Zelenskyy meets European leaders in London to discuss US peace proposal

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with the leaders of Britain, France and Germany in London on Monday to discuss the latest US peace proposal aimed at ending Russia's war in Ukraine.

The meeting at Downing Street brought together British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz to review negotiations that took place last week between US and Ukrainian officials in Florida.

"The American envoys are aware of Ukraine's core positions, and the conversation was constructive, though not easy," Zelenskyy said in his weekly address on Monday morning. "We continue our work. Some issues can only be discussed in person."

Days of negotiations between US and Ukrainian officials ended on Saturday without an apparent breakthrough. The Ukrainian president called the discussions "constructive, although not easy."

However, on Sunday night, Donald Trump said Zelenskyy "hasn't yet read the proposal" and claimed without evidence that "his people love it". The US president added: "Russia is, I believe, fine with it, but I'm not sure that Zelenskyy is fine with it. His people love it. But he isn't ready."

Kyiv's senior negotiator, Rustem Umerov, said Zelenskyy would be briefed about his team's dialogue with US officials and receive all documents related to the peace plan on Monday.

"The primary task of the Ukrainian team was to obtain from the American side complete information about their conversation in Moscow and all drafts of current proposals in order to discuss them in detail with the President of Ukraine," Umerov wrote on social media.

The US has been working to push through a peace deal between Kyiv and Moscow. US officials claim they are in the final stage of reaching an agreement but there is little sign that either Ukraine or Russia is willing to sign the framework deal drawn up by Trump's negotiating team.

Despite ongoing efforts from Trump and his team to push through a deal, progress in the peace talks has been slow, with disputes over security guarantees for Kyiv and the status of Russian-occupied territory still unresolved.

Starmer has stressed repeatedly that Ukraine must determine its own future, and said a European peacekeeping force would play a "vital role" in guaranteeing the country's security.

The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has not publicly expressed approval for the White House plan, and last week said aspects of Trump's proposal were unworkable. The US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met Putin at the Kremlin last week but failed to achieve an obvious breakthrough.

Trump's outgoing Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg, said at a defence forum on Saturday that the administration's efforts to end the war were in "the last 10 metres". He said there were two outstanding issues: territory and the fate of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

The British foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, is, meanwhile, expected in Washington on Monday, where she will meet her US counterpart, Marco Rubio. "The UK and US will reaffirm their commitment to reaching a peace deal in Ukraine," the Foreign Office in London said, announcing Cooper's visit.

Overnight, at least seven people were injured when Russian drones struck an apartment block in the north-eastern Ukrainian city of Okhtyrka. Ukraine's air force says it intercepted 131 out of 149 drones launched by Russia overnight.

Zelenskyy said that in the last week alone, Ukraine has been assailed by 1,600 Russian drones, guided bombs and nearly 70 missiles.