Despite mounting pressure to negotiate peace with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Russian President Vladimir Putin remains steadfast, defending the legitimacy of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Meanwhile, Russia has skillfully circumvented various Western sanctions imposed in response to the conflict.

In a show of solidarity, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer welcomed Zelenskyy warmly outside 10 Downing Street. Their initial meeting took place over lunch, followed by discussions with other leaders later in the afternoon. “We’ve got really important business to go through,” Starmer remarked as he greeted Zelenskyy.

Western leaders are increasingly frustrated by Putin’s refusal to engage in peace talks. Ahead of Friday’s meeting, Starmer expressed his exasperation, stating, “Time and again we offer Putin the chance to end his needless invasion, to stop the killing and recall his troops, but he repeatedly rejects those proposals and any chance of peace.”

As the largest conflict in Europe since World War II approaches its fourth year next February, Ukraine’s Western allies face crucial decisions about their future involvement and strategies to address the ongoing crisis. It’s clear that the path to peace remains fraught with challenges, demanding concerted efforts from the international community to find a resolution.

“Time and again we offer Putin the chance to end his needless invasion, to stop the killing and recall his troops, but he repeatedly rejects those proposals and any chance of peace,” Starmer said in written comments ahead of Friday’s meeting.

Ukraine’s Western allies need to resolve some big questions about the future part they will play as Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II heads toward its fourth anniversary next February.

The uncertainties include how they can help fund war-devastated Ukraine, what postwar security guarantees they might be able to provide it, and nail down what Washington’s commitments to future security arrangements might be.

Building a ‘reassurance force’

Zelenskyy and Starmer are expected to be joined at the Foreign Office in London by NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof.

About 20 other leaders are to join via video link in the meeting of the group dubbed the Coalition of the Willing.

Details of the potential future “reassurance force” are scant, and the London meeting seeks to further develop the idea – even though any peace agreement appears at the moment to be only a distant possibility.

The force is likely to consist of air and naval support rather than Western troops deployed in Ukraine, according to officials. UK Defense Secretary John Healey says it would be “a force to help secure the skies, secure the seas, a force to help train Ukrainian forces to defend their nation.”

Its headquarters is expected to rotate between Paris and London for 12-month periods.

The war has shown no sign of subsiding, as a front-line war of attrition kills thousands of soldiers on both sides while drone and missile barrages cause damage in rear areas.

Russia says it has captured Ukrainian villages

The Russian Defence Ministry claimed on Friday that over the past week its forces have captured 10 Ukrainian villages. The small conquests are part of Russia’s slow but steady slog to envelop the remaining Ukrainian strongholds in the Donetsk region from both the north and the south and create footholds for pressing further west into the Dnipropetrovsk region.

The Defence Ministry also said its forces downed 111 Ukrainian drones over several regions overnight, with debris causing damage to homes and infrastructure.

One drone hit an apartment building in Krasnogorsk on Moscow’s northwestern edge, injuring five people, including a child, according to Andrei Vorobyov, the governor of the Moscow region.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin reported that air defenses downed three drones heading to Moscow, which forced flights to be suspended at two Moscow airports.

Three other Russian airports briefly suspended flights because of the drone attacks.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian authorities said Russian artillery struck a residential block in the southeastern city of Kherson on Friday, killing two people and injuring 22 others, including a 16-year-old.

Also, Russian planes dropped at least five powerful glide bombs on the northeastern city of Kharkiv, injuring six people and damaging homes, according to city mayor Ihor Terekhov.

And for the first time, Russia fired glide bombs in Ukraine’s southern Odesa region on Friday, according to Oleh Kiper, head of the Odesa Regional Military Administration, calling it “a new, serious threat” in the area.

Russian war bloggers said the military used a new jet-propelled glide bomb with an extended range of up to 200 kilometres, significantly increasing Russian deep strike capacity. Glide bombs are significantly cheaper than missiles and carry a heavier payload.

Ukraine’s rail company, Ukrzaliznytsia, announced train delays and route changes in three regions caused by “massive shelling” that damaged infrastructure, which Russian forces have targeted in recent months.