live from washington, this is bbc news.

ukraine's president says more work is needed on a plan to end the war with russia, as he meets the us vice—president. we wa nt we want the water come to a close, we want the killing to stop. —— war. the us insists it wants a lasting peace — president zelensky says his country needs real security guarantees. the eu's foreign policy chief says a russian drone strike on the chernobyl nuclear plant shows russia doesn't want peace. the kremlin denies any knowledge of the attack. hello, i'm helena humphrey. welcome to this bbc news special programme on the war in ukraine. president zelensky says more work is needed on a plan to end the war, as he met the us vice—presidentjd vance on the sidelines of the munich security conference. ukraine's president made it clear that any peace deal with russia must involve real security guarantees

for his country. jd vance insisted the us did want a "durable lasting peace", but earlier he stunned the gathered european leaders with a withering attack on their own countries, particularly in relation to free speech. our chief international correspondent lyse doucet reports from the conference in germany. finally, after three years of war, formal talks about peace. ukraine and america face to face to find ways to end the fighting. fundamentally, the goal is, as president trump outlined it, we want the war to come to a close, we want the killing to stop, but we want to achieve a durable, lasting peace — not the kind of peace that is going to have eastern europe in conflictjust a couple of years down the road. ukraine's president deeply worried that his most important ally isn't moving in the right direction, but he wants this dialogue. well, we are thankful

for american support, president trump, we had a good conversation today. ourfirst meeting — not our last for sure. a blunter message at another munich table. i had a good conversation with president trump. we had some phone calls and he had a phone call with putin, and he said to me, "i think that he — "putin — he wants to stop the war". i said to him that he is a liar and, yes, you can count on it. i hope that you will pressure him because i don't trust him. a pariah, now a partner. president trump has often praised the russian leader. now, he says president putin wants peace in ukraine. the mood in munich is grim, america's allies deeply troubled that it's already given too many concessions to russia before ukraine can even negotiate its own future. britain's top diplomat spoke for most the delegates here — ukraine had to be at the table.

all of us have this desire to bring this horrendous war to an end. we share the view that there has to be an enduring peace, and there was an agreement that zelensky and the ukrainians have to be part of that negotiated deal. but when america's vice president took to the main stage, his topic wasn't ukraine. this gathering stunned by an unexpected lecture that russia was not europe's main enemy, but the threat came from within. in britain, and across europe, free speech, ifear, is in retreat. now, the good news is that i happen to think your democracies are substantially less brittle than many people apparently fear, and i really do believe that allowing our citizens to speak their mind will make them stronger still. this security

conference has long been rooted in a commitment to what's been known as a rules—based international order, and the worry this year is president trump is now set on breaking those rules by rewarding president putin for his aggression against ukraine — endangering notjust the chances for a just peace but also the strength of this vital transatlantic relationship. but the nato secretary—general still believes this partnership can work. it has to be a lasting peace, never again to be challenged by putin. but we have to make sure we can get all the training and all the military gear into ukraine to make sure they can prevail in the meantime. for now, ukraine only sees more war, not peace. the latest attack — a drone strike on the chernobyl power plant. russia says it didn't do it. but for ukraine, it's been three years of denials from moscow.

more than anyone else, it wants this war to end. but a just peace, not appeasement. lyse doucet, bbc news, munich. steven pifer was the us ambassador to ukraine under president clinton. he says the trump administration could be handling the conflict between russia and ukraine better in some ways. i would like to start with some comments from president donald trump this week and the fact that he said that he held a phone call with russian president vladimir putin and afterwards he said peace negotiations will start, in his words, "immediately". what did you make of that when you heard it? i think there are some basic mistakes being made by the administration. first of all, before talking to vladimir putin, the president should have spoken to zelensky, the ukrainian president, to understand where ukraine has flexibility and does not have flexibility.

next he should have talked to european leaders because the administration expects europe to be playing an important part in the settlement. then he should have built leverage before talking to vladimir putin. i'm concerned that they have got the diplomatic order here very much out of sync in a way, and that will make their job more difficult. if they have turned the diplomatic order, perhaps, around, compared to how some people might have thought that it would have proceeded, why do you think that the trump administration might have done that? i don't know. i mean, it has been very clear going back eight or nine years that mr putin has a degree of admiration for — sorry, mr trump has some degree of admiration for mr putin. and that might have had some impact. but what we have seen in the last couple of days, i think, has been very unfortunate, for the administration's plans to broker things.

for example, the secretary of defence on wednesday starts talking about how, in any kind of a settlement, ukraine cannot get nato membership, and russia may end up controlling some of ukraine's territory. the two biggest things, or the two most important factors by which a settlement will be judged will be firstly how much ukrainian territory is under russian control, and secondly, what kind of security guarantees ukraine has. it appears at the beginning the administration has given concessions to moscow on two major points and it isn't clear they got anything in return. lets talk, then, about the potential for security guarantees, what they could look like. do you see european nations prepared to step up in the way that the us might no longer be prepared to, you know? if washington scales back, do you think europe can fill a potential gap? yes, let me be clear:

i think the administration is right in that europe will have to do more for its own defence. defence spending will have to rise because there is a very real russian threat. but i look at ukraine and to my mind the best security guarantee for ukraine would be nato membership. that will be difficult to do. that would take time. the administration now is talking about, perhaps, europe providing security forces some kind of security guarantee towards ukraine. that might be a possibility, but it is hard to see that happening without some kind of american connection with the secretary of defence. i hope the policy evolves. he did appear to rule out nato membership. do you think that is a concerted line in the sand when it comes to us foreign policy under the trump administration now, or do you think that is more malleable, perhaps a negotiating tactic? well, there is a bit of confusion here because

the secretary of defense yesterday tried to walk back his wednesday comment but then president trump then said "well, nato really isn't very realistic." again, this is another area where the administration may be making a basic mistake. the administration appears to have reversed american policy on nato membership for ukraine without any consultation with other nato members. it appears to have reversed the de facto us policy of not meeting with putin since 2022. that also appears to be with no apparent consultation with european leaders. he appears to have reversed the g7 policy of russia should not be in the g8, again, with no consultations. that doesn't appear to be a smart way to go with europe if you are asking europe to do the bulk of the responsibility for providing a security commitment

to europe and ukraine after a settlement of the russia— ukraine war. could that be part of a concerted effort that the war is one that needs to end? i can see the trump _ is one that needs to end? i can see the trump administration, | see the trump administration, and i agree the trump and installation —— with the drug administration that europe will have to raise defence spending from an average of about 2% now to about 3%

he said that in 2022 and it hasn't happened. if you look at what president zelensky wants, he wants 150,000, 200,000 european troops along this line of contact, if the war is frozen in place.

europe can't supply that right now because that requires really three times that number. you need those to go there, the recovering, then those training. you are really talking about a half million troops and europe doesn't have that many deployable combat capable forces that can resist. but more importantly than that, we know, from a century of this, that the united states and europe have to work together to maintain freedom and democracy in europe. we know from world war i the united states came over, after world war i, and then the us lost interest. after world war ii, we, the americans, learned our lesson, and now we're

backing away again. three years ago, to devastating effect. at the beginning of 2014, this is what ukraine's borders looked like. in february of that year russia occupied and annexed crimea. that was then followed by a full—scale invasion 3 years ago. and this is ukraine today, with russia having seized more than 20% of its territory, seen here in red. the purple shows land russia took but that ukraine has since won back. 0ur correspondentjames waterhouse has been to the south—east of the country, to speak to people who live on the banks

of a reservoir, siren blares in distance the sounds and scars of russia's invasion.

are you concerned that when it comes to sitting at the table, that that conversation

might not include ukraine? first of all, it is impossible. we are fighting for our land. it's our land. it is impossible to make any decisions without ukraine. who will fulfil them? i want to remind everyone that it wasn't american marines that stopped the advance on kyiv, or the advance in the east and south of our country and in the streets. it is ukrainians fighting. without ukrainians, there is no deal of any agreement, that is clear. speaking about how similar are the plans which are in the heads of ukrainians and president trump, i don't know what is in the hands of president trump. at the moment, i want to believe that our understanding is close. i know for sure that president trump

will try to follow the best interests of the american people, and the best interests of america is to stop putin because other dictators are watching, to show to the world that america is strong enough, that trump is stronger than putin. i'm sure he wants to win over putin and not to lose. but also the thinking that has been put forward from the trump administration is that europeans instead should be paying more for defence. do you think that if there is a waning in us support, if that support isn't there, financially, also in terms of weaponry, for example, that with the support of eu allies, that that will be enough? it is hard to argue with president trump that europe should spend more on defence, and that is true. we're very thankful to our european allies that they support ukraine today. and we want them to be ready to step in if by

chance the united states will stop supporting ukraine, because as president trump said, it is an ocean between the united states and the battlefield today, but it is just ukraine in between europe and russia. so europe can't, you know, ignore this fact. so that's — that's the story. coming back to that idea of the potential for negotiations and seemingly the impetus that president trump seems to be putting on them, do you believe that they could be imminent? there is no bad — nothing bad in negotiations. we need negotiations. we need peace. i hope they are imminent. what i don't like is the kind of tone which was taken by president trump towards putin. ijust want to remind all of us that putin is a war criminal, putin is a tyrant who is quite clear that he hates the united states, he hates the united kingdom. he says "i am fighting against anglo—saxons.

"don't forget about this." i think donald trump remembers this. and so he will do accordingly to this understanding that putin is an enemy, and he should be if not defeated completely, which is the best option, but at least stopped. i'm sure you would have seen the comments from the us defence secretary hegseth, talking, seemingly ruling out the possibility of nato membership for ukraine in the near term, also saying it would seem very unlikely that the map of ukraine prior to the full—scale invasion of russia would go back to where it was. in his opinion, i should stress. what do you make of that when you hear those comments? i think it is a mistake because ukraine needs nato for sure, but nato, too, needs ukraine. ukraine is the biggest army in the civilised world. i million battle—hardened people with battle experience

in the 21st century. nobody else. no army in the world except russia has such experience. that is something that is very valuable. i think it is a mistake to keep such an army outside the eu. it is much wiser to keep it inside. i hope our allies will soon get to this point. speaking of the map, the map of ukraine will not change. there is a map and international law. these territories are ukrainian. today part of them are controlled by russia. it is possible that after ending of hostilities, part of our territories will still be occupied. but we will never accept the fact they are russian. and notjust we, but the whole civilised world i'm sure, will never do this. it is about international law and order. sooner and later this russian empire will fall apart like it happened with the russian empire 100 years ago, the soviet union 30 years ago, and

we will regain all our territories. as we've mentioned, ukraine says the radiation shield at the disused chernobyl nuclear plant was hit by a russian drone overnight. emergency responders quickly contained the site, although officials said it was just 50 feet away from causing a greater accident. president zelensky said the attacks were a sign that his russian counterpart is "definitely not preparing for negotiations". russia's military denies striking the facility.

coming our way. but the wind pattern will be shifting. it'll be coming in more from the south/south—west. it will push away the cold air to more eastern parts of europe, so look at those temperatures. there'll be some sunshine too, rain, but those temperatures could be reaching perhaps even the mid—teens at times. bye— bye.