Peace talks between Volodymyr Zelensky and Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff have ended after five hours, an adviser to the Ukrainian president has said, with further negotiations to take place on Monday.
The Ukrainian president arrived in Berlin on Sunday morning for the latest round of peace talks with Witkoff and German chancellor Friedrich Merz.
Adviser Dmytro Lytvyn told reporters: “They went on for more than five hours and ended for today with an agreement to resume tomorrow morning.”
Lytvyn said Zelensky would comment on the talks on Monday once they were completed.
It comes just hours after Zelensky said that he would abandon his ambition for Ukraine to join Nato in order to secure a peace deal, indicating that Kyiv would be flexible with one of its previous red lines in negotiations. He said the move was a “compromise” but that separate security guarantees would be essential in an agreement.
Separately, Ukraine‘s navy accused Russia of deliberately attacking a civilian Turkish vessel carrying sunflower oil to Egypt with a drone on Saturday.
Witkoff says ‘progress was made’ during peace talks
Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff has said that “a lot of progress was made” at peace talks with Volodmyr Zelensky.
Talks between Ukrainian and US officials on a peace plan lasted for five hours on Sunday. They will continue tomorrow.
Daniel Keane14 December 2025 21:07
Ukraine and US peace talks in Berlin end and will resume tomorrow, Zelensky adviser says
Talks between Ukrainian and U.S. officials on proposals for a settlement of the war in Ukraine ended after more than five hours on Sunday and are set to resume on Monday, a Ukrainian presidential adviser said.
“They went on for more than five hours and ended for today with an agreement to resume tomorrow morning,” adviser Dmytro Lytvyn told reporters in a WhatsApp chat.
Lytvyn said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky would comment on the talks on Monday once they were completed. Officials, Lytvyn said, were considering the draft documents.
Daniel Keane14 December 2025 20:17
Comment: Ukraine can and will win – if its allies get serious about defence
Daniel Keane14 December 2025 19:42
How was Nato formed?
Originally born of the Treaty of Dunkirk signed by Britain and France on 4 March 1947, Nato was created to contain any future military threat from a revived Germany or the USSR at a time when the Marshall Plan was attempting to bring economic deliverance to a continent still in recovery from a war that had killed 36.5 million people.
Nato was soon expanded to include Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg and then the US, Canada, Portugal, Italy, Norway, Denmark and Iceland.
Holding firm throughout the Cold War and evolving its approach in response to such tense diplomatic episodes as the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Vietnam War and the USSR’s invasion of Afghanistan, the alliance was given a new lease of life with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
It gradually added former Soviet satellites states to its ranks: first the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland in 1999 and then Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia in 2004.
Daniel Keane14 December 2025 18:38
Nobel laureate Ales Bialiatski tells of Belarus prison ordeal in first interview
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski has spoken out for the first time since his release from prison in Belarus.
The 63-year-old veteran human rights advocate, from Belarus, was suddenly released on Saturday after more than four years behind bars,
When back in Vilnius, he hugged his wife for the first time in years.
“When I crossed the border, it was as if I emerged from the bottom of the sea and onto the surface of the water”, he told the Associated Press.
“You have lots of air, sun, and back there you were in a completely different situation — under pressure.”
Daniel Keane14 December 2025 18:00
What is Nato and will Ukraine become a member?
Ukraine is not currently part of Nato, but Zelensky has consistently called for his country to be welcomed into the alliance.
Mr Putin insists – without any basis – that Russia and Ukraine are really one nation. Through his act of aggression against Ukraine, he appears to be seeking to reintegrate the country into his vision of a greater Russia, just as he annexed the Crimean Peninsula in 2014.
For its part, Ukraine wants the defensive protection of the alliance as part of its bid for recognition as a free western democracy, shielded from the malign influence of Moscow but Trump has insisted Kyiv cannot be a member.
Read our full explainer below.
Daniel Keane14 December 2025 17:30
Zelensky ditches hopes of Ukraine joining Nato ahead of crunch peace talks in Berlin
The Ukrainian president ditched his hopes to join the military alliance in what he said was a “compromise” to end the war with Russia.
In a major shift, Zelensky said Ukraine will instead ask for Western security guarantees, which he said should be legally binding.
Read the full story:
Athena Stavrou14 December 2025 16:57
Zelensky meets Witkoff and Witkoff
President Zelensky greeted Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner warmly in Berlin.
The Ukrainian president and US envoys are beginning crunch peace talks.
Athena Stavrou14 December 2025 16:16
Zelensky begins crunch peace talks with Trump envoy and European leaders in Berlin
Volodymyr Zelensky has arrived in Berlin for the latest round of Ukraine peace talks with Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and German chancellor Friedrich Merz.
A source told Reuters that the negotiations, which also include Trump’s son Jared Kushner and Ukraine’s head of national security Rustem Umerov, were underway as of 4pm local time on Sunday.
It comes just hours after Zelensky said that he would abandon his ambition for Ukraine to join Nato in order to secure a peace deal, indicating that Kyiv would be flexible with one of its previous red lines in negotiations. He said the move was a “compromise” but that separate security guarantees would be essential in an agreement.
Athena Stavrou14 December 2025 15:39
Comment: Ukraine can and will win – if its allies get serious about defence
We have the shadow of war knocking at Europe’s door, the armed forces minister Al Carns, the much-decorated Royal Marines veteran, explained in glorious mixed metaphor to assembled defence correspondents. He was opening the new military intelligence hub at RAF Wyton. Experts from seven different branches of the service confirmed that aggressive cyber and information operations by Russia on UK interests have gone up 50 per cent in the last year alone.
The message has been underscored by Nato’s civilian boss, secretary general Mark Rutte, the hugely experienced Dutch statesman. He said Europe and Nato must be ready for conflict with Russia “on a scale our grandparents and great-grandparents endured”.
Russia’s leadership is repeating that it does not want to “go to war with Europe, but is prepared for war” if it is provoked. The words are eerily similar to what the Kremlin said through the winter of 2021 about not intending to invade Ukraine, unless circumstances changed. The similarity in language and information tactics has alarmed UK defence intelligence and its sister agencies.
Robert Fox writes:
Tara Cobham14 December 2025 15:30
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