Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will meet with European leaders in London on Monday, in a show of solidarity, after US President Donald Trump accused him of not reading the latest peace proposal and as the Kremlin praised America’s new harder posture towards Europe.
Trump criticized Zelensky on Sunday after talks between US and Ukrainian negotiators over the weekend in Miami ended with unresolved questions over security guarantees, territorial issues and continued concern that the US proposal tilts in Russia’s favor.
“We’ve been speaking to [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin and we’ve been speaking to Ukrainian leaders, including… President Zelensky, and I have to say that I’m a little bit disappointed that President Zelensky hasn’t yet read the proposal, that was as of a few hours ago,” Trump said.
He added that Russia would prefer to have all of Ukraine and that he believes Moscow is “fine” with the peace plan, but “I’m not sure that Zelensky’s fine with it.”
Trump’s remarks came as the Kremlin welcomed his administration’s new national security strategy, a foreign policy realignment that adopts an unprecedentedly confrontational posture toward Europe.
The US security strategy document has dropped the language of past administrations describing Russia as a threat, says European nations regard Moscow as “an existential threat,” and casts Washington as the central broker in re-establishing “conditions of stability within Europe and strategic stability with Russia.”
Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov appeared to applaud the strategy and praised the American president, calling him “strong.”
“The adjustments we are seeing, I would say, are, in many ways, consistent with our vision,” Peskov said, adding: “Perhaps one can hope that this may be a modest guarantee that it will be possible to continue working constructively together to find a peaceful settlement for Ukraine, at the very least.”
A member of Ukraine’s 25th Brigade stands on top of a tank during training in Donetsk, in the country’s east. – Ximena Borrazas/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images
For European leaders, the timing is unsettling: the US is steering the Ukraine peace talks just as its posture toward Europe hardens, raising fears that this shift could influence negotiations at a critical moment.
Europe to ‘take stock’ of situation
These issues will likely be on the table Monday when Zelensky travels to London, where he is set to meet French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
The European leaders will “take stock together of the situation and the ongoing negotiations within the framework of the American mediation,” Macron said.
Talks in Miami between US and Ukrainian negotiators came to a stopping point Saturday with no breakthroughs, Ukrainian officials said, noting that key questions went unanswered.
After three days of talks, “difficult issues remain,” Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States Olga Stefanishyna said Saturday, “but both sides continue working to shape realistic and acceptable solutions.”
“The main challenges at this stage concern questions of territory and guarantees, and we are actively seeking optimal formats for addressing them,” Stefanishyna said. “More details will be provided once all information is compiled.”
The marathon sessions began Thursday between US special envoy Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, and Ukrainian officials Rustem Umerov and Andriy Hnatov.
Territory and security guarantees have long been the central obstacles to any potential settlement. Kyiv maintains that a just end to the war must include dependable security commitments and would not require it to cede additional territory.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin said earlier this week that he intends to seize Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region by any means.
Russia is “locking itself into an escalatory approach and is not seeking peace,” Macron said Saturday.
“We must continue to put pressure on Russia to compel it toward peace,” he said, adding: “For what is at stake in Ukraine is also the security of Europe as a whole.”
As the diplomatic to-and-fro continues, Russia launched one of its largest barrages of drones and missiles in months across Ukraine, killing at least seven people over the weekend, according to a CNN tally of local authority figures. More than a dozen more were injured.
In the past week, Russia has launched over 1,600 attack drones, around 1,200 guided aerial bombs and nearly 70 missiles against Ukraine, Zelensky said Sunday. He said the primary targets of the strikes were the infrastructure “that keeps everyday life going.”
The strikes targeted energy infrastructure in various regions over the weekend, according to the Ukrainian Ministry of Energy. Consumers in the Odesa, Chernihiv, Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Mykolaiv regions were without power on Saturday, the ministry said. And on Sunday, power cut schedules were introduced in all regions of Ukraine, including in Kyiv, where residents of the capital were without electricity for about 12 hours.
Ukraine’s military said Saturday that it had hit the Ryazan oil refinery in western Russia, one of the country’s largest refineries, in an overnight attack. Moscow did not immediately respond to the claims.
A woman looks at her damaged house alongside family members after it was hit during a night of Russian missile and drone strikes in Novi Petrivtsi, outside Kyiv, on Saturday. – Thomas Peter/Reuters
‘Hybrid warfare’
Meanwhile, investigations are underway in Ireland and France after two more incidents this week involving unidentified drones flying close to the coastlines of each country, marking the latest in a string of unexplained sightings in several European countries since September. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has called the spate of drone incursions “hybrid warfare.”
Early last week, several drones were seen flying off the coast of Dublin, just as a plane carrying Zelensky for a visit with the Irish premiere was about to land.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and first lady Olena Zelenska arrive in Dublin for a state visit on December 1, 2025. – Clodagh Kilcoyne/Pool/Getty Images
And on Thursday night, several drones flew close to a French naval base on the Atlantic coast housing nuclear ballistic missile submarines, according to French prosecutors.
Some drones have disrupted civilian air traffic, while others have flown close to airbases and other military facilities.
European officials have said that they believe Russia is behind at least some of the incidents, but no drone has been retrieved or shot down. Putin has previously ridiculed claims that Moscow was behind drone sightings in Europe.
CNN’s Jessie Yeung, Max Saltman, Jennifer Hansler and Alejandra Jaramillo contributed reporting.
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