Ukraine war live: US reportedly believes ceasefire could be agreed by Easter

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Closing summary

We are now closing the Ukraine rolling coverage. Here is a summary of events:

• Talks between the US and Ukraine are due to take place in the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh, before similar discussions between the US and Russia tomorrow.

• Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff said on Sunday he expected “some real progress” at the talks in Saudi Arabia, “particularly as it affects a Black Sea ceasefire on ships between both countries, and from that you’ll naturally gravitate into a full-on shooting ceasefire”.

• Bloomberg is reporting that the Trump administration is aiming to secure a broad truce agreement between Russia and Ukraine by April 20.

• Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has said “difficult negotiations” lie ahead and that “we are only at the beginning of this path”.

• Russia launched a barrage of drones across Ukraine overnight, striking Kharkiv, Sumy, Chernihiv, Odesa and the Donetsk regions, as well as the capital Kyiv, according to officials.

• Three people, including a 5-year-old child, were killed and 10 others were injured in a drone attack on Kyiv, the city’s military administration said.

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian attacks across his country continue to be a “daily reality” despite the partial ceasefire agreed to last week. “New decisions and new pressure on Moscow are needed to bring an end to these strikes and this war,” he wrote in a post on X.

• Russian troops reportedly seized the small village of Sribne in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, while Ukraine’s army said its troops had recaptured a small village called Nadia in the eastern Luhansk region.

This blog is closing now. Thanks for following along. You can read all our Ukraine coverage here.

British prime minister Keir Starmer and the Dutch prime minister Dick Schoof spoke today about Ukraine over the phone, Downing Street has said.

Downing Street said in a press release:

The prime minister reflected on his attendance at the UK permanent joint headquarters on Thursday, noting the impressive military co-ordination taking place and looking ahead to further planning meetings this week.

Both also agreed that continued political momentum and action, driven by the members of the Coalition of the Willing, is vital to put Ukraine in the strongest possible position for a secure and lasting peace.

Moving on to discuss wider European defence and security, the leaders agreed that all countries must step up to meet the mounting threats we face.

They added that much closer co-operation on our defensive capabilities will be vitally important in the coming decades in order to protect Europe and secure its future.

The so-called “coalition of the willing”, led by the UK and France, could see troops from some European and Nato countries deployed to Ukraine as peacekeepers to deter future Russian aggression.

Starmer’s spokesperson said on Friday that Britain will accelerate plans next week for a potential peacekeeping force in Ukraine.

The UK’s prime minister has said that, in order to deter Vladimir Putin from attacking Ukraine again, there must be a security “backstop” from a reluctant Washington, whose forces, weaponry and logistics are the backbone of the Nato alliance.

US believes Ukraine war ceasefire could be agreed by Easter - report

Bloomberg is reporting that the Trump administration is aiming to secure a broad truce agreement between Russia and Ukraine by Easter.

The outlet reports that the White House is aiming for a truce agreement by 20 April - Easter in both the western and orthodox churches this year.

But the White House is said to acknowledge that this timeline is ambitious given the large gaps between Ukraine and Russia in the ceasefire negotiations.

Here is an extract from the Bloomberg report, the contents of which we have not yet verified:

Russia has set out maximalist demands for any agreement, including an end to arms supplies for Ukraine, a position that Kyiv and its allies have rejected.

The White House, which briefly halted the vital weapons deliveries earlier this month to put pressure on Ukraine, hasn’t agreed to any limits so far, the people (sources) said.

Rowena Mason is the Guardian’s Whitehall editor

The UK is to “accelerate the pace and scale” of its military planning to be ready to support Ukraine, with No 10 saying all options, including troops on the ground, are possible.

Keir Starmer’s spokesperson said last week thousands of troops would be needed to support Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire and agreement to end the war with Russia, whether by “sea, on land or in the air”.

“We will continue to accelerate the pace and scale of operational planning with further meetings at our Northwood headquarters as we look closer at the detail and structure of any future force,” he said on Friday.

“As we look at force structures, we need to consider the best capabilities to meet the specific threats that Ukraine faces. Not all the countries in the coalition will have capabilities for Ukraine but might have the capability for other deployments which would free up other nations to deploy to Ukraine.”

The intensive UK planning across three days next week is likely to consider whether British troops could be moved from current deployments to support Ukraine, with troops from other nations backfilling the existing UK deployments.

You can read the full story here:

Ukraine army says it has recaptured a village in Luhansk region

Ukraine’s army has said its troops have recaptured a small village called Nadia in the eastern Luhansk region, in a rare battlefield success for Kyiv’s forces in an area that Russia has almost fully captured since invading in 2022.

Ukraine’s land forces said it had “liberated the village of Nadia in Lugansk region” in a 30-hour operation that saw it retake three square kilometres of territory. We have not been able to independently verify this information yet.

The village is situated about three kilometers from the border of the Kharkiv region; it was captured by Russia in March 2022, a month after the full-scale invasion was launched, then recaptured by Ukraine in October 2022 before being occupied a second time.

“The capture of Nadia cost the enemy two months of effort and two wiped out mechanized regiments - the 752nd and 254th 20th Russian Army,” Andriy Biletsky, commander of the third army corps, said on Sunday.

Summary of the day so far...

As the time approaches 4pm in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, here’s a roundup of today’s news.

• Talks between the US and Ukraine are due to take place in the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh, before similar discussions between the US and Russia tomorrow.

• Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has said “difficult negotiations” lie ahead and that “we are only at the beginning of this path”.

• The US’ special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff said Vladimir Putin did not “want to take all of Europe”, as he dismissed comparisons with the second world war.

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said “new pressure” was needed to halt daily Russian attacks on Ukraine, as an overnight drone attack killed three people in Kyiv.

• Shelling killed three people on Saturday in the eastern Ukrainian town of Pokrovsk.

• Meanwhile Russian troops seized the small village of Sribne in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.

• Six people injured in a Russian attack on Zaporizhzhia on Saturday night remain in hospital.

• Russia launched 147 drones overnight across Ukraine and the country’s air defence shot down 97 drones, Ukraine’s air force has reported.

Donald Trump has told US sports website Outkick that the war in Ukraine is “somewhat under control”, and that he has a good relationship with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and President Vladimir Putin.

Speaking to the website aboard Air Force One, Trump said he was worried the conflict could lead to “World War Three”.

He said: “I’d like to see if we could stop the soldiers being killed – even though they’re not American soldiers – although it could – a thing like that, could lead to World War III.

“I think it’s somewhat under control. I have a good relationship with President Putin and, actually, a good relationship with President Zelenskyy too.

“It’d be a great thing to be able to stop it. And I will say this, nobody else would have been able to.”

Trump said he’d had “rational discussions” with Putin, and that only the US President could stop him.

He said: “I don’t think there’s anybody in the world that going to stop [Putin], except me, and I think I’m going to be able to stop him.

“We’ve had some very rational discussions, and I just want to see the people stop getting killed. They’re losing 2,500 young kids a week, and they’re Russian and they’re Ukrainian.”

The US’ special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff said the situation facing Europe is different to the second world war, and Vladimir Putin does not want to expand across the continent.

In comments reported by Reuters, Witkoff said he expected “a lot more progress” in the talks due to take place this evening in Saudi Arabia.

He said Putin did not want to “take all of Europe”, and said it was a “much different situation” to the second world war.

Witkoff told US broadcaster Tucker Carlson on Saturday night that the plan by Sir Keir Starmer and other European leaders for an international force to support a ceasefire was a “posture and pose”.

“I don’t regard Putin as a bad guy,” he said. “He’s super smart.”

A meeting between US and Ukrainian officials on Sunday evening will take place before a similar meeting between the US and Russia on Monday.

The Ukrainian delegation at Sunday’s meeting will be led by defence minister Rustem Umerov, Reuters reports. The talks are expected to be “purely technical”.

Steve Witkoff is leading the US ceasefire negotiations with both Russia and Ukraine. Photograph: Evelyn Hockstein/AP

A woman was killed in the Russian border village of Novostroyevka-Pervaya in the Belgorod region when a Ukrainian drone hit a car in which she was travelling, officials said.

The driver, the woman’s daughter, was also seriously injured in the attack, said local governor Vyacheslav Gladkov.

“On Monday we mainly intend to discuss President Putin’s agreement to resume the so-called Black Sea initiative, and our negotiators will be ready to discuss the nuances around this problem,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told Russian state TV.

Russia pulled out of the Turkish-brokered deal, which had enabled Ukraine to export grain from its Black Sea ports, in July 2023, accusing the west of failing to uphold its commitments to ease sanctions on Russia’s own exports of agricultural products and fertilisers.

It meant Moscow stopped granting safe passage to cargo ships going to and from Ukraine, and the country’s grain exports subsequently slumped.

You can read more about the deal and its economic significance in this explainer.

Kremlin says 'difficult negotiations' lay ahead in Ukraine-Russia ceasefire talks

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has been speaking to Russian state TV ahead of the US’s separate ceasefire talks in Saudi Arabia with Ukraine and Russia at meetings over Sunday and Monday.

He was quoted as saying “we are only at the beginning of this path”, adding that negotiations with Washington tomorrow would be “difficult” and that Moscow’s “main” focus would be on a possible resumption of a deal to ensure safe navigation for commercial vessels in the Black Sea.

Following the Trump-Putin call last week, the White House said the two leaders agreed that “the movement to peace will begin with an energy and infrastructure ceasefire”, followed by negotiations over a “maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea, full ceasefire and permanent peace”.

Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin shake hands at the beginning of a meeting at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki, Finland, in July 2018. Photograph: Pablo Martínez Monsiváis/AP

A fast US brokered ceasefire in Ukraine is unlikely for many reasons. Putin has said any talks must address what he frames as “the root causes” of Moscow’s full-scale invasion in 2022, primarily his concerns around an expanding Nato alliance. Ukraine has made membership of the alliance a key strategic aim that it says would help protect the country in the event of future Russian aggression.

Putin also said during his call with Trump that any long-term deal would require an ending of intelligence sharing and military aid to Kyiv from its allies. Volodymyr Zelenskyy said after the call that Ukraine’s allies would never agree to such a move, adding that he hopes supplies will continue.