The day so far
Vladimir Putin accused European powers of preventing peace in Ukraine and threatened that Russia was ready for war as Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, arrived for talks at the Kremlin on Tuesday evening. It’s been over three hours and those talks appear to have not yet concluded.
Moments before the closed-door meeting with Witkoff and Kushner, Putin made a series of hawkish remarks to reporters in which he accused European governments of sabotaging the peace process and said that “European demands” on ending the war in Ukraine were “not acceptable to Russia”. “Europe is preventing the US administration from achieving peace on Ukraine,” Putin said, adding: “Russia does not intend to fight Europe, but if Europe starts, we are ready right now.” Putin did not clarify which European demands he found unacceptable. “They are on the side of war,” Putin said of European powers.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said he was “awaiting signals” from the US delegation after its meeting with Putin.
During a trip to Dublin, Zelenskyy said the speed of the peace talks and the United States’ interest in finding a solution was cause for optimism, but he feared the US could lose interest in the peace efforts. If somebody from our allies is tired, I’m afraid,” he said. “It’s the goal of Russia to withdraw the interest of America from this situation.”
On Putin’s comments (see above), Zelenskyy said it’s difficult to comment on his words, but noted that Putin probably doesn’t want to end the war as he has failed to meet his goals in Ukraine. “Now he is thinking how to find new reasons not to [end] this war,” he said. Zelenskyy also said he counts on “pressure from the US” and others to advance the peace talks further.
Ukrainian authorities have arrested a British military instructor accused of spying for Russia and plotting assassinations.
Ross David Cutmore, 40, from Dunfermline, was allegedly recruited by Russia’s intelligence service, the FSB, to “carry out targeted killings on the territory of Ukraine” between 2024 and 2025.
The Kyiv prosecutor’s office said: “In May 2025, he passed on the coordinates of the locations of Ukrainian units, photographs of the training facility and information about military personnel that could be used to identify them.
“In addition, analysis of his correspondence confirmed that he had carried out other tasks for the benefit of the Russian special services.”
