Latest Ukraine war: Kiev’s forces attack Russian ship and oil rig

Zelensky had previously refused to hold elections while the war continued – a measure also supported by many opponents in Ukraine.

Earlier this month, and again under pressure from Trump, he said he would be ready to hold elections within 60-90 days if security guarantees were in place.

On Saturday, he asked Putin to stay out of Ukraine’s affairs after the Russian president backed Trump’s call.

Zelensky also reiterated that elections can only be held if security is guaranteed.

He said, no elections in Ukraine can be held in any part of the country occupied by Russia.

He said Ukraine’s Foreign Minister has begun preliminary work on the infrastructure needed to make voting possible for Ukrainians living abroad.

Zelensky said on Saturday that Ukraine would support a US proposal for three-way talks with the United States and Russia if there were clear results.

“The US is now proposing a trilateral meeting with national security advisers – US, Ukraine, Russia,” the president told local journalists in Kiev.

“If such a meeting can be held now to agree on an exchange of prisoners of war or a trilateral meeting of leaders, we will support such proposals. Let’s see how things go.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday that the United States has offered a possible new format for peace talks between Ukraine and Russia, in which American and possibly European envoys will participate.

Zelensky said today that Kiev would decide on the format once it becomes clear that bilateral discussions that resumed on Friday with US negotiators are positive.

Speaking to reporters in Kiev, he did not specify what kind of format President Donald Trump’s administration had proposed.

“The US said they would hold a separate meeting with representatives of Russia. And as far as I understand, they proposed the following format: Ukraine, the US, Russia and, since there are representatives of Europe, maybe also of Europe,” Zelensky said.

Zelensky attacked Putin on Saturday after the Russian president supported Donald Trump’s call for Ukrainian elections.

The Ukrainian leader said it is not Putin’s job to decide how elections should be held in Ukraine.

He also said that elections can be held only when security is guaranteed.

Zelensky has faced pressure from Trump to call new elections during the war – according to recent polling, the public strongly opposes the move, including in Swat which would see Zelensky leave office after the war ends.

Reuters reported on Saturday that now it is the turn of Vladimir Putin’s special envoy to go to Miami for talks.

Kirill Dmitriev wrote on social media that he was going to Miami today.

He said, “As war supporters work overtime to undermine the US peace plan for Ukraine, I’m reminded of this video from my last trip – light breaking through storm clouds.”

The Ukrainian delegation was in the US yesterday with European diplomats to discuss peace proposals with the Trump administration.

A Russian source told Reuters they were not expecting three-way talks.

In a basement near Kiev’s Maidan Square, Ukrainian street artist Maxim Kildarov has assembled a grim collection of battlefield remains that together form an unofficial record of Russia’s invasion.

For Kildarov, who fought for 55 days under Russian occupation in Novaya Kakhovka in southern Ukraine, the objects are evidence of a war he says should not be defined solely by official narratives.

As he spoke to The Associated Press, he wore a red MAGA hat — a gesture he described as intentionally ironic, reflecting the vulnerability of a country dependent on foreign aid that could be stopped or withdrawn without warning.

Currently an invitation-only exhibition, they plan to convert the site into a museum showcasing the gravity of the war.

US intelligence reports have warned that Moscow’s goals have not changed since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, despite President Vladimir Putin’s denials that it poses a threat to Europe.

Even as talks are underway to end the war, Putin is seeking control over all of Ukraine and territories in former Soviet bloc states, including members of the NATO alliance, Reuters reported, citing sources familiar with US intelligence.

“The intelligence has always been that Putin wants more. The Europeans are convinced of it. The Poles are absolutely convinced of it. The Baltics think they are first,” Mike Quigley, a Democratic member of the House Intelligence Committee, told Reuters.

Ukraine’s deputy prime minister said on Saturday that Moscow’s troops were deliberately targeting civilian logistics routes in the Odessa region.

Russia today attacked reservoirs in Ukraine’s southern Pivdenny port, Oleksiy Kuleba said on the Telegram app.

A day before this, eight people had died in a missile attack there.

Ukraine and Portugal have agreed on joint production of Ukrainian maritime drones.

Having proven their worth, the drones will “help Portugal defend Europe from the sea,” Ukrainian presidential aide Oleksandr Kamyshin wrote on social media today.

Aiden Aslin, a British volunteer who joined Ukraine’s marines, was captured and tortured by Putin’s forces in 2022 and is now back fighting the Kremlin. He tells his story in the World of Trouble Podcast with the World Affairs Editor Sam Kiely In eastern Ukraine: