Ukraine-Russia war latest: UK ‘intimately involved’ in brokering Trump-Kyiv ceasefire deal

Supplies of arms from the US to Ukraine have resumed and Starlink satellite internet services are working, Polish foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski said on Wednesday.

Speaking to reporters alongside Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha in Warsaw, he said he Poland was satisfied with new proposals on Ukraine.

The UK was “intimately involved” in pushing through the ceasefire agreement between Kyiv and Washington, government sources have said.

Jonathan Powell, the prime minister’s National Security Advisor, worked with US counterpart Mike Waltz and German and French officials to develop a plan for a ceasefire and the following steps, the sources told the BBC.

Mr Powell met Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv to help draft a written proposal to bring to talks between Ukrainian and US officials in Saudi Arabia this week.

The measures included a temporary pause in fighting, prisoner-of-war exchanges and the return of Ukrainian children taken by Russia. It was agreed by Ukrainians and Americans and led to positive talks between the countries yesterday.

Washington’s proposal for a 30-day ceasefire in Ukriane is an “important and correct step”, Germany’s outgoing chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Wednesday.

“The idea of a 30-day ceasefire is an important and correct step towards a just peace for Ukraine. We stand with Ukraine and the United States and welcome the proposals from Jeddah. Now it is up to Putin,” Mr Scholz wrote on X.

The drones used are made in Ukraine, employ the latest technology, and were sent in such numbers that Russian air defences were unable to cope.

A Russian missile attack on Kryvyi Rih killed a 47-year-old woman and caused a fire at an infrastructure facility, Dnirpopetrovsk’s regional governor Serhiy Lysak said this morning.

The attack also injured at least two other people, local official Oleksandr Vilkul said in a statement.

Kryvyi Rih, located about 70km (43 miles) northwest of the frontline, is the home town of Volodymyr Zelensky and had a pre-war population of more than 600,000.

Donald Trump has said he hoped for a swift ceasefire and thought he would talk to the Russian president Vladimir Putin this week.

“I hope it’ll be over the next few days,” he told reporters at a White House event to promote his close adviser Elon Musk’s Tesla car company.

Mr Trump also said he would invite Volodymyr Zelensky to return to the White House now that progress has been made in the Saudi Arabia talks.

On being asked whether Mr Zelensky would be invited back to the White House, the US president said: “Sure, absolutely.”

Russia’s foreign intelligence chief Sergei Naryshkin held a phone call with CIA director John Ratcliffe yesterday, the Interfax news agency reported this morning.

They discussed issues of cooperation between their respective intelligence agencies and crisis management, according to Russian media reports.

The US has agreed to resume military aid and intelligence sharing with Ukraine after talks where Kyiv said it would accept a US proposal for a 30-day ceasefire in its conflict with Russia, the countries said in a joint statement.

US secretary of state Marco Rubio said the US would now take the offer to Russia, and the ball is in Moscow’s court.

“Our hope is that the Russians will answer ‘yes’ as quickly as possible, so we can get to the second phase of this, which is real negotiations,” Mr Rubio told reporters after more than eight hours of talks in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Mr Rubio said Washington wanted a full agreement with both Russia and Ukraine “as soon as possible.”

“Every day that goes by, this war continues, people die, people are bombed, people are hurt on both sides of this conflict,” he said.