Ukraine-Russia war latest: Trump claims it is Zelensky, not Putin, holding up peace deal – UK Times

Russia will not agree to a ceasefire before a peace deal, the country’s veteran foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has said.

Mr Lavrov added that it would be helpful if the US updated Moscow on the latest developments in peace proposals for Ukraine.

US envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner are seeking to travel to Moscow to meet Russian president Vladimir Putin.

In his remarks in July last year, Donald Trump warned that Vladimir Putin is “not looking to stop” the war with Ukraine following a “disappointing” phone call between the Russian and American leaders.

The US president revealed that a conversation with Putin earlier in the day resulted in no progress to end the fighting.

“I’m disappointed with the conversation I had today with president Putin, I don’t think he’s there. I don’t think he’s looking to stop,” he said.

Donald Trump has hinted at a likely meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland next week.

“I would – if he’s there,” Trump said. “I’m going to be there.”

Asked why he believed Zelensky was holding back on negotiations, Trump did not elaborate, saying only: “I just think he’s, you know, having a hard time getting there.”

Zelensky has publicly ruled out any territorial concessions to Moscow, saying Kyiv has no right under the country’s constitution to give up any land.

Donald Trump has claimed Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky is holding up a potential peace deal, not Russian leader Vladimir Putin, in a fresh U-turn.

Speaking to Reuters in the Oval Office yesterday, Trump said Putin is ready to wrap up his nearly four-year-old invasion of Ukraine. Zelensky, he said, was more reticent.

His claim is in sharp contrast with European allies who have proven Putin as the key figure ramping up military aggression and rejecting peace proposals from Trump’s envoys.

“I think he’s ready to make a deal,” Trump said of the Russian president. “I think Ukraine is less ready to make a deal.”

Asked why US-led negotiations had not yet resolved Europe’s largest land conflict since the Second World War, Trump responded: “Zelensky”.

Ukraine received 23 medium- and long-range air-defence systems in 2025 as well as 11,000 missiles for them, outgoing Ukrainian defence minister Denys Shmyhal has said.

He made the remark in an address to Ukraine’s parliament shortly before his expected appointment as energy minister.

Emergency repair crews are working to restore power in the Kyiv region after relentless Russian barrages on energy infrastructure left Ukrainians at the mercy of the coldest winter in years.

At Boryspil, a town with a population of around 60,000, workers dismantled and rebuilt burnt-out electrical systems as they rushed to fix the damage.

They worked in the snow amid temperatures of -15C from early morning until midnight, said Yurii Bryzh, who leads the regional department of private electricity provider DTEK.

They have managed to restore the supply for four hours a day. But Bryzh told the Associated Press the problem was “when the power comes back on, people turn on all the electrical equipment that is available in the house” as they dash to wash, cook or recharge their phones. That collapses the system again, he said.

The hardship of civilians is acute amid what Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko described as the longest and broadest outages since Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbour almost four years ago. Some homes have been without electricity for days.

Apartments in the capital are freezing, and when venturing outside people wear heavy layers of clothes against the bitter cold that chills to the bone.

Across Kyiv, snow covers the ground and roofs and is piled up next to pavements. At night, the streets are dark and towering apartment blocks show no light in the windows.

Russia has summoned Poland’s ambassador to formally protest the detention of a Russian archaeologist, demanding his immediate release rather than extradition to Ukraine.

Alexander Butyagin was arrested by Polish authorities last month following a request from Ukraine. Kyiv accuses the archaeologist of conducting unauthorised excavations and plundering historical artefacts in Crimea.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it had called in Polish ambassador Krzysztof Krajewski on Monday and told him that the Ukrainian charges were “absurd”.