Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said his country will hold talks with the US next week about ending the war against Russia.
In his nightly address, Mr Zelensky said he would travel to Saudi Arabia on Monday and his team would stay there to hold talks with US officials.
“I am scheduled to visit Saudi Arabia to meet with the crown prince,” said Mr Zelensky, referring to Mohammed bin Salman, the heir to the throne of the oil-rich kingdom. “After that, my team will stay in Saudi Arabia to work with American partners. Ukraine is most interested in peace.”
He added: “As we told President Trump, Ukraine is working and will work exclusively constructively for a quick and reliable peace.”
US President Donald Trump said he believed his administration had made ‘a lot of progress’ in recent days with both Ukraine and Russia (Win McNamee/Pool Photo via AP)
In an exchange with reporters on Thursday, US President Donald Trump said he believed his administration had made “a lot of progress” in recent days with both Ukraine and Russia, but did not specify how.
“I think what’s going to happen is Ukraine wants to make a deal, because I don’t think they have a choice,” Mr Trump said.
“I also think that Russia wants to make a deal because in a certain different way — a different way that only I know, only I know — they have no choice either.”
Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff confirmed that senior administration officials are arranging to hold talks with top Ukrainian officials in Saudi Arabia.
Mr Witkoff noted that Mr Zelensky has been apologetic in recent days about the White House blow-up and expressed gratitude.
He was circumspect about whether a minerals deal would be signed during the meeting in Saudi Arabia.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen,speaks to Volodymyr Zelensky (Omar Havana/AP)
“We’ll see if he follows through,” Mr Witkoff said.
The announcement came as European Union leaders held emergency talks about ways to quickly increase their military budgets after the Trump administration signalled that Europe must take care of its own security and also suspended assistance to Ukraine.
In just over a month, Mr Trump has overturned old certainties about US reliability as a security partner, as he embraces Russia and withdraws American support for Ukraine.
On Monday, Mr Trump ordered a pause to US military supplies to Ukraine as he sought to press Mr Zelensky to engage in negotiations to end the war with Russia. The US has also paused intelligence sharing with Kyiv.
Earlier French defence minister Sebastien Lecornu said France is providing military intelligence to Ukraine.
American intelligence is vital for Ukraine to track Russian troop movements and select targets.
Speaking to France Inter radio on Thursday, Mr Lecornu said France is continuing its intelligence sharing.
“Our intelligence is sovereign,” Mr Lecornu said. “We have intelligence that we allow Ukraine to benefit from.”
Mr Lecornu added that following the US decision to suspend all military aid to Ukraine, French President Emmanuel Macron asked him to “accelerate the various French aid packages” to make up for the lack of American assistance.
Mr Lecornu said that in the wake of the US decision, shipments of Ukraine-bound aid departing from Poland had been suspended, adding, however, that “Ukrainians, unfortunately, have learned to fight this war for three years now and know how to stockpile”.
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In Ukraine, a Russian ballistic missile killed four people staying at a hotel in President Zelensky’s home town during the night.
Mr Zelensky, who was attending the EU summit on defence in Brussels, said a humanitarian organisation’s volunteers had moved into the hotel in Kryvyi Rih, in central Ukraine, just before the strike, including Ukrainian, American and British nationals. He did not say whether those people were among the 31 injured.
Russia fired 112 Shahed and decoy drones, as well as two ballistic Iskander missiles, at Ukraine overnight, the Ukrainian air force said.
Later on Thursday Russia’s Foreign Ministry rejected a peace proposal from France and Britain, describing it as an attempt by Kyiv’s European allies to offer a break to the embattled Ukrainian army.
The ministry’s spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, said the proposed break in air and naval attacks is an attempt to “secure a pause for the agonising Kyiv regime, the Ukrainian armed forces and prevent the front from collapsing”.
She said Ukraine would use any pause in fighting to strengthen its military, which would lead to prolonged conflict.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov speaking during a news conference (Pavel Bednyakov/AP)
And Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov harshly criticised Mr Macron’s claim that Russia threatens Europe.
“This is a threat to Russia,” Mr Lavrov said at a briefing in Moscow, noting Mr Macron’s plan to convene a meeting of top European military officers to discuss purported aggressive plans by Moscow.
Mr Lavrov dismissed the allegations that Russia was hatching plans to attack European nations as “stupid” and “delirious nonsense”.
“For any more or less sane person it is completely clear that Russia does not need this,” he said.