US “SHUTTLE” diplomacy will see it negotiate between Ukrainian and Russian delegations in Saudi Arabia starting today.

The negotiations cover proposals for a partial ceasefire, including in the Black Sea, as well as a potential longer-term peace. On the eve of talks Russia kept up its bombardment of Ukrainian cities, with a barrage of drones striking Kiev and other cities killing seven, including a five-year-old child, overnight on Sunday.

US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff told talk show host Tucker Carlson that a temporary deal was close but a lasting peace more elusive as “the elephant in the room” concerned territory Russia has conquered from Ukraine.

Mr Witkoff suggested he sympathised with Russia’s claims to the annexed regions, citing referendums showing support for Russian rule, and the fact they are Russian-speaking. Previously, Washington has held the referendums illegitimate as they were conducted by Russia in territory its military controls.

The interview was a slap-down for US allies in Europe, dismissing British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s proposed “coalition of the willing” to intervene in Ukraine as “a posture and a pose” which was “also simplistic.” He accused the British leader of pretending to be Winston Churchill and said the notion Russia might “march across Europe” if it won in Ukraine was “preposterous.”

European leaders have pushed for a rearmament drive in response to President Trump’s decision to strike a peace deal with Russia, though divisions have opened up with an EU agreement to commit states to spending primarily on weaponry from EU members, excluding Britain and Turkey.

On Friday, Germany’s upper house, which represents the governments of its 16 states, backed amendments to the constitution allowing higher borrowing for military spending. States in which Sahra Wagenknecht’s anti-war BSW sits in coalition abstained on the vote, but those in which Die Linke does voted in favour. 

Socialist daily Junge Welt columnist Nico Popp compared the betrayal to the Social Democrat vote for war credits in 1914 as World War I began. Die Linke’s leaders have concluded “after the federal election and the influx of many new members from the liberal-progressive milieu, favourable conditions exist to bury the ‘peace party’ of the old order and complete the painfully long process of integration into the party-of-government camp,” he wrote.