Ukraine-Russia war latest: Ceasefire talks resume in Saudi Arabia as Trump envoy Witkoff praises Putin
Trump envoy Steve Witkoff says: ‘I don’t regard Putin as a bad guy. He’s super smart.’
Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff has praised Vladimir Putin, saying he “liked” the Russian president as US-brokered ceasefire discussions got under way in Saudi Arabia.
“I don’t regard Putin as a bad guy. He’s super smart,” Mr Witkoff told far-right commentator Tucker Carlson, while also dismissing Sir Keir Starmer’s plan for a “coalition of the willing” to provide military security guarantees to Ukraine as “a posture and a pose”.
His remarks came as Ukrainian officials met with US counterparts in Riyadh on Sunday to discuss a ceasefire, with Russian officials set to follow suit on Monday – marking the first such parallel peace talks since the early days of Moscow’s full-scale invasion.
As the Ukrainian round of talks concluded on Sunday night, Kyiv’s defence minister Rustem Umerov said they had been “constructive and meaningful” discussions, focused particularly on the energy sector.
Just hours earlier, officials said at least seven people were killed – including a five-year-old child – as Russia launched an overnight barrage of drones at Kyiv. The drones hit apartment buildings and sparked several fires throughout Ukraine’s capital despite Moscow agreeing to a limited ceasefire, officials said.
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Five-year-old among killed in Russia drone attack on Kyiv as roll rises to three
Death toll in Russian drone attack on Kyiv has risen to three, with a five-year-old among those killed, Ukraine’s internal ministry said.
"A massive enemy drone attack on Kyiv," Mayor Vitali Klitschko posted on the Telegram messaging app.
The scale of the overnight attack was not immediately clear. Reuters witnesses heard several blasts in what sounded like air defence systems in operation.
The state emergency service posted photos showing firefighters fighting blazes at night, including high in an apartment building.
A woman died after drone debris sparked a fire in a high-rise residential building in Dniprovskyi district, the emergency service said on Telegram, while at least 27 people were evacuated from the building.
Another person died in the Holosiivskyi district, the service said.
China weighs joining European-led peacekeeping coalition for Ukraine ceasefire
China is considering joining a European-led peacekeeping coalition aimed at securing a ceasefire in Ukraine, according to German media outlet Die Welt, which cited unnamed diplomatic sources.
While Beijing has maintained an official stance of neutrality in Russia’s war against Ukraine, it has remained a key ally of Moscow throughout the full-scale invasion.
European officials believe that China’s involvement could increase Russia’s willingness to accept a peacekeeping presence in Ukraine.
"The inclusion of China in a 'coalition of the willing' could potentially increase Russia's acceptance of peacekeeping forces in Ukraine," an unnamed EU diplomat told Die Welt, calling the situation "delicate".
Chinese diplomats are reportedly assessing how receptive European leaders would be to Beijing’s participation.
The "coalition of the willing," led by UK prime minister Sir Keir Starmer and French president Emmanuel Macron, is a group of allied nations working to establish security guarantees for Ukraine.
The initiative could involve deploying troops to bolster Ukraine’s military if a ceasefire is reached. However, Moscow has repeatedly rejected the presence of European or Nato forces in Ukraine.
European leaders, including Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, are scheduled to meet in Paris on 27 March to further discuss security arrangements and a potential peace plan.
No official details have been released regarding China’s possible role in the process.
Earlier this month, Chinese officials indicated Beijing’s interest in participating in Ukraine’s post-war reconstruction efforts.
Russia and Ukraine trade accusations over attack on gas station near border
Russia and Ukraine have blamed each other for an attack on a gas metering station in Russia’s Kursk region, just metres from the border between the two countries.
The strike on the facility in Sudzha occurred days after the United States proposed a pause in attacks on energy infrastructure. Moscow has accused Kyiv of deliberately targeting the site, which has been under Ukrainian control since its forces launched an incursion into Kursk in August 2024.
Russia’s defence ministry claimed Ukrainian troops blew up the station while “retreating from the Kursk region” in an alleged attempt to “discredit the US president’s peace initiatives”.
On Saturday, Russia’s foreign ministry warned that it “reserves the right to respond, including with a symmetrical response” to what it described as Ukrainian strikes on its energy facilities.
Kyiv dismissed the allegations as “groundless", insisting that Moscow was trying to mislead the international community.
Ukraine’s General Staff countered the claims, stating in a Telegram post that “the station has been repeatedly shelled by the Russians themselves".
Trump’s envoy echoes Russian talking points in ceasefire talks
Donald Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, has cast doubt on Ukraine’s ability to secure a ceasefire on its terms while reiterating key Kremlin narratives about the war.
In an interview with Tucker Carlson on 21 March, Mr Witkoff described the territorial dispute in Ukraine as the "largest issue" in the conflict, referring to Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, and Crimea—regions either partially or fully occupied by Russia.
He claimed these areas were "Russian-speaking" and that "referendums" had shown an overwhelming desire to be under Russian rule, failing to acknowledge that these votes were held under coercion.
He suggested that Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky faced a political dilemma over international recognition of Russian-occupied territories.
"Can Zelensky survive politically if he acknowledges this? This is the central issue in the conflict," he said.
Mr Witkoff also asserted that Ukraine had "largely conceded that they are not going to be a member of Nato" but indicated discussions were ongoing about possible security guarantees from the United States and European nations.
Downplaying Moscow’s broader ambitions, he insisted Russia had no desire to expand the war or "absorb Ukraine" beyond its current occupied territories. "(Russia's) reclaimed these five regions.
They have Crimea, and they've gotten what they want. So why do they need more?" he said, omitting Russia’s past denials before launching its full-scale invasion.
He further defended Mr Trump’s approach to peace talks, saying the former US president was focused on restoring relations with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
"Who doesn't want to have a world where Russia and the United States are doing collaboratively good things together?" he asked, citing potential cooperation in energy and artificial intelligence.
Mr Witkoff framed the war as a complex issue, arguing, "It's never just one person," while sidestepping Russia’s responsibility for the invasion.
Three killed in Russian attack on Zaporizhzhia despite truce talks
Russia launched a drone attack on the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, killing three people and wounded 14, Ukrainian officials said yesterday, despite agreeing to a limited ceasefire.
Zaporizhzhia was hit by 12 drones, police said. Regional head Ivan Fedorov said that residential buildings, cars and communal buildings were set on fire in the Friday night attack. Photos showed emergency services scouring the rubble for survivors.
Ukraine and Russia agreed in principle on Wednesday to a limited ceasefire after US president Donald Trump spoke with the countries' leaders, though it remains to be seen what possible targets would be off-limits to attack.
The three sides appeared to hold starkly different views about what the deal covered. While the White House said "energy and infrastructure" would be part of the agreement, the Kremlin declared that the agreement referred more narrowly to "energy infrastructure".
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he would also like railways and ports to be protected.
The dead in Zaporizhzhia were three members of one family. The bodies of the daughter and father were pulled out from under the rubble while doctors unsuccessfully fought for the mother's life for more than 10 hours, Mr Fedorov wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
Trump envoy unable to name occupied Ukrainian territories
Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff, who has been a leading figure in negotiations with Russia, was unable to name the Ukrainian regions currently occupied to varying degrees by Moscow – despite calling them “the largest issue in the conflict”.
Speaking to far-right commentator Tucker Carlson, Witkoff said: “I think the largest issue in that conflict are these so-called four regions, Donbas, Crimea ... and there’s two others”, in an apparent reference to the partly occupied Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, and Crimea, which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.
Echoing Russian propaganda relating to referenda – widely viewed as a sham – held by Vladimir Putin following his full-scale invasion in 2022, Mr Witkoff claimed: “They are Russian-speaking, and there have been referendums where the overwhelming majority of the people have indicated that they want to be under Russian rule.”
Questioning whether Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky could “survive politically if he acknowledges” that the occupied Ukrainian territories are Russian, Mr Witkoff claimed: “This is the central issue in the conflict.”
Russian authorities bring in trains to fight oil depot fire
Authorities in southern Russia's Krasnodar region brought in firefighting trains loaded with water yesterday to help battle a blaze still raging at an oil depot following a Ukrainian drone attack.
Regional officials, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said four trains were drafted into the site at Kavkazskaya, where the fire first broke out last Tuesday.
Firefighters were tackling a fire still burning at one of the tanks at the site covering 1,250 square metres (13,500 square feet) while also trying to cool other equipment at the site.
The statement said 473 firefighters and 189 pieces of equipment were engaged in the operation. On Friday, depressurisation of the burning tank triggered an explosion and the release of burning oil.
Reports on Friday said the fire covered some 10,000 square metres.
Russia's foreign ministry said this week the attack amounted to a violation of a proposed ceasefire on energy sites in the more than three-year-old war, agreed between Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin and US president Donald Trump.
The accord fell short of a wider agreement that the US had sought, and which was accepted by Ukraine, for a blanket 30-day truce.
Putin decree impacting civilians in occupied Ukraine part of ‘Russification policy’, warns Britain
A decree signed by Vladimir Putin this week which orders Ukrainians living in territory illegally occupied by Russia to “settle their legal status” by 10 September represents a new wave of the Kremlin’s “Russification policy”, British officials have warned.
The UK’s Ministry of Defence said: “Putin’s decree is almost certainly intended to force the departure from Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory of Ukrainian nationals who refuse to accept Russian passport and citizenship,.
“Putin and the Russian senior leadership continue to prosecute a Russification policy in illegally occupied Ukrainian territory, as part of longstanding efforts to extirpate Ukrainian culture, identity and statehood.
“Russia erroneously and illegally defines both occupied and unoccupied Ukrainian territory in the Ukrainian oblasts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, as well as Crimea, as being part of the Russian Federation. This is in direct contradiction with Russia’s own stated recognition of Ukraine’s independence and sovereignty following the collapse of the Soviet Union, as well as broader international recognition of Ukraine.”
Zelensky meets military commanders to discuss upcoming talks with US in Saudi Arabia
President Volodymyr Zelensky said yesterday that he had met top military commanders in the country's northeast to discuss the frontline in Ukraine's war with Russia, as well as meetings with US officials set to take place in Saudi Arabia today.
Mr Zelensky was shown on the media platform X with commanders in Ukraine's second largest city, Kharkiv, a frequent target of Russian attacks.
He said he had discussed frontline sectors in eastern Ukraine, as well as in Russia's western Kursk region, where Ukrainian troops remain seven months after a cross-border incursion.
"We also prepared for the meeting between the Ukrainian and American delegations, that will take place tomorrow in Saudi Arabia," the president wrote.
In Washington, a source familiar with the planning of the meetings in Saudi Arabia with Ukrainian and Russian officials said the US delegation would be led by Andrew Peek from the National Security Council and Michael Anton from the State Department.
The group will meet the Ukrainians on Sunday night and the Russians on Monday.
France restores gunpowder production due to Ukraine war
France has restored its gunpowder production, which it scrapped in 2007.
Explosives manufacturer Eurenco is set to produce some 1,200 tonnes of gunpowder pellets a year, rising to 1,800 tonnes, which would feed into about 100,000 artillery shells,
Most of these French-made artillery shells will head to Ukraine.
Backed by the government and with an investment of 100 million euros of which half came from an EU programme to support the bloc's defence industry, the firm put together new infrastructure in less than a year.
France has a tradition of producing gunpowder dating back to the 14th Century, and a long history of pride in being self sufficient in arms production.
Eurenco produced gunpowder as far back as the First World War. But after the end of the Cold War, weapons production and supply chains were no longer a priority and governments scaled back.
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