US envoys arrive in Berlin for next round of peace talks
The US is pushing for a deal to be in place by Christmas and has held several rounds of talks with both Moscow and Kyiv
A US delegation, headed up by special envoy Steve Witkoff, has arrived in Berlin for another round of talks intended to secure a deal to end the war in Ukraine.
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Donald Trump's special envoy and his son-in-law Jared Kushner were spotted in central Berlin by a photographer for German news agency dpa.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Ukrainian, US and European officials would hold a series of meetings in Berlin in the coming days.
Read More: Witkoff to meet Zelenskyy and European leaders for latest round of peace talks
Mr Trump has been pushing for a swift end to Russia's war but has grown increasingly exasperated by delays and disagreements.
Territorial exchange remains the greatest obstacle to any peace deal. The focus remains on Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, which is mostly occupied by Russian forces.
However security guarantees for Ukraine also remain a key issue.
The Ukrainian leader has claimed that the latest talks with European partners and the US have been productive, commenting "The chance is considerable at this moment, and it matters for our every city, for our every Ukrainian community."
"We are working to ensure that peace for Ukraine is dignified, and to secure a guarantee - a guarantee, above all - that Russia will not return to Ukraine for a third invasion." he continued to say during a television address over the weekend
Russian president Vladimir Putin has demanded that Ukraine withdraw its forces from the part of the Donetsk region still under its control and abandon its bid to join Nato among the key conditions for peace - demands Kyiv has rejected.
Mr Putin's foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov told the business daily Kommersant that Russian police and national guard troops would stay in parts of eastern Ukraine's Donbas even if they become a demilitarised zone under a prospective peace plan - a demand likely to be rejected by Ukraine as US-led negotiations drag on.
Mr Ushakov warned that a search for compromise could take a long time, noting that the US proposals that took into account Russian demands had been "worsened" by alterations proposed by Ukraine and its European allies.
"We don't know what changes they are making, but clearly they aren't for the better," Mr Ushakov said.
"We will strongly insist on our considerations."
German chancellor Friedrich Merz, who has spearheaded European efforts to support Ukraine alongside French president Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, said on Saturday that "the decades of the 'Pax Americana' are largely over for us in Europe and for us in Germany as well".
He warned that Mr Putin's aim was "a fundamental change to the borders in Europe, the restoration of the old Soviet Union within its borders".
"If Ukraine falls, he won't stop," Mr Merz warned on Saturday during a party conference in Munich.