Putin claims he's reached 'understandings' with Trump over Ukraine war

Vladimir Putin has claimed he reached "understandings" with Donald Trump on ending the war in Ukraine during their meeting in Alaska last month.

Speaking at a regional security forum in Tianjin, China earlier today, the Russian president continued to justify his illegal invasion ofUkraine - and blamed the West for "provoking" the conflict.

But he remained tight-lipped about whether he would take part in peace talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, which Trump initially claimed Putin had agreed to following the controversial August 15 meeting.

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On Friday, French president Emmanuel Macron said Trump had given Putin a deadline of September 1 to decide whether he will go ahead with the negotiations.

Putin shared a laugh with Chinese President Xi Jinping and India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit as the final 24 hours of the deadline approached today. The meeting has been widely interpreted as a solidifying of ties between the three nations in the face of US tariffs.

During his address, Putin said he hoped the "understandings reached" at his meeting in Alaska are "opening the way to peace in Ukraine", reports the Express.

He went on to claim that "this crisis wasn't triggered by Russia's attack on Ukraine, but was a result of a coup in Ukraine, which was supported and provoked by the West". He also blamed the war on "the West's constant attempts to drag Ukraine into NATO".

On Friday, Macron claimed that Putin faced a Monday deadline from Trump to agree to peace talks with Zelensky - and suggested that failure to meet the deadline would suggest Putin is "playing" Trump once again.

Russia's attacks continue

Russia launched another large aerial attack on southern Ukraine over the weekend, two days after a rare airstrike on central Kyiv killed 23 people and damaged a British Council building.

The overnight strikes on Saturday struck a five-story residential building in the Zaporizhzhia region, killing at least one civilian and wounding 28 people including children, regional governor Ivan Fedorov said.

Russia launched 537 strike drones and decoys, as well as 45 missiles, according to Ukraine’s air force. Ukrainian forces shot down or neutralized 510 drones and decoys and 38 missiles, he said.

Yesteday, Zelensky announced that Ukrainian officials had arrested a suspect in the shooting death of former parliament speaker and prominent pro-Western politician Andriy Parubiy.

The Ukrainian president said in a statement on X that a person was taken into custody after shooting Mr Parubiy in the city of Lviv on Saturday. Despite widespread suspicions of Russian involvement, details about the motive for the killing were released. Zelensky wrote: "The necessary investigative actions are ongoing. I have instructed that the available information be presented to the public."