Biden’s War, not mine. It was a loser from day one, and should have never happened, and wouldn’t have happened if I were President at the time. I’m just trying to clean up the mess that was left to me by Obama and Biden, and what a mess it is.
“With all of that being said, there was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days. It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently, through “Banking” or “Secondary Sanctions?” Too many people are dying!! !” 02:37 PM BST Starmer: ‘Positive progress’ on ceasefire Sir Keir Starmer has hailed “positive progress” towards a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine.
The Prime Minister sat down with the Ukrainian counterpart on the sidelines of Pope Francis’s funeral on Saturday. A Downing Street spokesman said: “The Prime Minister met President Zelenskyy in Rome this afternoon. They discussed positive progress made in recent days to secure a just and lasting peace in Ukraine.
“They agreed to maintain momentum and continue working intensively with international partners to drive forward the next stages of planning. The leaders agreed to speak again at the earliest opportunity.” It came after Mr Zelensky also met Donald Trump, the US president, in the two men’s first encounter since the Ukrainian leader was asked to leave the White House following an extraordinary televised row in February. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism.
Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
