Ukraine war live: Zelenskyy ready for talks if given ‘an understanding that US and Europe will not abandon us’ | Ukraine

Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he would be ready for talks in any format if he has “an understanding that America and Europe will not abandon us”.

Donald Trump’s plan for a quick settlement in Ukraine must not only stop the war but also ensure that there can no longer be any more Russian aggression, Zelenskyy said in an interview broadcast on Sunday.

He said Ukraine wanted no repeat of the experience of peace accords and talks that failed to produce results in the years running up to Moscow’s February 2022 full-scale invasion. He said that meant putting security guarantees in place.

“A frozen conflict will lead to more aggression again and again. Who then will win prizes and go down in history as the victor? No one. It will be an absolute defeat for everyone, both for us, as is important, and for Trump,” Zelenskyy told Britain’s ITV.

“If I had an understanding that America and Europe will not abandon us and they will support us and provide security guarantees, I would be ready for any format for talks,” he said.

The comments were broadcast as Trump indicated he had been in contact with Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, and that progress was being made in talks to end the war. This would mark the first officially acknowledged conversation between Putin and a US president since early 2022. Asked by reporters onboard Air Force One on Sunday whether he had had his conversation with Putin since becoming president on 20 January or before, Trump said: “I’ve had it. Let’s just say I’ve had it … And I expect to have many more conversations. We have to get that war ended.”

Here are some of the other latest developments:

• Chinese President Xi Jinping has accepted Russia’s invitation to Moscow to attend second world war commemorations, Tass state news agency reported on Monday.

• Trump’s national security adviser Mike Waltz said on Sunday that senior US diplomats would be in Europe this week “talking through the details of how to end this war and that will mean getting both sides to the table”. In an interview on NBC Waltz said the Russian economy was not doing well and that Trump “is prepared to tax, to tariff, to sanction” Moscow to get Putin to the negotiating table. He added that the Trump administration is looking to use this week’s engagements to begin talks on clawing back some of the United States’ assistance to Ukraine nd said European allies would need to take a greater role in supporting Ukraine.

• Russia’s deputy foreign minister said Moscow had yet to receive a good offer to start talks on Ukraine, in remarks published on Monday. “It is important that words be backed up by practical steps that take into account Russia’s legitimate interests, demonstrating a readiness to eradicate the root causes of the crisis and recognise the new realities,” Mikhail Galuzin told Ria state news agency in an interview. “Concrete proposals of this nature have not yet been received,” he said.

• Russia launched an overnight drone attack on Kyiv, injuring a woman and damaging several houses in the northeastern city of Sumy, Ukrainian officials said on Monday. The Ukrainian military said on Monday that it had shot down 61 out of 83 drones with 22 more likely downed by electronic warfare.

• Russia said on Sunday that its forces had captured the eastern Ukrainian village of Orikhovo-Vasylivka, near the strategic military hub of Chasiv Yar that Moscow is attempting to seize.

• An explosion on Sunday on an oil tanker at a port in north-west Russia forced the crew to evacuate and was being investigated, the country’s federal shipping agency said. The Rosmorrechflot maritime and river transport agency wrote on Telegram that “an explosion took place in the engine room” of the Koala in Ust-Luga port west of St Petersburg on Sunday morning.