Ukraine could soon hit Russia with ballistic missile, Zelensky warns Putin

 Volodymyr Zelensky has warned Vladimir Putin that Ukraine is “very close” to producing a ballistic missile that could be fired into Russia.

The statement came ahead of talks with Sir Keir Starmer and the leaders of France and Germany over how to bring an end to the long-running war.

“During several years of the war and massive attacks, we learned, we studied and we produced … we produced a lot of different drones and missiles, we still don’t have ballistics, but we are now on the way, we are very close,” the Ukrainian president told Sky News.

Mr Zelensky is the latest Ukrainian politician to warn that Putin had missed his chance to negotiate a favourable end to the conflict by refusing to entertain a new round of peace talks.

“It’s our response and our answer that we will not just silently die,” Mr Zelensky told the broadcaster when asked about the increasing number of cross-border strikes.

“We will respond and we will be stronger and stronger each day, day by day.”

But despite the renewed threats against Russia, Mr Zelensky insisted he would immediately freeze the conflict along its current frontlines if it made room for diplomatic negotiations to end the war.

Asked whether ceding Ukrainian territory controlled by Russia would hand Putin a victory, Mr Zelensky replied: “No, no… to freeze, to stay where we stay, it is meant to give the people of Ukraine more possibilities to save their children and soldiers to come back.”

Mr Zelensky hailed a victory of sorts by insisting that his country had “defended independence”.

“This is a big, big victory, if I can use such words,” he said.

Following talks at Downing Street, Britain, France and Germany again backed Mr Zelensky’s calls for an immediate ceasefire and set out conditions that would need to be met to broker a lasting peace in Ukraine.

They called for Nato and EU states to be brought into any peace talks to settle points relating to the two organisations.

They continued to insist Kyiv would be handed “robust and legally binding security guarantees”, including the multinational force led by the Anglo-French Coalition of the Willing.

Under their demands, any Russian assets frozen on the continent would remain immobilised until Vladimir Putin calls an end to the fighting and agrees to pay reparations to Ukraine.

Until a ceasefire is reached, Sir Keir Starmer, the UK Prime Minister, as well as the leaders of France and Germany, said they would find ways to ramp up military aid for Kyiv.

This would include ramping up global production of air-defence interceptors capable of bringing down ballistic missiles and a new pledge of military support by Nato.

The three countries’ leaders also hailed Ukraine’s recent “successes on the battlefield, including the recent liberation of territory and ground-breaking use of drone technology”.

They said there would be further talks on how to support Ukraine and end the war at the upcoming meetings of G7, Nato amd tje Coalition of the Willing in the next few weeks.

Mr Zelensky said he was receiving mixed signals from Putin over whether the Kremlin chief was ready to settle the war after nearly five years of fighting.

Kyiv and its European allies believe the Russian president has come under renewed domestic pressure to consider a ceasefire because of his armed forces’ battlefield struggles and the country’s weakened air defences.

“We know he wants to win in this terrible war,” Mr Zelensky said. “He’s not so loud about it because he doesn’t have the initiative on the battlefield, I think he understands it.

“But really 100 per cent depends on his decision in his country. And in this war, to be honest, if he wants to stop this war, we will meet.”

Mr Zelensky said he would be happy to conduct face-to-face peace talks with Putin “in any kind of format”, suggesting Donald Trump could return as a mediator or the Europeans could also take up the role.

“It doesn’t matter. What matters is to stop it as quickly as possible,” Mr Zelensky said.

The Ukrainian president confirmed that Roman Abramovich, the Russian former owner of Chelsea football club, had been used as a go-between to deliver messages to Moscow.

“He came and he wanted to give me the message that they are ready to, that they want to understand what we want to do,” Mr Zelensky said.

“I said, the question is not about us, you are fighting against us on our territory. And I said to him about the Donbas – it was the key message – we will not leave . . . and we will not give you victory in such [a] way.”