US envoys arrive in Berlin for another round of Ukraine peace talks

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and US envoys have arrived in Berlin for another round of talks intended to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine as Moscow and Kyiv stuck to their sharply opposite views of a prospective peace deal.

US president Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Mr Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner were spotted entering a hotel in central Berlin on Sunday.

Responding to journalists’ questions in audio clips on a WhatsApp group chat, Mr Zelensky emphasised the need for Ukraine to receive firm guarantees from the US and European allies that would be similar to those offered to Nato members, after the US and some European countries stonewalled Ukraine’s bid to join the military alliance.

“These security guarantees are an opportunity to prevent another wave of Russian aggression,” he said. “And this is already a compromise on our part.”

Mr Zelensky emphasised that any security assurances would need to be legally binding and supported by the US Congress, adding that he expected an update from his team following a meeting between Ukrainian and US military officials in Stuttgart.

He said that he would meet separately with German chancellor Friedrich Merz and, possibly, other European leaders later in the evening. He said he had not yet received any response from the US to Ukraine’s latest proposals on the peace plan.

Washington has tried for months to navigate the demands of each side as Mr Trump presses for a swift end to Russia’s war and grows increasingly exasperated by delays.

The search for possible compromises has run into major obstacles, including control of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, which is mostly occupied by Russian forces.

Russia’s president Vladimir Putin wants Ukraine to withdraw its forces from the part of the Donetsk region still under its control among the key conditions for peace — a demand Mr Zelensky again rejected on Sunday.

Mr Zelensky said that the US had floated an idea for Ukraine to withdraw from the Donetsk and create a demilitarised free economic zone there, a proposal he rejected as unworkable.

“I do not consider this fair, because who will manage this economic zone?” he said.

“If we are talking about some buffer zone along the line of contact, if we are talking about some economic zone and we believe that only a police mission should be there and troops should withdraw, then the question is very simple. If Ukrainian troops withdraw 5–10 kilometres, for example, then why do Russian troops not withdraw deeper into the occupied territories by the same distance?”

Mr Zelensky described the issue as “very sensitive” and insisted on a freeze along the line of contact, saying that “today a fair possible option is we stand where we stand”.

Mr Putin’s foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov told the business daily Kommersant that Russian police and national guard troops would stay in parts of eastern Ukraine’s Donbas even if they become a demilitarised zone under a prospective peace plan — a demand likely to be rejected by Ukraine as US-led negotiations drag on.

Mr Ushakov warned that a search for compromise could take a long time, noting that the US proposals that took into account Russian demands had been “worsened” by alterations proposed by Ukraine and its European allies.

Speaking to Russian state TV in remarks broadcast on Sunday, Mr Ushakov said that “the contribution of Ukrainians and Europeans to these documents is unlikely to be constructive”, warning that Moscow would “have very strong objections”.

Mr Ushakov added that the territorial issue was actively discussed in Moscow when Mr Witkoff and Mr Kushner met with Mr Putin earlier this month. “The Americans know and understand our position,” he said.

Mr Merz, who has spearheaded European efforts to support Ukraine alongside French president Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, said on Saturday that “the decades of the ‘Pax Americana’ are largely over for us in Europe and for us in Germany as well”.

He warned that Mr Putin’s aim was “a fundamental change to the borders in Europe, the restoration of the old Soviet Union within its borders”.

“If Ukraine falls, he won’t stop,” Mr Merz warned on Saturday during a party conference in Munich.

Mr Putin has denied plans to restore the Soviet Union or attack any European allies.

Ukraine’s air force said overnight that Russia launched ballistic missiles and 138 attack drones at Ukraine. In its daily report, the air force said 110 had been intercepted or downed but missile and drone hits were recorded at six locations.

Mr Zelensky said on Sunday that hundreds of thousands of families were still without power in the south, east and north-east regions and that work was continuing to restore electricity, heat and water to multiple regions following a large-scale attack the previous night.

The Ukrainian president said that in the past week, Russia had launched more than 1,500 strike drones, nearly 900 guided aerial bombs and 46 missiles of various types at Ukraine.

“Ukraine needs peace on decent terms, and we are ready to work as constructively as possible. These days will be filled with diplomacy. It’s very important that it brings results,” Mr Zelensky said.

Russia’s defence ministry said that air defences had downed 235 Ukrainian drones late on Saturday and early on Sunday.