Ukraine-Russia war live: Putin has to come to table ‘sooner or later’, Starmer says as he warns ‘not to play games’

Sir Keir Starmer continued: “Secondly, because he was willing to defend any agreement himself by a coalition of the willing. We started with the process and this morning we can take it forward.

‘And then, thirdly, and really important, given the development of the last few days, to keep the pressure on Putin to get to the table, and I think collectively we have a number of ways we can do.

“So these are the three heads we will focus on at this meeting, strengthen Ukraine, are willing to defend any transaction itself by a coalition of the willing, and to keep the pressure on Russia at this important time.”

We have more details about Sir Keir Starmer’s latest remarks about Putin and Ukraine.

He spoke in Downing Street before a video call with world leaders, and he said the ‘world -watching’.

The prime minister continued: ‘My feeling is that it will soon or later (Mr. Putin) have to come to the table and do a serious discussion, but – and it is a big, but for us this morning in our meeting – we can’t sit back and simply wait for it to happen.

“We must keep pushing, pushing forward and preparing for peace, and a peace that will be safe and which will last.

“I think that means strengthening Ukraine so that they can defend themselves, and of course strengthen in terms of military ability, in terms of funding, in terms of providing further support from all of us to Ukraine.”

About 25 countries will take part in a meeting hosted by Sir Keir Starmer to discuss a peacekeeping force for Ukraine.

World leaders from countries, including Britain, France, Australia and Canada, will meet almost Saturday – but it is still unclear whether one leader, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, will join.

The Italian Prime Minister was critical of proposals to send troops to Ukraine to enforce any peace agreement with Russia.

Earlier this week, reports suggested that she would be Saturday’s meeting of the ‘Coalition of the Will’s’, with sources telling the Telegraph that she was not convinced by the plans.

Prior to the meeting on Saturday, Giangiacomo Calovini, an MP of the ruling party in Italy, could not say whether she would take part in Saturday’s call.

We will update you as soon as we know or me. Meloni will participate in the morning.

Russian troops conquered the towns of Rubanshchina and Zaoleshenka in the western Koursk region, the defense ministry said on Saturday.

Russia has accelerated an effort to expel the Ukrainian forces from Kursk, where they took control of about 100 settlements in August in August in a surprising invasion of the Russian area.

After humiliating Zelensky to submission, Trump briefly put the ball in Putin’s court to accept a ceasefire, writes Jon pop. But the US president is not the master strategist he would like to think – and now has a crunch decision to make what comes next.

We read Voting Comment here:

Sir Keir Starmer prepares him to offer a virtual summit from about 25 countries on Saturday to discuss a peacekeeping force for Ukraine.

The countries in the ‘coalition of the willing’, which includes Britain, France, Australia and Canada, will discuss how Kyiv can deter the future Russian aggression in the event of any peace agreement.

The meeting will see how countries intend to contribute to the coalition of the Willing, before a military planning session next week.

During his meeting, Sir Keir will call on Western leaders to make “concrete obligations”, including raising economic pressure as well as military support for Ukraine to defend itself against increasing Russian attacks.

Some Ukrainians were left without power after Russia targeted air strikes overnight.

Ukraine’s largest private energy supplier said on Saturday that its energy facilities in the Dnipropetrovsk and OdesA regions were damaged by the strikes.

In a statement, DTEK said that “damages are significant” and that some consumers in both regions were left without power.

Giangiacomo Calovini, a member of the ruling party in Italy, could not say whether Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni would participate in the “coalition of the willing” coalition on Saturday.

He said: “I think there is a discussion about it and I think a few hours ago there is contact between your Prime Minister and Giorgia Meloni because they speak and try to understand, what the problem is about today.”

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

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