Ukraine-Russia war latest: Kremlin welcomes meeting with Trump as ‘supermarket hit with US missile’ in Donetsk
Russia accused Kyiv of using a US-supplied HIMARS to strike a supermarket in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine
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Your support makes all the difference.The Kremlin has welcomed a meeting with US president-elect Donald Trump just days after he claimed Vladimir Putin wanted to sit down with him.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said there could be progress on setting up the meeting after Trump is sworn in as US president on 20 January.
Trump claimed Putin wanted to meet with him as he spoke with Republican governors at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, earlier this week.
“President Putin wants to meet. He has said that even publicly and we have to get that war over with. That’s a bloody mess,” he said.
On Thursday, Trump pushed back his campaign pledge to end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours and said six months was a more realistic target.
“The whole [Trump] team is obsessed with strength and looking strong, so they’re recalibrating the Ukraine approach,” a European official told the Financial Times.
Meanwhile, Russia accused Ukraine of carrying out a missile strike on a supermarket in the Russian-controlled city of Donetsk with US-supplied weapons.
Dashcam footage posted by a driver nearby appeared to show the moment the supermarket was struck, with an ensuing large explosion and flames soaring into the sky.
Zelensky and Austin use their final meeting to press Trump to keep supporting Ukraine
Volodymyr Zelensky and Lloyd Austin used their final meeting yesterday to press the incoming Trump administration not to give up on Kyiv’s fight, with the US defence secretary warning that to cease military support now “will only invite more aggression, chaos and war”.
“We’ve come such a long way that it would honestly be crazy to drop the ball now and not keep building on the defense coalitions we’ve created,” Mr Zelensky said. “No matter what’s going on in the world, everyone wants to feel sure that their country will not just be erased off the map.”
Mr Austin doubled down on the Ukrainian president’s appeal, saying “no responsible leader will let Putin have his way”.
President-elect Donald Trump’s remarks about pushing for a quick end to the war, his relationship with Russian president Vladimir Putin and uncertainty over whether he will support further military aid to Ukraine have triggered concern among allies.
The Biden administration has worked to provide Ukraine with as much military support as it can, including approving a new $500m package of weapons and relaxing restrictions on missile strikes into Russia, with the aim of putting Ukraine in the strongest position possible for any future negotiations to end the war.
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Starmer and Macron discuss Ukraine and Middle East ahead of Trump’s inauguration
Prime minister Keir Starmer welcomed the French president Emmanuel Macron to Chequers yesterday evening for wide-ranging discussions over dinner.
Sir Starmer said it was a “privilege” to host Mr Macron, the second world leader to meet the prime minister at his official country retreat since he took office in July.
Describing the meeting as “further evidence of our ability to work well together”, Sir Keir said the pair planned to discuss “a number of issues of concern”, including the situation in Ukraine and the Middle East, while Downing Street has previously indicated that illegal migration, tech and growth would also be on the agenda.
Starmer and Macron discuss Ukraine and Middle East at UK meeting
Mr Macron said the meeting was a great opportunity to discuss EU-UK relations and ‘the main crisis’ in Ukraine.
Zelensky says meeting of allies pledges $2bn in aid
Volodymyr Zelensky said the latest in a series of meetings with Kyiv’s Western allies in Germany had resulted in pledges of an additional $2bn in military assistance to help it fight the war against Russia.
Mr Zelensky, speaking to My-Ukraina television channel after yesterday’s meeting, gave few details of the assistance, but that 34 countries had pledged support in different aspects of the 34-month-old war.
“We had a very good meeting, a very good result. There was $2bn in additional packages of support to Ukraine,” he said in a video posted on the television channel’s Telegram account.
The aid covered air defence, information technology, demining, naval forces, air forces and artillery.
“And all this will strengthen Ukraine,” he said. The president gave no details on which countries had made the pledges.
Trump says Putin wants to meet him, meeting being fixed
Donald Trump said a meeting was being set up between him and Russian president Vladimir Putin, but the Republican offered no timeline for talks between the two leaders.
“He wants to meet, and we are setting it up,” Trump said in remarks before a meeting with Republican governors at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida.
“President Putin wants to meet. He has said that even publicly and we have to get that war over with. That’s a bloody mess,” Trump said about the Russia-Ukraine war.
Mr Trump’s return to the White House on 20 January has sparked hope of a diplomatic resolution to end Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine that began in February 2022, but it has also led to fears in Kyiv that a quick peace deal could come at a high price for Ukraine.
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