Closing summary
The unilateral US plan to end the war in Ukraine “is a basis which will require additional work”, western leaders gathered in South Africa for a G20 summit said on Saturday. The leaders of key European countries as well as Canada and Japan said in a joint statement: “We are clear on the principle that borders must not be changed by force. We are also concerned by the proposed limitations on Ukraine’s armed forces, which would leave Ukraine vulnerable to future attack.”
Ukraine and the US are launching talks in Switzerland on ways to end the war, a Ukrainian negotiator said on Saturday, after Washington sent Kyiv a plan which accepts some of Moscow’s demands. “In the coming days in Switzerland we are launching consultations between senior officials of Ukraine and the United States on the possible parameters of a future peace agreement,” the secretary of Ukraine’s Security Council, Rustem Umerov, who is on Ukraine’s negotiating team, wrote on social media.
US officials have told Nato allies they expect to push president Volodymyr Zelenskyy into agreeing to a peace deal in the coming days, under the threat that if Kyiv does not sign, it will face a much worse deal in future. The US army secretary Dan Driscoll briefed ambassadors from Nato nations at a meeting in Kyiv late on Friday, after talks with Zelenskyy and taking a phone call from the White House. “No deal is perfect, but it must be done sooner rather than later,” he told them, according to one person who was present.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Saturday that real peace is always based on guaranteed security and justice. “Our representatives know how to protect Ukraine’s national interests and what exactly is needed to prevent Russia from carrying out a third invasion, another blow to Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said in an evening address where he announced talks with Ukraine’s partners on steps to end the war, reports Reuters.
Zelenskyy has said it is “important” that “all partners … are fully informed about the situation” following a phone call with Poland’s Donald Tusk. The call took place earlier today and the pair discussed the US-Russia ‘peace deal’.
German chancellor Friedrich Merz said he had made clear to US president Donald Trump that Europe needs to be a part of any process to end the war in Ukraine in a long phone call on Friday evening. “If Ukraine loses this war and possibly collapses, it will have an impact on European politics as a whole, on the entire European continent. And that is why we are so committed to this issue,” Merz said after the G20 summit in Johannesburg.
Italy will send an official to join Ukraine talks in Geneva on Sunday with national security advisors from the E3 countries and the European Union, as well as US and Ukrainian officials, diplomatic sources said. The sources said Fabrizio Saggio would represent Italy.
Ukraine said it had received 31 civilians on Saturday who had been freed from jail in Belarus. “Women and men detained in Belarus and sentenced to various terms of imprisonment ranging from two to 11 years are returning to Ukraine,” Kyiv’s prisoner exchange coordination committee said on the Telegram messaging app.
The G20 group of major world economies is “at risk” as it struggles to tackle international crises, French president Emmanuel Macron told a summit boycotted by the United States on Saturday. Macron was among two dozen world leaders at South Africa’s G20 summit marked by the absence of President Donald Trump, who is at loggerheads with South Africa on a range of issues.
EU leaders will meet on Monday during an EU-Africa summit in Luanda to discuss a US-drafted peace proposal for Ukraine, European Council president Antonio Costa said on Saturday. “The US draft of the 28-point plan includes important elements that will be essential for a just and lasting peace,” Costa said in a post on X.
Any peace plan for Ukraine must be accepted in Kyiv, Polish president Karol Nawrocki said, after the US signalled to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that Ukraine must accept a US-drafted framework to end its conflict with Russia. Washington’s 28-point plan calls on Ukraine to cede territory, accept limits on its military and renounce ambitions to join Nato. It also contains some proposals Moscow may object to and requires its forces to pull back from some areas they have captured, according to a draft seen by Reuters.
UK prime minister Keir Starmer will not visit Washington next week, it is understood, amid reports that European leaders are considering visiting Donald Trump to discuss his Ukraine peace plan, reports the PA news agency. France’s Emmanuel Macron, Germany’s Friedrich Merz and Italy’s Giorgia Meloni are among the leaders who are considering a trip, Sky News reported citing European diplomatic sources. But it is understood the UK was not involved in such discussions.
The Russian defence ministry said on Saturday that its forces had captured two villages in eastern Ukraine. It said Russian forces had taken control of the village of Zvanivka in Ukraine’s Donetsk region as well as the settlement of Nove Zaporizhzhia in the Zaporizhizhia region.
A Ukrainian drone attack targeted energy facilities in Russia’s Samara region, killing two people in the southern city of Syzran, the region’s governor said on Saturday. The attack was repelled by air defence forces, Vyacheslav Fedorishchev wrote on Russia’s state-backed Max messenger app, reports Reuters.
Italy will send an official to join Ukraine talks in Geneva on Sunday with national security advisors from the E3 countries and the European Union, as well as US and Ukrainian officials, diplomatic sources said.
The sources said Fabrizio Saggio would represent Italy.
The E3 is an informal security alliance between France, Britain and Germany.
