Vladimir Putin is assembling a heavyweight team with decades of experience in high-stakes negotiations to face off against US President Donald Trump’s representatives for a deal to end Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Ukraine and key European nations demanded a role in any negotiations to end Russia's war on the country, after President Donald Trump announced they would begin.

US President Donald Trump has said he had a "lengthy and highly productive" phone call with Vladimir Putin on Wednesday in which the leaders agreed to begin negotiations to end the war in Ukraine. In a post on his Truth Social platform,

A drone armed with a warhead hit the outer protective shell of Ukraine's Chernobyl nuclear plant early Friday, damaging the structure and briefly starting a fire, in an attack Kyiv blamed on Russia. The Kremlin denied it was responsible.

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine called the damage “significant” but said there were no signs of radiation leaks. A Kremlin spokesman denied that Russia had carried out the strike.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said a Russian drone struck the destroyed nuclear power plant at Chernobyl on Thursday night.

A senior U.S. official on Thursday said the United States had not ruled out potential NATO membership for Ukraine or a negotiated return to its pre-2014 borders, contradicting comments made this week by the U.

Britain remains committed to Ukraine being on "an irreversible path to NATO" membership, Prime Minister Keir Starmer told President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday, after the United States made contradictory comments on Ukraine's future.