RUSSIA confirmed today it is resuming dialogue with the United States “on all parameters” as its forces intensified counter-attacks against Ukrainian troops in the Kursk region.

Kiev sent troops into the Russian border province last year, hoping to regain the initiative as it continues to retreat along most of its 600-mile front line within Ukraine. Russia has proved unwilling to divert troops from its main fronts to expel Ukraine from Kursk.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said that Russia and the US were in “complete agreement” about the need to end the Ukraine war through negotiations, which began in Riyadh without Ukraine’s government present. 

US-Ukraine relations have since soured with President Donald Trump accusing his counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky of being a “dictator” who ought to hold elections. Mr Zelensky’s mandate expired early last year, but his government says elections are impracticable with the war raging. Today, a planned joint press conference between Mr Zelensky and US envoy Keith Kellogg was cancelled.

European leaders including Germany’s Olaf Scholz and Britain’s Keir Starmer rushed to Mr Zelensky’s defence, rejecting Mr Trump’s accusations, while China’s Foreign Ministry said the election demand was typical of the US’s interference in other countries’ internal affairs. Beijing welcomed the Riyadh summit as a step towards ending the war, but stressed that Ukraine must be directly involved in determining the peace process.

Mr Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron are reported to be planning to propose a 30,000-strong European peacekeeping force led by British and French soldiers in Ukraine in individual visits to Mr Trump next week, but Moscow has warned it will not agree to any settlement that involves Nato countries deploying troops.