Ukraine war briefing: Nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine, say European ministers

Nothing about ending Russia’s war against Ukraine should be decided without the Ukrainians, European ministers said on Wednesday. “Ukraine and Europe must be part of any negotiations,” a joint statement of seven countries and the European Commission said. John Healey, the British defence secretary, told Sky News: “It’s the Ukrainians that are doing the fighting. It’s for them to decide when to start talking and on what terms.”

As ministers from France, Britain, Germany, Poland, Italy, Spain and the European Commission met with Ukraine’s foreign minister in Paris on Wednesday, the US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, said a return to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders was unrealistic and the US did not see Nato membership for Kyiv as part of a solution to the war.

Hegseth’s comments were followed by a call between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, after which Trump said their teams had agreed to start negotiations immediately and he would meet the Russian president in Saudi Arabia. The US president underlined he was “OK” with Ukraine being barred from Nato and cared little if Russia kept the land it had invaded. When asked if any European countries would be involved in peace talks, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said: “I don’t have any European nations who are involved currently to read out for you.”

Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine would need the US to help it build up an army as big as that of Russia as a “Plan B” if it could not join Nato. “If Ukraine is not in Nato, it means that Ukraine will build Nato on its territory,” Zelenskyy said in an interview with the Economist published on Wednesday.

Ukraine said it had detained a high-ranking official within its own security services who was allegedly working for Russia. The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said that its head, Vasyl Maliuk, personally carried out the arrest and that Zelenskyy was informed of the operation, codenamed “rat”.

Eight men went on trial in Russia on Wednesday charged with a “terrorist act” over the deadly explosion that tore through the illegal Kerch Bridge built by Russia from its territory to occupied Crimea in Ukraine. The truck bomb collapsed two highway sections of the bridge, fully and then partly closing it for months, and killed four people. The accused are being tried in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don at a military court with hearings held behind closed doors.

Ukraine will need help from partners to import additional gas amid constant Russian missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian gas facilities, deputy energy minister Roman Andarak said on Wednesday.

The US treasury secretary Scott Bessent said on Wednesday that a critical minerals deal between Kyiv and Washington could leave Ukraine with “a security shield” once the war with Russia is over. After meeting Bessent in Kyiv, Zelenskyy said Ukraine and the US were drawing up a “new document on security, economic cooperation, and resource partnership” and he hoped to sign an agreement at the Munich security conference beginning on Friday.

Britain said on Wednesday it would give Ukraine military aid worth £150m including drones, tanks and air defence systems.

China is helping Russia’s military drone production by becoming a hub for the smuggling of critical western components for Moscow’s armed forces, Estonia’s foreign intelligence said in its annual national security report published on Wednesday. About 80% of such components reaching Russia now come from China, it said. Previous Ukrainian reports have suggested 60%. A spokesperson for China’s embassy in Tallinn told Reuters the “accusations” were “without any substantial evidence by an unreliable institution … China never provides weapons to the parties to the crisis and strictly controls the export of dual-use articles.”

The previous Ukrainian president, Petro Poroshenko, has accused Zelenskyy of having Ukraine’s national security and defence council adopt “unconstitutional, politically motivated” sanctions against him. Poroshenko, who heads the largest opposition bloc in Ukraine’s parliament, did not disclose terms of the sanctions. Zelenskyy, who won the 2019 poll by a landslide against Poroshenko, said in his nightly video address that the council had approved decisions that would be made public on Thursday. He made no reference to Poroshenko.