Ukraine latest: Kremlin insist Vladimir Putin ready for peace talks with Volodymyr Zelensky as U.S. and Russia officials meet in Saudi Arabia

The Kremlin has today insisted Russian President Vladimir Putin was serious about negotiating a settlement to end the war in Ukraine.

Putin sent Russia’s army into Ukraine in 2022. He has repeatedly said he is ready to discuss an end to the war that reflects the reality on the ground, where advancing Russian forces now control nearly a fifth of Ukrainian territory.

Western intelligence, European leaders and former U.S. president Joe Biden have repeatedly asserted that they do not think Putin really wants peace, though U.S. President Donald Trump says he does think Putin is serious.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

President Putin has been repeating his words about his readiness for peace talks from the very beginning. The main thing for us is to achieve our goals. And, of course, we prefer peaceful means to achieve our goals.

Peskov said there was no understanding yet about a date for a meeting between Putin and Trump, though the Riyadh talks might bring clarity.

Sir Keir Starmer’s announcement that he plans to send British peacekeepers to Ukraine raises two immediate questions. First, do we have the military capacity and the means to pay for it? Second, what exactly would we aim to achieve?

The answer to the first question is depressing. We have been running down our Armed Forces for 35 years, mainly to fund an unprecedented expansion of the welfare state and the NHS.

When the Prime Minister asked his generals whether they could patch together a brigade to patrol those sparse steppelands, they doubtless told him that they would manage.

That is what soldiers do. Unusually among public-sector workers, they look for answers rather than excuses, and make do with whatever resources they have rather than insisting on bigger budgets.

Here is our current top story on the MailOnline website

Russian and American officials have met in Saudi Arabia today for talks on improving relations and negotiating an end to the war in Ukraine – with Kyiv absent from the discussions and insisting it will not accept a peace deal without a seat at the table.

The meeting in Riyadh marks a major step by the Trump administration to improve relations with Moscow and reverse US policy on isolating Russia, and is meant to pave the way for a meeting between President Trump and dictator Vladimir Putin.

Trump earlier this month upended US policy by saying he had held a phone call with Putin about beginning negotiations, sparking panic in Kyiv and among European allies.

Ukrainian officials are not taking part in today’s meeting, and President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday that his country will not accept the outcome of any discussions if Kyiv does not have a say in its own future.

‘We cannot recognise any things or agreements about us without us. And we will not recognise such agreements,’ Zelensky said, adding that previously ‘it was like bad manners to talk to an aggressor during wartime.’

• Read the story in full here

Hours before senior Russian officials sat down with U.S. counterparts, a large scale drone attack was launched overnight in Ukraine.

In the Ukrainian city of Dolynska, people living in 38 apartments were evacuated after a high-rise building was struck injuring a mother and her two children.

Andriy Raikovych, the region’s governor, said in a post on the Telegram messaging app:

A difficult night for the Kirovohrad region. An enemy drone hit a high-rise building in Dolynska.

The mother and one of the children were taken to hospital, said Raikovych, who posted photos of flames bursting out of windows of a high-storey apartment building.

The Ukrainian military said on Tuesday that Russia launched 176 drones in a large-scale attack.

Ukraine’s air force shot down 103 of the drones and 67 did not reach their targets, probably due to electronic countermeasures, the military said.

It did not specify what happened to the remaining six drones, but said that Kirovohrad, Kharkiv, Kyiv and Cherkasy regions were impacted.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has doubts about deploying European troops to Ukraine, an Italian government source has told AFP.

Joining fellow leaders in the French capital, Meloni told the meeting that sending soldiers was ‘the most complex and the least effective’ way of securing peace in Ukraine, according to media reports.

Meloni also emphasised the importance of involving the United States in any discussions on Ukraine and European security, saying the meeting should not be an ‘anti-Trump’ initiative.

French President Emmanuel Macron convened an emergency meeting with the leaders of Germany, Britain, Italy, Poland, Spain, the Netherlands and Denmark, the EU and NATO on Monday to address Washington’s policy shift on Ukraine.

US President Donald Trump sidelined Kyiv and its European backers last week when he called his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to talk about starting negotiations to end the conflict.

The Kremlin has said Russian leader Vladimir Putin is ready to talk to Volodymyr Zelensky ‘if necessary’ but repeated its questioning of his legitimacy as Ukrainian president.

‘Putin himself said that he would be ready to negotiate with Zelensky if necessary but the legal basis of agreements needs discussion considering the reality that Zelensky’s legitimacy can be questioned,’ Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Zelensky’s five-year mandate would have ran out last year, but Ukrainian law does not require presidential elections be held under martial law.

Moscow has disregarded that and repeatedly said it does not see Zelensky as a ‘legitimate’ president.

Zelensky has said he would be prepared to ‘compromise’ and meet with Putin, but only after Ukraine and its allies agree a common position for how to end the conflict.

The Kremlin said on Tuesday that it was Ukraine’s sovereign right to decide whether it wanted to join the European Union and that Moscow did not intend to dictate to Kyiv how it should approach the question.

Asked if Ukraine could one day join the European Union, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said:

This is the sovereign right of any country. We are talking about integration and economic integration processes. And here, of course, no one can dictate anything to any country, and we are not going to do that.

Peskov added, though, that Russia’s position was different when it came to Ukraine joining military alliances.

‘There is a completely different position, of course, on security-related issues related to defence or military alliances,’ Peskov said

Volodymyr Zelensky has slammed the United States for trying to ‘please’ Vladimir Putin so they can get a ‘quick win’ in talks with Moscow on Ukraine – the outcome of which Kyiv has said it will not accept.

Reacting to conciliatory comments towards Russia by US officials, Zelensky said: ‘The US is now saying things that are very favourable to Putin… because they want to please him.’

‘They want to meet quickly and have a quick win. But what they want – ‘just a ceasefire’ – is not a win,’ he added, according to a translation provided by broadcaster ARD of an interview recorded Saturday in Munich.

‘We [Ukraine] will not sign just anything in order to be applauded… the fate of our state for generations to come [is at stake].’

• Read Elena Salvoni’s full report here

Let’s take a look at the current top story on MailOnline after European leaders met in Paris yesterday

Keir Starmer’s rallying cry for Europe to ‘step up’ and deploy peacekeeping troops to Ukraine was last night rejected by Germany at a dramatic summit in Paris.

European leaders are in chaos over President Trump’s peace plan for Ukraine, amid fears he will withdraw his military support for the continent and abandon the Baltic states to Putin.

Starmer has called for the US to provide a ‘backstop’ for any deal in Ukraine, and European leaders appear to be panicking over the prospect of confronting Putin without American militry might.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz left the crisis summit in Paris between European leaders early last night and a ‘little irritated’ labelling the premier’s calls as ‘highly inappropriate’.

• Read Matt Strudwick’s report here

Vladimir Putin’s chief foreign adviser Yuri Ushakov told state media the talks would discuss ‘how to start negotiations on Ukraine.’

Both Ukraine and Russia have ruled out territorial concessions and Putin last year demanded Kyiv withdraw its troops from even more territory.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky is in Turkey today for discussions on the conflict with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

He is due in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday after travelling to the United Arab Emirates on Monday (pictured).

He does not plan to hold talks with either the US or Russian delegations, his spokesman said.

Zelensky said last week he was prepared to meet Putin, but only after Kyiv and its allies had a common position on ending the war.

Here are some pictures of the meeting between U.S. and Russian officials in Riyadh.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is leading the American delegation, while Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is representing the Kremlin.

Lavrov, right, sits next to Putin’s foreign policy advisor Yuri Ushakov

L to R: US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, Marco Rubio, and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz

The talks have taken place at Diriyah Palace, in Riyadh

Diriyah Palace sits across the street from Riyadh’s diplomatic quarter.

It is also just next to the Ritz Carlton hotel, which became well known in 2017 after de facto leader Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman detained other princes and the country’s elite there as part of what the royal court called a crackdown on corruption, which also sidelined any potential challenge to his taking control of the kingdom.

Hosting the talks is a major step towards a goal Prince Mohammed has pursued throughout the war – putting the kingdom in the middle of diplomatic negotiations.

Ahead of the summit, the Saudi daily newspaper Okaz described the moment as the “world’s eye on Riyadh”.

It has helped in prisoner negotiations and hosted Mr Zelensky for an Arab League summit in the kingdom in 2023.

Mr Zelensky said he would travel to Saudi Arabia tomorrow

Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov and Mr Putin’s foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov arrived in the Saudi capital on Monday.

Mr Ushakov said the talks would be ‘purely bilateral’ and would not include Ukrainian officials.

US secretary of state Marco Rubio, national security adviser Mike Waltz and special envoy Steve Witkoff will meet the Russian delegation, state department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said.

The talks mark a significant expansion of US-Russian contacts, nearly three years into a war that has seen ties fall to the lowest level in decades.

Ahead of the talks, Kirill Dmitriev, the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, who the Kremlin said might join the meeting, underscored the importance of the meeting in comments to The Associated Press.

Good US-Russia relations are very important for the whole world. Only jointly can Russia and the US address lots of world problems, resolve for global conflicts and offer solutions.

The Saudi-owned satellite channel Al Arabiya, citing the Russian delegation, described Moscow’s priority as ‘real normalisation with Washington’.

Hello and welcome to MailOnline’s live coverage as U.S. and Russian officials meet to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine.

Senior American and Russian officials are holding talks in Saudi Arabia today.

The meeting at the Diriyah Palace in Riyadh marks another pivotal step by the Trump administration to reverse US policy on isolating Russia and is meant to pave the way for a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Mr Trump earlier this month upended US policy towards Ukraine and Russia by saying he and Mr Putin had agreed to begin negotiations on ending the war.

Ukrainian officials are not taking part in the meeting, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday that his country will not accept the outcome if Kyiv does not take part.

Stick with us for the latest updates throughout the day.