After a phone call on Monday to discuss Russia’s ongoing military action in Ukraine, an in-person meeting between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov has been delayed.

A White House official told CNN that the meeting had been put on hold for the time being, but a reason was not provided. A source told the publication that the stalling was because of divergent expectations about a possible end to Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The meeting was expected to be a forerunner to a highly anticipated summit between US President Donald Trump and President Vladimir Putin in Budapest.

A Russian foreign ministry spokesperson said: “You can’t postpone what was not agreed upon”, adding that the meeting required preparation. Moscow is said to be working on what Lavrov and Rubio discussed on Monday.

It has led to speculation that the Trump-Putin meeting may also be pushed back.

Field Marshal Lord Richards tells The Independent’s Sam Kiley that Ukraine has been given false hope by its Western allies and cannot triumph against Russia unless Nat forces join the fight.

European troops are “ready to deploy” to Ukraine in the coming weeks if Vladimir Putin agrees to a ceasefire, defence secretary John Healey said.

However, Ukrainians must be the "people who will decide how and what" is negotiated in any peace talks, he said.

He said: “Peace is possible, and if president Trump can broker a peace, then we will be ready to help secure that peace for the long term.

“That requires us to invest and prepare our forces to be ready to deploy.

“Keir Starmer has said, if necessary, he’s willing to see UK boots on the ground in Ukraine, and I’ve accelerated already millions of pounds in that preparation for any possible deployment in the event of peace.

“And I would expect the cost of that to be well over £100m.”

Russian troops have pushed into the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk – and immediately begun the casual commission of war crimes, with the murder of at least three civilians who were trying to flee the invaders.

In footage shared with The Independent, an elderly woman lies on the verge of a road by a level crossing not far from the railway tracks on the outskirts of the city. She is wounded, and still.

A few yards away, a body lies on its back – inert, dead. Nearby, another victim lies collapsed next to the bicycle they had loaded with supplies before desperately bumping the wheels over the rails as the enemy approached. Slow and awkward, he or she must have been an easy target for Vladimir Putin’s vanguard.

World affairs editor Sam Kiley from Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine:

For a man who prides himself on conducting diplomacy by instinct and through personal relationships, Donald Trump’s susceptibility to Vladimir Putin has long puzzled observers – and rightly caused extreme distress to those who stand to lose the most from it.

He really doesn’t seem to be able to see Vladimir Putin for what he is: a cunning, ruthless and cruel imperialist, and a danger to the West.

Whatever “History” does eventually decide, such a settlement carries immediate risks for the West. Mr Zelensky accepts it – but only as the basis for more talks. He says that Putin “does not want peace”, and he is right about that. However, given the parlous state of the Russian economy, and thus Putin’s war machine, a temporary phase in the fighting and the relaxation of US sanctions on Russia would offer advantages for the Kremlin – hence the offer being made via Mr Trump.

Read The Independent View here:

Vladimir Putin has long demanded that Ukraine cede the Donbas to Moscow, a chunk of eastern Ukraine the majority of which has been occupied by Russian forces since its February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Donald Trump’s quick meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin could be stalled as only a pre-meeting between the two has been tabled, CNN reported this morning.

On Thursday, Trump had announced that the two “agreed that there will be a meeting of our high level advisors, next week”.

After a lengthy call with Putin last week followed by a meeting with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump made another reversal and called on Kyiv and Moscow to "stop where they are" and end their brutal war.

“The United States’ initial meetings will be led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, together with various other people, to be designated,” he wrote on Truth Social.

Earlier, Zelensky said he hopes that Trump's meeting in the coming weeks with Putin in Hungary — which does not support Ukraine — will pave the way for a peace deal.

New powers will allow the military to shoot down drones around UK bases, defence secretary John Healey has announced.

Drones have been sighted at military bases including some used by US forces in the UK while countries across Europe have also experienced disruption, with speculation Russia could be behind some of the incidents.

The new powers to protect military bases will be included in the Armed Forces Bill, with Mr Healey pledging to “do what’s needed to defend the British people”.

The UK sent specialist counter-drone experts to Denmark in September after suspicious activity, while last year a number of unidentified drones were spotted on multiple occasions over three airbases used by US forces in the UK – RAF Lakenheath and RAF Mildenhall, in Suffolk, and RAF Feltwell, in Norfolk.

Donald Trump has described the Russia-Ukraine conflict as the last war he has on his list to resolve, while playing down his earlier suggestions that he backed Ukraine to win.

“It's Russia and Ukraine, and I think we'll get there, but it's turned out to be nasty because you have two leaders that truly hate each other," Trump said last night as he took questions from reporters.

“They hate each other beyond all else, and it makes it actually a little bit difficult.”

On being asked if he thinks Ukraine can win the war, Trump said: "I don't think they will, but they could still win it, I never said they would win it.”

"I said they could win, anything can happen. War is a very strange thing, a lot of bad things happen,” he said.

Just few weeks back, the US president said Ukraine could take back all the land it has lost since 2022, in what was seen as a major shift in his position.

Trump also said that the issue of providing weapons to Ukraine sounded easy, but was "a little more complicated."

He said the US was continuing to press for a deal between Ukraine and Russia to end a war that Trump had promised to resolve immediately after taking office 10 months ago.

Ukraine's allies are concerned over the war-hit nation’s position on the battlefield and diplomatically, amid fears that Donald Trump and Russian president Vladimir Putin could sign a bad ceasefire deal, weakening all of Europe.

The outcome of their meeting could be a disaster not just for Ukraine but also for Europe, European officials have said.

“We see president Trump’s efforts to bring peace to Ukraine. Of course all these efforts are welcome, but we don’t see Russia really wanting peace,” top EU diplomat Kaja Kallas told reporters in Luxembourg yesterday.

“Russia only understands strength.”Ukraine and its allies have long called for an immediate ceasefire with troops in place, while Moscow has demanded Ukraine cede further territory before it would halt fighting.