Ukraine-Russia war latest: Starmer warns Putin ‘not to play games’

Giangiacomo Calovini, an MP from the ruling party in Italy, was unable to say whether Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni would take part in Saturday’s call with the “coalition of the willing”.

He said: “I think there’s a discussion about it and I think a few hours ago there’s some contact between your Prime Minister and Giorgia Meloni because they are talking and trying to understand, which is the problem of the meeting of today.”

He added: “Our position now is that if the meeting is only to talk about the troops in Ukraine, it is not important now.

“It doesn’t mean we don’t send our troops (to) Ukraine, but we think it’s too early to talk about this topic.”

Sir Keir Starmer has warned Putin not to “play games” as he accused the Kremlin of having “complete disregard” for 30-day ceasefire proposals put by the US.

Sir Keir warned: “We can’t allow President Putin to play games with President Trump’s deal.

“The Kremlin’s complete disregard for President Trump’s ceasefire proposal only serves to demonstrate that Putin is not serious about peace.”

Sir Keir added: “Putin is trying to delay, saying there must be a painstaking study before a ceasefire can take place, but the world needs to see action, not a study or empty words and pointless conditions.

“My message to the Kremlin could not be clearer: stop the barbaric attacks on Ukraine, once and for all, and agree to a ceasefire now. Until then we will keep working around the clock to deliver peace.”

Italy would want a “clear UN mandate” before committing troops to a peacekeeping mission in Ukraine, a member of Italy’s ruling party has said.

Giangiacomo Calovini, an MP from the ruling Brothers of Italy party and a member of the Italian parliament’s foreign affairs committee, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme his country was not opposed to peacekeeping operations.

He said: “Absolutely we are not against sending Italian troops to help a population, but I think at this moment probably there are no troops that are able to solve the problem in Ukraine.

“We can only send troops if there is a clear UN mandate and for now, this is impossible.”

He added: “I think it is too early and we have to wait for it. After a decision from UN headquarters, there is no problem for Italy, but now it’s really, really too early for us.”

Mikhail Kasyanov, Vladimir Putin’s first prime minister and now an opponent of the Russian president, said Moscow was only interested in a conditional ceasefire.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “He rejected this proposal for an unconditional ceasefire, he wants conditional, he wants a ceasefire on his terms.”

Asked whether Mr Putin would accept peacekeepers, Mr Kasyanov said: “I don’t believe this, but he could accept – if his terms and conditions are accepted, for instance the stop of military supplies (from the West) – he could agree to just Indians and Brazilians and other friendly countries, troops from those countries but not from Nato nations or from Europe at all.”

He added that Western sanctions were having an effect on Russia’s economy, and would get worse by the end of the year, saying: “By the end of the year, he will be a different Putin and would be more willing to negotiate.”

Russia launched 178 drones at Ukraine overnight, Kyiv has said, as hopes for a 30-day ceasefire grow.

Ukrainian air defences said it destroyed 130 out of 178 drones launched by Russia during its latest overnight strike.

It added that another 38 drones had been “locationally lost”, typically a reference to electronic jamming, and that Russian forces had also fired two ballistic missiles.

Putin’s response to the Ukraine ceasefire proposal isn’t an outright ‘no’, it’s a ‘yes but no but’, writes Mary Dejevsky – and for all his prevaricating, it’s clear the Russian president wants an end to the war.

UK prime minister Keir Starmer is set to convene a second meeting of global leaders on Saturday to discuss the war in Ukraine.

The meeting, which Mr Starmer has called the “coalition of the willing”, will be conducted virtually and see around 25 countries, including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Ukraine and officials from NATO and European Union’s executive, participating.

“If Russia finally comes to the table, then we must be ready to monitor a ceasefire to ensure it is a serious, and enduring peace,” Mr Starmer is set to tell leaders, in remarks released by his office ahead of the meeting.

“If they don’t, then we need to strain every sinew to ramp up economic pressure on Russia to secure an end to this war.”

Not long ago, Donald Trump remarked of Volodymyr Zelensky: “The only thing he was good at was playing Biden like a fiddle.” Grossly unfair, plainly – but might the same thing be said of how Vladimir Putin is getting a tune of his own composition out of the Trump ceasefire plan?

On Thursday as a US delegation arrived in Russia for high-level talks aimed at ending Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, among the group was a real estate magnate turned White House foreign policy fixer.

Steve Witkoff, a longtime pal of President Donald Trump, is a key player in the Republican administration’s efforts to end the war in Gaza.

Over 200 people were evacuated from Sudzha in Russia’s Kursk region as Moscow intensified its aerial offensive to reclaim the area from Ukrainian forces, reported Associated Press.

On Friday, Russia announced it had recaptured another settlement in Kursk that was previously under Ukrainian control.

Sudzha, which had a population of around 5,000 before the offensive, was the largest town seized by Ukrainian forces last year during their unexpected cross-border incursion.

Ukraine’s top military commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi, stated on Thursday that Russian aircraft had carried out relentless airstrikes on Kursk, nearly destroying Sudzha. Kyiv reported successfully repelling nearly two dozen Russian assaults in the region.

While Syrskyi did not confirm whether Ukraine still controlled the settlement, he stated that Ukrainian forces were “maneuvering troops to more advantageous positions.”