Ukraine-Russia war latest: Zelensky sends fresh message to Trump after Florida talks

Vladimir Putin on Monday signed a decree granting visa-free access to Russia for up to 30 days for many Chinese citizens, including tourists, business people, academics, artists and sports people.

Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping signed a “no limits” strategic partnership agreement days before the Kremlin chief sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022 and Moscow has since heavily relied on imports from Beijing to help it weather Western sanctions.

The Netherlands will contribute another 250 million euros to the PURL Initiative for Ukraine, the country’s defence minister announced on Monday.

The Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List (PURL) initiative is a joint fund to ensure the consistent flow of weapons to Kyiv.

“On a daily basis, we see heavy air attacks in Ukraine. The only way to help them in short notice is by delivering out of American stock. That’s why I now announce that the Netherlands will contribute another 250 million,” defence minister Ruben Brekelmans said before a meeting with his EU colleagues in Brussels.

Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden announced a joint $500 million package in November. The Netherlands funded the first package in full earlier this year.

Ahead of US special envoy Steve Witkoff’s visit to Russia, American officials welcomed a delegation from Ukraine in Washington.

Both sides came away describing their talks as “productive”, but acknowledged work still remains towards ending the war.

– Ukrainian and US officials met in Florida on Sunday to continue negotiations on a peace plan aimed at ending the war. Marco Rubio said they had built on “groundwork [laid] in Geneva” but said there was more work to do.

– Moldova was the latest country to see Russian drones breach its airspace, local authorities claimed on Saturday in what was the third such incident reported in nine days.

– NATO’s top military official said the alliance was weighing a more assertive response to hybrid attacks on its soil.

– Russia continued to pound populated areas of Ukraine with drones and missiles over the weekend. A drone killed one person and wounded 11 on the outskirts of Kyiv, the regional governor said on Sunday.

– Russia also confirmed launching a “massive” attack on Ukraine, which it said targeted Ukrainian military-industrial and energy facilities. Zelensky said Russia had fired 36 missiles and nearly 600 drones, killing six and wounding dozens nationwide.

Russia and Ukraine are showing increased openness to a possible peace agreement after years of attritional fighting, Turkey’s foreign minister has said.

Hakan Fidan told the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag that both sides appeared more inclined to negotiate than at any point in the conflict.

“After four years of attritional war, the parties are more prepared to conclude peace than previously,” he said.

“They have seen the extent of human suffering and the destruction, and recognized their own limits.”

According to Mr Fidan, Ankara understands that Russian president Vladimir Putin is now willing to pursue a settlement if certain conditions are met, and Turkey has passed on this position to Ukrainian officials.

He said Turkey remained involved “in certain aspects of this,” noting that the war continued to exact a “heavy toll” on Russia.

The minister described the talks under consideration as vital not only for bringing the war to a close, but also for establishing longer-term security across the continent.

He said aspects of the proposed agreement aimed at protecting Europe warranted particular attention. “In this context, we should look more closely at certain articles of the agreement that are intended to ensure Europe’s security. I see in these an historic opportunity for preventing further attacks,” he said.

Key questions remain unresolved, including what concrete security guarantees Ukraine might receive. Mr Putin has recently claimed that Russia could issue written assurances pledging not to attack any European country.

Ukraine and Norway have reached an agreement to manufacture drones together, the Ukrainian government has confirmed.

Announcing the plan, defence minister Denys Shmyhal said Kyiv would contribute the knowledge and technological advances it has developed during nearly four years of full-scale war, while Oslo would offer “a strong production base, as well as research and development cooperation with leading Norwegian institutions”.

Both sides have relied heavily on drones throughout the conflict, using them for surveillance, precision strikes and front-line defence.

Volodymyr Zelensky has held separate conversations with the heads of the European Commission and Nato as Kyiv seeks to reinforce its ability to withstand ongoing Russian strikes.

In a message posted on X, the Ukrainian president said he had spoken with Ursula von der Leyen about the need to bolster Ukraine’s resilience while its energy facilities and critical infrastructure continue to come under fire.

“Ursula is paying close attention to the need to strengthen our resilience amid Russia’s constant strikes on our infrastructure and the energy sector,” he wrote.

Zelensky said he had also been in contact with Nato’s secretary general, Mark Rutte, to coordinate positions among allies backing Ukraine’s defence against the invasion launched by Moscow in 2022.

“These are important days, and much can change. We are coordinating closely, and in our efforts – and in the efforts of all our partners – it is our joint measures and shared positions that will be extremely effective,” he said.

Nato and the EU are holding several meetings this week focused on Ukraine.

Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte is hosting Ukrainian defence minister Denys Shmyhal for talks in Brussels on Monday, and EU defence and foreign ministers are gathering to discuss European military support for Ukraine and Europe’s defence readiness.

On Wednesday, Nato foreign ministers will gather again in Brussels.

The main issue for the EU right now is what to do with the frozen Russian assets in Belgium, with Donald Trump’s peace plan initially suggesting they be used for post-war investment in Ukraine.

Those funds are central to European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen’s strategy to ensure continued help for Ukraine while also maintaining pressure on Russia.

But Belgium’s prime minister is holding out, worried about the legal implications of tapping the frozen assets for Ukraine, the impact that could have on the euro – and of Russian retaliation.

The diplomacy set in motion by Trump’s peace plan “painfully exposed” Europe’s weakness, Nigel Gould-Davies of the International Institute for Strategic Studies wrote in a recent commentary.

“Despite being the main source of Ukraine’s economic and military support, it is marginal to the diplomacy of the war and has done little more than offer amendments to America’s draft peace plan,” Gould-Davies wrote.

Eager to please Trump, Kyiv and Moscow have ostensibly welcomed the peace plan and the push to end the war. But Russia has continued attacking Ukraine and reiterated its maximalist demands, indicating a deal is still a ways off.

Vladimir Putin implied last week that he will fight as a long as it takes to achieve his goals, saying that he will stop only when Ukrainian troops withdraw from all four Ukrainian regions that Russia illegally annexed in 2022 and still doesn’t fully control.

“If they don’t withdraw, we’ll achieve this by force. That’s all,” he said.

The plan, Putin said, “could form the basis for future agreements,” but it is in no way final and requires “a serious discussion”.

Volodymyr Zelensky has refrained from talking about individual points, opting instead to thank Trump profusely for his efforts and emphasizing the need for Europe – whose interests are more closely aligned with Ukraine’s – to be involved.

He also has stressed the importance of robust security guarantees for Ukraine.

The first version of the plan granted some core Russian demands that Ukraine considers nonstarters, such as ceding land to Moscow that it doesn’t yet occupy and renouncing its bid to become a member of Nato.

Zelensky has said repeatedly that giving up territory is not an option. One of the Ukrainian negotiators, Bevz, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that Ukraine’s president wanted to discuss the territory issue with Trump directly. Yermak then told The Atlantic in an interview on Thursday that Zelensky would not sign over the land.

Zelensky also maintains that Nato membership is the cheapest way to guarantee Ukraine’s security, and Nato’s 32 member countries said last year that Ukraine is on an “irreversible” path to membership. Since he took office, Trump has made it clear that Nato membership is off the table.

Moscow, in turn, has bristled at any suggestion of a Western peacekeeping force on the ground in Ukraine, and stressed that keeping Ukraine out of Nato and Nato out of Ukraine was one of the core goals of the war.

Donald Trump’s representatives met with Ukrainian officials over the weekend and plan to meet with the Russians later this week.

Ukraine’s national security council head Rustem Umerov, the head of Ukraine’s armed forces Andrii Hnatov, presidential adviser Oleksandr Bevz and others met with US officials for about four hours in Florida on Sunday.

US secretary of state Marco Rubio said the session was productive but more work remains to be done. Umerov praised the US for its support but offered no details on outcomes from the talks.

Volodymyr Zelensky’s former chief of staff and former lead negotiator for Ukraine, Andrii Yermak, resigned on Friday amid a corruption scandal and is no longer part of the negotiating team. It was only a week ago that Rubio met with Yermak in Geneva, resulting in a revised peace plan.

Trump said last week that he would send his envoy Steve Witkoff to Russia. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov confirmed Putin will host Witkoff for talks “in the first half” of the week.

Trump suggested he could eventually meet with Putin and Zelensky, but not until there has been more progress.

Witkoff’s role in the peace efforts came under scrutiny last week following a report that he coached Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, on how Russia’s leader should pitch Trump on the Ukraine peace plan.

Both Moscow and Washington downplayed the significance of the revelations.