UK, France and Germany back Zelenskyy's call for meeting with Putin

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has received the backing of the leaders of the UK, France and Germany in calling for direct ceasefire talks between Russia and Ukraine, according to a joint statement issued following defence talks in London.

Mr Zelenskyy met with UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz at 10 Downing Street for talks as Russia's war stretched into its fifth year.

The leaders "supported the proposal for a direct dialogue between Ukraine and Russia — with active US and European participation — to bring about a ceasefire and support further negotiations", said in a joint statement with Mr Zelenskyy.

"The current line of contact should be the starting point for negotiations," it said.

"International borders must not be changed by force."

Mr Zelenskyy used an open letter late last week to propose a face-to-face meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Mr Putin ruled out the move, saying he saw "no point" in meeting Mr Zelenskyy until a possible peace deal was agreed.

The Ukrainian president told Sky News on Sunday evening he had also met with Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich in Kyiv to pass on a message to Mr Putin.

"You are fighting against us on our territory," Mr Zelenskyy said of his message to Mr Abramovich, who has faced British and European Union sanctions over his ties to the Kremlin following Russia's invasion.

"We will not leave and we will not go out from our territory. No, we will not give you victory," he said.

Kyiv has been asking its Western allies for more ammunition for its air defences as it endures daily Russian strikes.

Mr Zelenskyy is seeking ways for Ukrainian allies to further pressure Russia to end the fighting.

The Ukrainian president wrote on X he would be meeting with Britain's King Charles III.

Nuclear site targeted

Over the weekend Russia fired waves of drones and other munitions at Ukraine, with one of the attacks damaging a nuclear storage facility near the Chernobyl disaster site, Ukrainian officials said.

Radiation levels at the facility remained within normal limits following the attack, although its fuel reception building was "partially destroyed", according to Ukraine's nuclear energy operator, Energoatom.

Moscow and Kyiv have intensified drone strikes on each other in recent months, as US-led diplomatic efforts to end the war have remained stalled and sidetracked by the conflict in the Middle East.

Mr Zelenskyy, in an earlier online post, said Russia had used an Iranian-designed Shahed drone to "hit one of the buildings of the Centralized Spent Fuel Storage Facility" in the Chernobyl exclusion zone.

"As of now, there are no readings exceeding normal background radiation levels. But there is certainly an increase in Russia's brazenness, which long ago went off the charts," he said.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said it was dispatching a team to inspect the damage, calling the incident "deeply concerning".

The facility is located in a remote area of forest around 12 kilometres from the site of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster and is designed to house spent fuel from Ukraine's three active nuclear plants.

Deadly strikes

Both sides accused each other of renewed attacks on civilians.

A Russian bombardment of a public transport stop in Ukraine's southern Zaporizhzhia region left at least two people dead, while a nearby drone strike killed a 56-year-old minibus driver, authorities said.

Separate Russian attacks on the central Dnipropetrovsk region killed two men, Governor Oleksandr Ganzha posted on Telegram.

In Russia, a Ukrainian drone strike on a car in the Belgorod border region killed a woman and injured her husband, local authorities said.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and millions forced to flee their homes since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Russia now occupies about a fifth of its neighbour: the Crimean Peninsula, which it annexed in 2014, most of the eastern regions of Donetsk and Lugansk, collectively referred to as the Donbas, and large parts of the southern Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions.

AFP