Ukraine-Russia war latest: Macron ‘very sceptical’ about peace talks on fourth anniversary of invasion

During his televised speech, Putin also accused Ukraine of trying to sabotage the peace process by threatening Russian energy pipelines.

He claimed Ukraine was working with Western intelligence agencies to threaten infrastructure.

In his address earlier today to mark the fourth anniversary of Russia’s invasion, Volodymyr Zelensky called for Donald Trump to visit Ukraine.

“Only by coming to Ukraine, and seeing with one’s own eyes our life and our struggle, feeling our people and the enormity of this pain – only then can one understand what this war is really about. And because of whom. Who the aggressor is here and who must be pressured,” the Ukrainian president said in the address, as he stressed the importance of a visit by Trump.

He said Ukraine is defending life, adding that it is “not a street fight” but an “attack by a sick state on a sovereign one”.

Zelensky added: “Putin is this war. He is the cause of its beginning and the obstacle to its end. And it is Russia that must be put in its place. So that there can be real peace.”

Speaking at the FSB’s annual assembly, coinciding with the fourth anniversary of the war in Ukraine, Vladimir Putin blames Ukraine of trying to torpedo the ongoing peace process.

He said that Ukraine and its allies are so determined to defeat Russia that they are pushing themselves to the edge – something “they will regret”.

He also accuses blames a claimed spike in recent terror attacks in Russia on Ukraine and Western intelligence agencies.

Ireland’s premier has said opposing a 90 billion euro EU loan for Ukraine would amount to backing the country’s surrender to Russian aggression.

On the fourth anniversary of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia, Taoiseach Micheal Martin said it was “extremely important” to show solidarity with Ukraine.

It comes after Ireland’s main opposition party Sinn Fein opposed the 90 billion euro EU loan to Ukraine, comprising 60 billion euro in military funding.

At the weekend, Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald said two Sinn Fein MEPs voted against it because “we also know that spending tens of billions more of taxpayers’ money on more and more weaponry is not the way to resolve this conflict”.

“The full international effort has to be around diplomacy, peacemaking, there has to be a diplomatic and political solution arrived at.”

Speaking on his way into Cabinet on Tuesday morning, Mr Martin said Sinn Fein’s approach was “tantamount to asking Ukraine to surrender” and that Russia would “be thrilled” with that approach.

Ukraine, whose power plants have been significantly damaged by Russian bombing, continues importing electricity from neighbouring countries, transmission system operator Ukrenergo said on Tuesday, after Slovakia moved to stop emergency supplies.

Prime minister Robert Fico said on Monday that Slovakia’s power grid operator would refuse Ukrainian requests for emergency supplies until oil flows resume via the Druzhba pipeline, which runs from Russia through Ukraine to central Europe.

Slovakia and Hungary have been cut off from Russian crude through Druzhba since damage to the pipeline last month, and blame Ukraine for the prolonged outage.

“Electricity is being imported from all EU countries neighbouring Ukraine and Moldova, in accordance with the results of auctions for the distribution of available interconnection capacity,” Ukrenergo said on Telegram.

Russian authorities have recorded a large number of violations by the Telegram app and are taking steps in response to its alleged unwillingness to cooperate with Moscow, the Kremlin said.

Russia has launched an investigation into Telegram founder Pavel Durov as part of a criminal case on the “facilitation of terrorist activities”, state-run media reported earlier on Tuesday, citing the Federal Security Service (FSB).

Telegram, which is widely used in Russia and across the former Soviet Union, has in recent days denied a host of allegations by Russia that the app is a haven for criminal activity and compromised by both Western and Ukrainian intelligence services.

When Vladimir Putin launched his cynically euphemistic “special military operation” against Ukraine four years ago, it was supposed to last about a week. In that time, according to the Kremlin’s plan, Volodymyr Zelensky – a supposed “Nazi” who just happens to be Jewish – was expected to flee Kyiv to some comfortable bolthole in the West.

Safe to say, things have not gone to plan. Ukrainian territory has been occupied, too often after being razed to the ground, and force has been used to the most obscene degree against the civilian population.

Yet, after some successful Ukrainian counterattacks, Russia today occupies less of Ukraine’s sovereign territory than in the early stages of the war, and its military has proved to be poorly trained, badly led, ill equipped, undisciplined, and not entirely loyal – as was demonstrated by the rebellion staged by the Wagner mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin in 2023, which came surprisingly close to toppling the Russian president himself.

Read The Independent’s full editorial here:

Emmanuel Macron has told the Coalition of the Willing meeting that he is “very sceptical” about the possibility of a short-term peace in Ukraine.

He says it is good to follow up on peace talks, but calls on leaders to be “lucid” about Russia’s willingness to reach a peace deal.

“I completely agree with you, Keir and Volodymyr: we have to make very clear now about first the recent successes on the ground, but at the same time the fact that militarily, economically, and strategically the Russians are being defeated at this very moment” he said.

British prime minister Sir Keir Starmer and French president Emmanuel Macron are chairing another meeting of the Coalition of the Willing, marking the four-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Speaking in the meeting, Volodymyr Zelensky said the coalition must “prepare for any other kind of challenges from the Russian side”.