Ukraine war live: Trump warns Zelensky ‘won’t be around very long’

Speaking more cautiously, Britain said there were several possible proposals on the table for a possible Ukraine ceasefire. European countries, led by Britain and France, are looking at options for a peace proposal including Ukraine after last week’s Oval Office rupture between US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

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Russia is categorically against the idea of potential deployment of European troops to Ukraine, Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s envoy in Vienna to international organisations said on Tuesday.

“Firstly, the European Union is not impartial, and peacekeepers must be impartial,” Ulyanov said on the Telegram messaging app.

“Secondly, Russia is categorically against it.”

Sir Keir Starmer has hailed the defence sector as offering “the next generation of good, secure, well-paid jobs”, after it was announced that defence ministers will set a target for spending money with small businesses.

Officials are looking to boost the access of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to Armed Forces supply chains, following the Prime Minister’s announcement that defence spending would be increased to 2.5 per cent of GDP by 2027.

Sir Keir and Defence Secretary John Healey met SMEs in the defence sector, apprentices and students at a careers fair hosted in Downing Street on Monday.

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The acting governor of Russia’s southern Rostov region reported a series of Ukrainian drone attacks on different industrial sites, including one area near the border where an oil pipeline was on fire.

Rostov Acting Governor Yuri Slyusar also reported falling debris from a downed drone had hit an industrial site near the border.

Slyusar reported a third attack had been repelled near Novoshakhtinsk, where previous drone attacks had put an oil refinery out of action. Ukraine’s military said the refinery was again ablaze.

“As a result of a mass drone attack in Chertovsky district, a fire has broken out on an oil pipeline,” Slyusar wrote on Telegram.

He said workers had been evacuated from the area, just over the border from Ukraine, and no casualties had occurred. Emergency crews had been dispatched to the scene.

Trump’s national security adviser said Zelenskyy’s posture during Friday’s Oval Office talks “put up in the air” whether he’s someone the U.S. administration will be able to deal with going forward.

“Is he ready, personally, politically, to move his country towards an end to the fighting?” Mike Waltz said on Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom” earlier Monday.

“And can he and will he make the compromises necessary?” Waltz added another layer of doubt about U.S. support as other high-profile Trump allies have suggested that the relationship between Trump and Zelenskyy is becoming untenable.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said Sunday that Zelenskyy “needs to come to his senses and come back to the table in gratitude or someone else needs to lead the country” for Ukraine to continue pursuing a peace deal negotiated by the United States.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Trump ally who has been a vociferous supporter of Ukraine, said soon after the Oval Office meeting that Zelenskyy “either needs to resign and send somebody over that we can do business with, or he needs to change.”

A Russian drone attack damaged energy infrastructure in Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Odesa on Monday, triggering power cuts in the city and knocking out heating systems, local officials said.

“A strike has damaged energy infrastructure,” regional Governor Oleh Kiper wrote on Telegram. “There are power cuts now in parts of the city.”

Odesa Mayor Hennady Trukhanov said the attack had knocked out three boiler plants, prompting officials to scramble to find alternative power sources to restore heating to city residents.

In a press conference that remained critical of Zelensky, Mr Trump suggested that the Ukrainian president could struggle to lead his country towards a deal, as he continued to insist an agreement with Russia “should not be that hard”.

“The deal could be made very fast. It should not be that hard a deal to make,” Mr Trump said at the White House.

“Now, maybe somebody doesn’t want to make a deal, and if somebody doesn’t want to make a deal, I think that person won’t be around very long.”Trump continued: “That person will not be listened to very long because I believe that Russia wants to make a deal. I believe, certainly, the people of Ukraine want to make a deal.”

There are special moments when the House of Commons truly unites against a common enemy despised on all sides of the chamber. But before we get on to the bit where MPs suddenly all turned on Nigel Farage, we should also record the remarkable and moving show of unity in support of President Zelensky of Ukraine.

If Donald Trump was tuned in to the BBC Parliament channel, which admittedly is unlikely, he would have had no doubt that the man he rudely kicked out of the White House last week is viewed as nothing less than a hero in the mother of parliaments.

Trump, if he kept watching, would have been confused to see old-school Tories queueing up to praise the “pitch-perfect leadership” of the Labour prime minister. He would have been annoyed to discover that not one MP blamed Zelensky for last week’s car crash in the Oval Office.

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Zelensky has rebuffed resignation calls from some U.S. officials, saying only the Ukrainian people can decide who leads them.

Amid the criticism, there are no signs in Ukraine of public discussion about Zelenskyy stepping down.

“If Zelensky had behaved differently or if there had been an interpreter, of course, it would have been a slightly different story,” said Oleksandr Khara, director of the Center for Defence Strategies.

But David Novak, a 23-year-old Ukrainian cook, said what most Ukrainians were thinking. He said he was “shocked” by the Oval Office exchange and said he understood that Zelenskyy “is doing his best, and that he is holding on.”

In Ukraine, the White House blowup sparked yet another surge of unity, as many in the country interpreted the remarks from Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance as a personal affront while Zelenskyy expressed an opinion widely shared among Ukrainians — that Russia cannot be trusted to keep ceasefire promises.