Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky has insisted that “all nuclear power plants belong to the people of Ukraine” after reports that his US counterpart Donald Trump said an American takeover of Ukraine’s nuclear power would offer the “best protection” for the country’s infrastructure.
In their first conversation since Mr Trump verbally attacked Mr Zelensky in the White House and had him thrown out, the US president reportedly suggested Washington take ownership of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
But Kyiv says the discussions referred only to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is under Russian occupation.
All nuclear power plants in Ukraine are state-owned and belong to Kyiv, he insisted.
“The temporarily occupied Zaporizhzhia [nuclear power plant] belongs to Ukraine, everybody acknowledges it and recognises it,” he said.
Mr Zelensky denied discussing with Mr Trump the possibility of US ownership of the Zaporizhzhia plant, but said they did discuss “how to find the solution from the situation and… take the station from the Russians”.
They also talked about potential US investment in the plant, the Ukrainian leader said.
But he added: “The issue with property we definitely did not discuss with Mr Trump.”
Addressing EU leaders virtually from Norway, the Ukrainian leader said Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, should stop “unnecessary demands” while warning that nothing had changed after Russia attacked his country’s energy infrastructure on Wednesday despite Mr Putin’s pledging to halt such strikes.
Top military officers from countries across Europe and beyond met on Thursday to flesh out plans for an international peacekeeping force for Ukraine as details of a partial ceasefire are worked out.
British prime minister Sir Keir Starmer said steps were being made in the right direction towards a ceasefire as a “coalition of the willing” led by Britain and France moved into an operational phase.
“We’re further forward this week than we were last week, and we are further forward last week than we were the week before,” he said. “I hope, I want, those talks to succeed. What I do know is if they do succeed, then we need to be able to defend the deal.”
The timetable for the peacekeeping force was now coming into focus following talks between the US and Russia, Sir Keir said.
But he warned that Mr Putin would breach “any peace deal without anything behind it”.
The prime minister said: “Last weekend and two weekends before that, we had groupings of international political leaders coming together to provide the political alignment and the collective agreement that we need to work together to ensure that any deal that is put in place is defended.
“What’s happening here is turning that political intention into reality, the concept into plans.”
Sir Keir added: “It is vitally important we do that work because we know one thing for certain which is a deal without anything behind it is something that Putin will breach.
“We know that because it happened before. I’m absolutely clear in my mind it will happen again.”
Ukraine and Russia have agreed in principle to a limited ceasefire, although Mr Putin rebuffed Mr Trump’s push for a full 30-day ceasefire.
President Zelensky said he was committed to working with the US to stop arms being directed at Russian power production and civilian facilities.
“I raised this issue with President Trump and said that our side would identify what we consider to be civilian infrastructure,” Mr Zelensky said. “I don’t want there to be any misunderstanding about what the sides are agreeing on.”
Negotiators from Moscow and the US will meet on Monday in Saudi Arabia, Mr Putin’s foreign affairs adviser Sergei Ushakov told Russian news agencies.
Sir Keir said Mr Putin was afraid of Britain’s nuclear weapons, and that Trident was a crucial deterrent.
Before visiting Barrow on Thursday, where he laid the keel for the next generation of Britain’s nuclear deterrent submarines, the prime minister said Trident had proven “incredibly effective” since its introduction in the 1990s.
Of Russia, the prime minister said: “I think they appreciate our capability. What is obviously important is that they appreciate that it is what it is, which is a credible capability”.
Ukraine launched a major drone assault on Thursday on a Russian airbase that is key to the relentless missile attacks against Ukrainian cities.
The strike on the Soviet-era Engels airfield, which houses a number of Russia’s nuclear-capable heavy bombers and stores of cruise missiles, sparked a huge explosion and numerous fires.
A state of emergency was declared in the area, about 450 miles from Moscow. Ukraine has repeatedly sought to hit the Engels base, across the three years of Russia’s invasion.
Mr Zelensky said Mr Trump had not raised the issue of Russia-occupied Crimea, after reports that the US president was willing to formally recognise Ukraine’s Crimea as Russian territory.
