Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said any deals made between Trump and Putin without Ukraine would be dead on arrival. Meanwhile, analysts say Russia’s demands mean Kyiv giving up its best fortifications and giving the Kremlin better positions to launch another invasion. Follow the latest below.
Saturday 9 August 2025 20:45, UK
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Volodymyr Zelenskyy says the meeting of security advisers in the UK was constructive.
He says that Kyiv’s arguments were heard and dangers were taken into account. 
Officials from Britain, the US, France, Germany, Italy, Finland and Poland took part in the meeting, he said.
“The path to peace for Ukraine should be determined together and only together with Ukraine, this is key principle.”
Foreign Secretary David Lammy has posted images of the security meeting held in Kent today, which concluded a little earlier.
Present were US vice president JD Vance and head of Zelenskyy’s office Andriy Yermak, as well as Ukraine’s secretary of the national security and defence council, Rustem Umerov.
European national security advisors were also at the meeting.
Boris Johnson has weighed in on the talks between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.
The leaders are set to hold a summit without Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Alaska on the future of Ukraine.
Zelenskyy said the war cannot be ended without Ukraine and any decisions made at the summit against Ukraine were dead on arrival.
“This is quite right,” Boris Johnson said, reposting Zelenskyy’s comments on X.
Vladimir Putin wants Kyiv to hand Moscow all the Ukrainian land that Russia occupies – around 20% – and the last quarter of the Donetsk region still controlled by Ukraine, according to reports.
In exchange for a ceasefire, the front line would freeze in Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, of which Russia occupies 74%, and Luhansk, where Russia has taken 99%, officials briefed on the proposal told the Wall Street Journal.
They are terms Volodymyr Zelenskyy has rejected, and will be discussed in a summit between Putin and Donald Trump that European leaders have dismissed as illigitimate.
European officials told vice president JD Vance that decisions on Ukraine cannot be made without Ukraine in the room, during a meeting held in Kent.
The Putin summit showed how vulnerable he was to US pressure after Trump threatened sanctions, a senior aide to a European leader told the WSJ.
But Trump’s deadline for Putin to end the war passed yesterday without any repercussions and it was regrettable Trump has not used his leverage over Russia’s war economy, the official said.
The EU continues to support peace negotiations in which Ukraine is at the table and making independent, sovereign decisions, diplomatic sources have told Sky News ahead of Donald Trump’s meeting with Vladimir Putin.
They added European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was in contact with EU leaders in preparation for the meeting in Kent between British, European, Australian, and US officials. 
Italy will be part of the meeting, Italian government sources have said.
Russian Ambassador to Italy Alexei Paramonov earlier said Italy “had all the credentials” to host the summit between Putin and Trump but it missed the chance “due to the Russophobia of the ruling class, a senseless all-round support for Ukraine, and a total refusal of dialogue”.
Vatican sources also reiterated their availability to host peace talks. 
Vladimir Putin will head into talks with Donald Trump demanding that Ukraine give up the entirety of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, of which Russia occupies 75% and 99% respectively.
This would mean Ukraine abandoning its best defensive fortifications – separating the Ukrainian-held and Russian-occupied parts of Donetsk – in return for nothing, military analysts say.
It would allow Russia to avoid years of bloody struggle to break through this “fortress belt”, advance 51 miles, and line up its troops on the edge of the Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions, according to the Institute for the Study of War.
With much more open terrain, these borders are difficult to defend, enabling the Kremlin to more easily launch another invasion in future.
“Putin’s reported proposal reportedly demands that Ukraine concede this critical defensive position, which Russian forces currently have no means of rapidly enveloping or penetrating, apparently in exchange for nothing,” the ISW said.
The think tank added it would provide “favourable conditions” for Russia to renew fighting and attack Kharkiv, starting with Izyum and leading to Kharkiv city.
“Russian forces will almost certainly violate any future ceasefire or peace agreement and renew military aggression against Ukraine in the future unless a peace agreement includes robust monitoring mechanisms and security guarantees for Ukraine.”
Enormous, urgent investment from Western allies would be required to build up massive defensive fortifications in Donetsk, running through open terrain, to avoid this, said the ISW.
French President Emmanuel Macron says the future of Ukraine cannot be decided without the Ukrainians, ahead of Donald Trump’s summit with Vladimir Putin.
Any deal agreed by the two leaders in Alaska on Friday is expected to involve land concessions, which Volodymyr Zelenskyy has rejected.
Macron and Zelenskyy held a phone call earlier today.
“Ukraine’s future cannot be decided without the Ukrainians, who have been fighting for their freedom and security for over three years now.
“Europeans will also necessarily be part of the solution, as their own security is at stake,” Macron said.
“We remain determined to support Ukraine, working in a spirit of unity and building on the work undertaken within the framework of the Coalition of the Willing.”
As security officials from Europe join counterparts from Ukraine and the US in the UK, many of its leaders have been contacting Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Zelenskyy has now spoken to Spain’s Pedro Sanchez and Finland’s Alexander Stubb after conversations with the leaders of France, Denmark and Estonia earlier (see our 2.34pm post).
Zelenskyy thanked Sanchez and said it was important that Europe’s voice was heard in any peace talks.
“It is important that Pedro and I have the same view: the voice of Europe must be taken into account.”
Speaking to Stubb, Zelenskyy said America needs the “determination and opportunity to end the war”.
Washington could “respond to Russia’s desire to drag out the war and collect more territorial spoils,” he said.
“We must act wisely and in a coordinated manner.”
On the streets of Ukraine’s capital, responses to the idea that the country may be forced to give up territory to Russia were met with mixed reactions.
“It may not be capitulation, but it would be a loss,” says Ihor Usatenko, a 67-year-old pensioner.
He adds that he would consider ceding territory “on condition for compensation and, possibly, some reparations.”
Anastasia Yemelianova, 31, said she was divided.
“Honestly, I have two answers to that question. The first is as a person who loves her country. I don’t want to compromise within myself,” she says, speaking to the AP news agency.
But she adds: “But seeing all these deaths and knowing that my mother is now living in Nikopol under shelling and my father is fighting, I want all this to end as soon as possible.”
But those who had lost loved ones in the fighting rejected the concessions outright.
Svitlana Dobrynska, whose son died fighting, says: “We don’t have the opportunity to launch an offensive to recapture our territories.
The 57-year-old adds: “But to prevent people from dying, we can simply stop military operations, sign some kind of agreement, but not give up our territories.”
It’s just gone 6pm in Ukraine. Here’s the latest.
Trump-Putin meeting
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has rejected Donald Trump’s suggestion that Ukraine will have to give up territory in any potential peace deal.
It comes after the US leader announced a summit with Vladimir Putin in Alaska to take place on Friday.
“I think my instinct really tells me that we have a shot at it,” Trump told reporters yesterday.
“There’ll be some swapping of territories to the betterment of both.”
Watch: What do Trump and Putin want from Alaska summit?
However, Ukraine is not in control of any Russian land after it was pushed out of Kursk.
This morning, Zelenskyy responded: “Ukrainians will not gift their land to the occupier.”
He warned that any agreements made in Alaska against Ukraine “will not achieve anything. These are stillborn decisions. They are unworkable decisions”.
Allies of Ukraine are worried Kyiv is being sidelined and might be forced to swallow or reject a peace plan worked up by Moscow and Washington alone.
Military analyst Michael Clarke is holding out little hope for the meeting, given Trump’s team are out of their depth…
Sanctions?
Absent from Donald Trump’s social media posts is his deadline for Putin to end the war. 
He had threatened Russia with sanctions should it not cease its invasion by 8 August.
The Alaska meeting may have allowed Putin to sidestep sanctions – and wouldn’t be the first time in this conflict that the Kremlin has given just enough to keep Trump onside without actually changing anything on the battlefield.
UK security meeting
At the behest of the US, a meeting between national security advisers is taking place at Chevening, the foreign secretary’s official country residence in Kent, where US vice president JD Vance and his family are staying.
Keir Starmer also held a call with Zelenskyy, one of a number of European leaders to do so.
Attacks continue
Russia has continued its nightly attacks on Ukraine.
At least eight people were killed last night, Ukraine says, with more than twice that injured.
This included two men being killed when Russia attacked a bus, the country’s police say.
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