Vladimir Putin and other Kremlin officials have explicitly rejected making any concessions in future peace negotiations or accepting any US, European, or Ukrainian peace proposals.

Russia does not intend to “give in to anyone” or make any compromises in future peace negotiations, Mr Putin said during a visit to the Defenders of the Fatherland Foundation’s Moscow branch yesterday.

He said Russia must choose a peace option that best suits Russia and will ensure peace in the long-term.

Volodymyr Zelensky has said his country will hold talks with the US next week about ending the war against Russia.

Mr Zelensky, in his nightly address, said he would travel to Saudi Arabia on Monday and his team would stay there to hold talks with US officials.

“Next Monday, I have a visit planned to Saudi Arabia for a meeting with the Crown Prince. After that, my team will stay in Saudi Arabia to work with our American partners. Ukraine is most interested in peace,” he said.

“As we told @POTUS, Ukraine is working and will continue to work constructively for a swift and reliable peace,” Mr Zelensky said on X.

Ukraine’s opposition leaders Yulia Tymoshenko and Petro Porshenko have confirmed they spoke with Donald Trump’s aides but denied wanting to oust Volodymyr Zelensky from power.

Mr Porshenko said he held talks with some US representatives but clarified that he did not agree with Mr Trump’s demands for wartime elections. A poll, he said, should only be held once the martial law is lifted from the war-hit country.

Ms Tymoshenko, Ukraine’s former prime minister, said she opposes elections while fighting continues and that her team is “talking with all our allies who can help in securing a just peace as soon as possible”.

Members of Donald Trump’s team reportedly held secret discussions with Volodymyr Zelensky’s top political opponents days after his fiery White House clash with the Ukrainian president, reported Politico.

The talks between Mr Trump’s allies and the Ukrainian leaders focused on whether Ukraine could hold swift presidential elections, the report added.

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has criticised proposals for a European peacekeeping force in Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire.

The close ally of Vladimir Putin said that the move would amount to the “direct, official and unveiled involvement of Nato members in the war against Russia” and “it can’t be allowed”.

His remarks come after Sir Keir Starmer and French president Emmanuel Macron said they are seeking to build a “coalition of the willing” to defend a peace deal.

Mr Lavrov was backed by Russian spokesperson Maria Zakharova who said that Moscow rejects the possibility of a negotiated ceasefire and the deployment of European troops to Ukraine and claimed that Russia considers any proposal that gives Ukraine a “respite” along the frontline as unacceptable.

Donald Trump appeared to give somewhat of a cryptic answer when he was pressed on the possibility of a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.

The US president was asked for an update in relation to peace talks between the two countries as he signed several executive orders at the White House yesterday.

A journalist asked the president: “When Zelensky inevitably comes back to the White House what do you expect from him?”

Trump replied: “I think Ukraine wants to make a deal because I don’t think they don’t have a choice.

“I also think Russia wants to make a deal because in a certain different way, a way only I know, they have no choice either,” he said.

China wants to achieve a “fair, lasting and binding peace agreement” acceptable to all parties on the Ukraine war, foreign minister Wang Yi said today.

“Everyone hopes to achieve a fair, lasting, binding peace agreement that every side can accept,” Mr Wang told reporters during an annual press conference on the sidelines of the annual parliamentary sessions.

“China is willing to cooperate with the international community in accordance with the wishes of relevant parties to achieve a final resolution of the crisis and lasting peace, and will continue to play a constructive role,” he said.

The move, confirmed to Reuters by the official and three other sources, potentially leaves the refugees open to being swiftly deported back home amid the ongoing war.

According to the outlet, the revocations could begin as early as April and come in stark contrast to the welcome to those escaping the conflict that was rolled out by the Biden administration.

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French president Emmanuel Macron hit back at Russia, after the Kremlin warned him not to threaten it with nuclear rhetoric.”

I know president Putin well. If he’s reacting like that, it’s because he knows what I said is true,” Mr Macron told reporters at an EU summit in Brussels yesterday.

“He’s making a historical error: Napoleon waged conquests. The only imperialistic power I see in Europe right now is Russia,” he said, responding to a question posed by a Russian journalist in exile in France.

Mr Macron said he knew Putin could betray his word, because he had done just that when it did not respect the Minsk agreements signed with France, Germany and Ukraine after the invasion of Crimea in 2014.

He also said the reactions in Moscow yesterday were probably so vociferous because Russia’s intentions to continue waging war with Europe eventually, if a rushed peace treaty in Ukraine is signed, had been uncovered.

“He was probably piqued by the fact we’re exposing his game,” Macron said.

The Russian defence ministry says its forces have captured another village in eastern Ukraine, in a claim not confirmed by Kyiv.

A ministry statement said Russian forces had captured the village of Andriivka, west of the logistics centre of Kurakhove, which Moscow said it had taken in early January.

The General Staff of Ukraine’s military made no mention of Andriivka falling into Russian hands.

But in a late evening report, it mentioned the settlement as one of five that had come under attack during 17 attempts by Russian forces to pierce Ukrainian defences in the Pokrovsk sector in Donetsk region.

The report said one armed clash was still going on late in the evening.