President insists summit with Putin is best way to achieve settlement as JD Vance claims Moscow has made new concessions. What we know on day 1,279
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Volodymyr Zelenskyy insisted that a meeting with Vladimir Putin remained “the most effective way forward” as the two sides exchanged prisoners and Ukraine marked 34 years since the country gained independence from the Soviet Union. Peace hopes dimmed on Friday when Russia ruled out any immediate meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian presidents but Zelenskyy said on Sunday that the “format of talks between leaders is the most effective way forward”, renewing calls for a bilateral summit, as sought by US president Donald Trump. Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov earlier criticised Zelenskyy for “demanding an immediate meeting at all costs” but the Ukrainian president, speaking at a ceremony attended by western officials including US envoy Keith Kellogg, vowed “to push Russia to peace”.
US vice-president JD Vance claimed Putin had made “significant concessions” towards a negotiated settlement, expressing confidence that progress was being made despite the lack of clear signs. Vance told NBC the Russian concessions included that Ukraine would receive security guarantees protecting against future Russian aggression. “They’ve recognised that they’re not going to be able to install a puppet regime in Kyiv,” he said. “That was, of course, a major demand at the beginning. And importantly, they’ve acknowledged that there is going to be some security guarantee to the territorial integrity of Ukraine.”
