Ukraine war: Trump and Zelensky’s phone call expected soon

The Ukrainian leader made his call as he spoke in the former prime minister’s birthplace, Blenheim Palace, during only his third visit to the UK since Russia’s full-scale invasion. It is his first trip to the UK since Sir Keir Starmer entered Downing Street. Mr Zelensky also met with King Charles during the visit.

The Ukrainian leader told a summit of European leaders: “Bravery made Churchill Churchill. Bravery won the greatest battle of his life. It was the battle for Britain.

“Now our bravery and cooperation must achieve no less so that the children of our nations can someday look back at us, at what we have done, at what we have chosen, what we have promised, and see the pillars of their peace, their security and their prosperity just as we see it when we look back at the most famous person from Blenheim.”

Associates of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky have discussed arranging a phone call between the two leaders, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

One source said the call could occur as early as today, but it was not immediately clear if the conversation, which would be their first since the former US president left the White House in 2021, had been confirmed.

CNN reported yesterday that the two leaders had a phone call scheduled for today. The report noted that the schedule of the former president, who is in Milwaukee to accept the Republican Party presidential nomination, is subject to frequent changes.

Mr Trump has said he would end the war in Ukraine before he even takes office in January should he win the November election, though he has not provided details of how he would do so.

Debris of a downed Ukrainian drone wounded two people in the Russian city of Kursk on Friday morning, acting regional governor Alexei Smirnov said.

Separately, the Interfax news agency cited Russia’s defence ministry as saying that a total of 19 drones have been destroyed overnight, including 11 over the Kursk region.

Senior executives from British defence firms including BAE and Babcock met Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky yesterday to discuss the need to boost military support for the country in its conflict with Russia.

The Ukrainian president is in Britain for a summit of the European Political Community (EPC) and the meeting in London also included representatives from Thales, MBDA and KBR as well as British defence minister John Healey and business minister Jonathan Reynolds.

“Meeting with industry leaders today, I emphasised the government will continue to work in partnership with industry and the need to boost industrial production of vital military kit for both Ukraine and our own Armed Forces,” Healey said in a statement.

Babcock will extend its contract with the British defence ministry by six months to provide maintenance and repair of military vehicles, Britain’s defence ministry said.

He is expected to brief ministers about the situation in Ukraine and the need to expand Europe’s industrial defence base, as well as agreeing a £3.5bn defence export finance deal with Sir Keir.

The Labour leader made his first visit to Ukraine in February last year and has been keen to underline Britain’s ongoing support for the embattled country, despite a change of government in the UK.

A victory for Donald Trump in the US election in November would be difficult for Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky has said, acknowledging that Ukrainians were prepared.

Mr Trump’s election would be “hard work, but we are hard workers”, he was quoted as saying by the BBC.

Mr Zelensky said “Maybe he really doesn’t care, but we have to work with the United States,” he said while attending the European Political Community meeting in London.

The Republican leader’s choice of Senator JD Vance as his running mate has underscored how Washington’s stand on Ukraine, locked in a 28-month-old war with Russia, could change if he won the election. Vance is on record in an interview as saying “I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or the other.”

The administration of Joe Biden has provided weapons and supplies throughout the conflict, though the flow of assistance was halted for months by disputes within the US Congress.

Mr Trump has said during the campaign that, once elected, he would bring the conflict to an end even before taking office by securing a deal at the negotiating table. He said there would have been no conflict at all had he been in office when Moscow sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022.

President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday discussed security and bilateral relations with his Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vucic on the sidelines of the European Political Community meeting in Britain.

“We appreciate the financial and humanitarian assistance provided to our country,” Zelensky said on X.

Prime minister Keir Starmer will host Volodymyr Zelensky at a meeting of his top ministers today, in a show of support for the Ukrainian leader who will welcome a new plan to try to disrupt Russia’s attempts to evade shipping sanctions.

A day after hosting a forum of European leaders at Blenheim Palace, the PM pressed on with his bid to raise Britain’s role in international affairs by inviting Mr Zelensky to address his cabinet. The last foreign leader to do so was US President Bill Clinton in 1997, Starmer’s office said.

Mr Zelensky will also welcome the launch of a “call to action” against Russia’s 600-strong ‘shadow fleet’ of oil tankers used to break sanctions, officials said.

Sir Keir is expected to tell the Ukrainian leader that Britain will do more in the coming months to dent Russia’s “war machine”, including agreeing a new defence export support treaty to help Kyiv draw on export finance.

“Ukraine is, and always will be, at the heart of this government’s agenda and so it is only fitting that President Zelenskiy will make a historic address to my cabinet,” he said in a statement.

“And alongside our European partners, we have sent a clear message to those enabling (Russian president Vladimir) Putin’s attempts to evade sanctions: we will not allow Russia’s shadow fleet, and the dirty money it generates, to flow freely through European waters and put our security at risk.”

Ukraine’s army has pulled out from the village of Urozhaine in the eastern Donetsk region, an official said yesterday, surrendering another front-line position as Russian forces blast Ukrainian defences in a relentless onslaught. The village was reduced to rubble which “made it impossible to hold the positions there,” said Nazar Voloshyn, a spokesperson for local ground forces. He did not say when the pullout occurred.

Russia prematurely claimed earlier this week that it had seized Urozhaine in the early days of the war that began after Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor in February 2022. Ukrainian troops recaptured it almost a year ago.

Russia has deployed devastating firepower as it pursues a summer offensive that has reduced towns and villages to ruins, denying Ukrainians defensive cover. Despite valiant defending, analysts say, Ukrainian forces are being pushed back in some places along the front line by the bigger and better equipped Kremlin army.