Ukraine war live: Team Trump admits Putin has not yet shown interest in peace ahead of talks

Downing Street said Britain is planning for a multinational force drawn from partners on the continent, despite the Kremlin this week describing any overseas deployment as “unacceptable”.

Thousands of allied troops could be sent to cities across Ukraine to help the army regain its strength and stand as an independent deterrent to Russian aggression – if the two sides can agree terms.

Ukraine’s Zaporizhia nuclear power plant temporarily lost all off-site power overnight, the International Atomic Energy Agency said on Saturday, citing its director general Rafael Mariano Grossi.

The IAEA said the plant was reconnected to the 330 kilovolt (kV) power line after the half-hour outage, but the 750-kV line was still cut.

The IAEA said widespread military activity overnight affected Ukraine’s electricity grid and prompted nuclear power plants (NPPs) to reduce output.

Ukrainian state railway company Ukrzaliznitsa said on Saturday that a railway hub near Kiev was hit during a massive Russian drone and missile strike, damaging a depot and railway carriages.

The railways reported no casualties in the overnight attack in the town of Fastiv.

Russia has stepped up its attacks on Ukraine’s energy sector and infrastructure in recent weeks, targeting power stations and railway hubs.

Ukraine’s Ministry of Development of Communities and Regions said the attack targeted power and heat generation facilities in the Chernihiv, Zaporizhia, Lviv and Dnipropetrovsk regions.

In the southern Odessa region, 9,500 customers remained without heat and 34,000 customers remained without water supply, it said on Telegram.

Russia’s ambassador to Britain has said Russia had nothing to do with the Salisbury poisoning attack, while an official report concluded that President Vladimir Putin may have authorized the use of the deadly nerve agent.

Ambassador Andrei Kelin said he had no message for the family of Don Sturgess, who died after being poisoned in 2018.

He said: “It’s a tragic death, it’s certainly tragic and Russia had nothing to do with it.”

He claimed instead that the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter was a plot orchestrated by the British government and secret services.

He added, “It’s done by very talented professionals. It reminds me of Ian Fleming or even Agatha Christie.”

Retired Supreme Court judge Anthony Hughes, who reviewed Ms Sturges’s death, found that An attempt was made to assassinate Mr. Skripal “must have been authorized at the highest levels by President Putin” and said that GRU agents were “acting on instructions” when they carried out the attack.

The report concluded that the attempt to assassinate Mr Skripal “was not simply a matter of revenge against him, but was a public statement… that Russia will act decisively in accordance with its interests”.

The two leaders said their ties were “resilient to external pressure” after Putin signed a deal to deepen economic ties between the allies as Moscow seeks to shore up a struggling economy.

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Russia launched a major missile and drone attack on Ukraine overnight as US and Ukrainian officials continued their third day of talks.

Ukraine’s air force said Saturday morning that Russia used 653 drones and 51 missiles in the widespread attack, prompting an air strike alert across the country.

The air force said Ukrainian forces shot down and disabled 585 drones and 30 missiles, with 29 locations being hit.

At least three people were injured in the Kyiv area, according to local officials. Drone sightings were reported as far west as the Lviv region of Ukraine.

Ukraine’s national energy operator, Ukrainergo, wrote on Telegram that Russia launched a “massive missile-drone attack” on power stations and other energy infrastructure in several Ukrainian regions.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said its air defenses shot down 116 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory overnight Saturday.

The head of the Ukrainian Armed Forces has said it would be “unacceptable” for Ukraine to “simply give up territory” in a future peace deal with Russia.

talking to sky NewsGeneral Oleksandr Syrsky said: “Our main mission is to defend our land, our country and our population… Naturally, it is unacceptable for us to simply give up the territory. What does it mean – to hand over our land? That’s why we are fighting; that’s why we don’t give up our territory.”

He said that a “just peace” for Ukraine would be “without any preconditions, without giving up territory”. He added: “It means stopping along the current line of contact”.

His comments came as Ukrainian officials and US advisers met in Florida for a third day of talks on a security framework for post-war Ukraine.

US special envoy Steve Witkoff spent about five hours with Putin in Moscow on Tuesday. A Russian official said after the meeting that there was “no agreement” on the key issue of control over Ukrainian territory.

Senior Ukrainian and US negotiators will meet for a third day of talks on Saturday after making progress towards agreeing a security framework for post-war Ukraine.

US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Ukraine’s National Security Council Secretary Rustam Umerov called on Russia to show a “serious commitment to long-term peace”.

Any real progress toward an agreement will ultimately depend on Russia’s readiness for peace, he said in a statement after a second day of talks in Florida on Friday.

“Both sides agreed that real progress toward any agreement depends on Russia’s readiness to show a serious commitment to long-term peace, including steps to de-escalate tensions and stop the killings,” the statement said.

“The parties also separately reviewed the Future Prosperity Agenda, which aims to support Ukraine’s post-war reconstruction, joint US-Ukraine economic initiatives, and long-term recovery projects.”

US and Ukrainian officials also discussed “deterrence capabilities” that Ukraine would need “to maintain lasting peace”.

Friday’s session took place at Shell Bay Club in Hallandale Beach, a high-end private golf and lifestyle destination owned by Mr. Witkoff’s property development company.

Previous diplomatic efforts to break the deadlock have failed and the war continues unabated. Officials have largely kept a lid on how the latest talks are going, although Mr Trump’s initial 28-point plan was leaked.

Ukraine’s Energy Ministry said Russian drone and missile attacks affected energy infrastructure in eight regions of Ukraine overnight, causing blackouts.

“Emergency repair work is already underway where safety conditions permit. Energy companies are making every effort to restore power to all customers as quickly as possible,” the ministry said.