The leaders of more than 30 nations meet in Paris to progress with plans on security guarantees for Ukraine after a peace deal is signed. Meanwhile, Moscow warns the UK and France are risking a direct clash between Russia and NATO. Follow the latest here.
Thursday 27 March 2025 12:32, UK
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Live updates by Narbeh Minassian and Ollie Cooper
Emmanuel Macron will shortly address the media after a meeting of the „coalition of the willing“ in Paris.
But he spoke with Volodymyr Zelenskyy privately yesterday.
It’s worth going into this speech armed with a bit of context on what he said yesterday, so you can read about that here…
Russia’s defence ministry has accused Ukraine of strikes on energy facilities, despite agreeing to halt such attacks.
The ministry’s report has not been independently verified, and Ukraine strongly denied a similar accusation yesterday.
Over the past 24 hours, it said a transformer substation was attacked in the Bryansk region.
The military also shot down a drone targeting the Glebovskoye underground gas storage in Crimea, it added, an area Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
Russian forces are intensifying their actions in the Sumy region in their attempt to advance, Ukraine’s top general has said.
General Oleksandr Syrskyi said Ukrainian troops were conducting defensive and assault operations to stop Russia advancing deep into Ukrainian territory.
His comments followed Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s warning, published in Le Figaro late yesterday, that Russia is preparing a spring offensive on the Sumy and Kharkiv regions.
Sumy, as you can see in the map below, borders Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces have struggled in recent weeks to keep hold of Russian territory.
They captured swathes of land during a stunning cross-border offensive that began last August.
These maps show the latest territorial situation, indicating how much ground is held by Russian and Ukrainian forces respectively.
The first map shows a wide view of the conflict, and from left to right you can see closer views of the fronts in Donetsk, Kharkiv, Luhansk and of the Russian region of Kursk, where Vladimir Putin’s forces have advanced and pushed Ukraine’s positions back in recent weeks.
The French presidency has said Emmanuel Macron spoke with Donald Trump ahead of today’s summit in Paris.
The US has been noticeably absent from the „coalition of the willing“ – see our 8.13am post for more on that – which is meeting today to discuss plans for any ceasefire.
There isn’t any information on the contents of that call, but Macron has spoken about the need to strengthen support for Ukraine.
When the pair met last month at the White House, they were all handshakes and smiles as they spoke to the media in the Oval Office.
France and the UK are „hatching plans for military intervention in Ukraine“ under the guise of a peacekeeping mission, Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman has warned.
Maria Zakharova added such an intervention could lead to a direct conflict between her country and NATO.
France and the UK are among the leaders of the so-called „coalition of the willing“ meeting in Paris today to discuss European plans for a potential ceasefire.
That could involve European troops in Ukraine – something Moscow has described as unacceptable.
„Our country stands categorically against this scenario, which risks a direct confrontation between Russia and NATO,“ Zakharova said in a briefing.
In comments carried by state news agency TASS, she added the UK wanted to provoke the EU into a „bloodbath“ with Russia.
Their „golden dream“, she said, is to push European countries together and join the „Anglo-Saxon coalition“.
European defence union ‚matter of time‘
Zakharova spoke just as Germany’s foreign minister talked up the need for a European defence union.
Speaking at the Europe 2025 conference on European sovereignty, Annalena Baerbock said: „If we continue to use 150 different weapon systems in Europe and they are not compatible with each other, then we can spend all of the world’s money on them – we will not be able to be effective enough, which is why I believe that the European defence union is no longer a question of whether, but how quickly we get it off the ground.“
By Ivor Bennett, Moscow correspondent
This is a hugely significant moment. For the first time in more than three years, Washington is lifting sanctions on Moscow instead of imposing them.
It’s the most tangible evidence yet of a US-Russia rapprochement, and a crystal clear signal of Donald Trump’s intentions to turn Vladimir Putin the pariah into Putin the partner.
Find out more by reading Ivor’s full analysis here.
We’re getting our first updates now from Paris.
Just ahead of the summit, Downing Street said Sir Keir Starmer met with NATO chief Mark Rutte.
Here’s what a spokesperson has just said about their meeting:
„The prime minister met NATO secretary general Mark Rutte in Paris this morning, ahead of the coalition of the willing meeting.
„They discussed their enduring support for Ukraine, agreeing that Europe must do everything possible to keep them in the fight and keep up the pressure on Putin.
„Both acknowledged the vital role of the United States in forging a path towards a ceasefire agreement, and reiterated that Europe stands ready to support a durable and lasting peace when it comes.
„The prime minister restated his unwavering commitment to NATO as the cornerstone of our security.“
These images show many of the leaders and delegations from the „coalition of the willing“ arriving for a crunch meeting in Paris.
Scroll through to see who’s there…
Europe correspondent Adam Parsons says today’s talks will be focused on three things:
Russia’s FSB security service claims Ukraine is recruiting its citizens for undercover work by posing as staff of US non-profit thinktank RAND Corp.
„The FSB has received information about representatives of the Ukrainian special services using the cover of the influential American RAND Corporation for recruiting activities in the territory of the Russian Federation and obtaining limited information about the Russian Federation’s special military operation in Ukraine,“ state news outlet RIA said.
RAND is already banned in Russia as an „undesirable organisation“.
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Ukraine war latest: The three issues on agenda at major Ukraine summit; Kim Jong Un planning Russia visit – Sky News
