once, it seems actually quite a lot of common ground between the conservatives and the labour party. and, as you know, 5.5 million of you have had your votes cancelled on the 1st of may. we'll discuss whether that makes any sense at all, and whether these new super councils will actually save the taxpayer money. but before all of that, let's get the news with katie bowen. >> nigel, thank you and good evening. it's 7:01. these are your latest headlines from the gb newsroom. gb news understands this evening that 20 countries are in talks about joining a coalition of the willing to keep the peace in ukraine. it was announced earlier today that the uk government has signed a £30 million deal to provide ukraine's armed forces with more advanced attack drones to tackle russian aggression in the black sea. sir keir starmer said the uk will play a leading part in terms of defence and security,

posting on x after that eu leaders summit in brussels, president zelenskyy said that, quote, everyone must ensure that russia, the sole source of this war, accepts the need to end it. he went on to add that the next step is basic trust in the circumstances in which the negotiations are taking place. the prime minister spoke to gb news katherine forster a short time ago. >> we've enjoyed 80 years of peace, and we've enjoyed 80 years of peace because we've had such a close relationship with the united states, we are closer than any other country to the united states when it comes to our defence, our security, our intelligence sharing. and we've worked with our european partners within nato, which is the most important alliance the world has ever seen. and we've never made that choice. between siding, as it were, with the us or with europe. historically, we've never done that. churchill didn't do it, attlee didn't do it. and it's certainly not the right thing to do now when

things are extremely volatile. >> well, that comes as defence secretary john healey has met with his us counterpart, pete hegseth, a short time ago. earlier on, the white house said that they had made no decision at this time on the legal status for ukrainians in the us. the trump administration confirmed that they had stopped intelligence sharing with ukraine last night. triple killer kyle clifford has been found guilty at cambridge crown court of raping his ex—partner, louise hunt, in an attack which saw him murder her and her sister with a crossbow and their mother with a butcher's knife. the 26 year old was found guilty by a jury at cambridge crown court after around 45 minutes. clifford had previously denied rape. he previously admitted murdering louise hannah and carol hunt at their home in bushey in july last year. clifford was tried in his absence after refusing to leave his cell at hmp belmarsh. and

the prince of wales has spoken in detail for the first time today about his first session as a crisis helpline volunteer for young people, describing the experience as terrifying. prince william made the comments on a visit to mental health innovations in west london, adding that the conversations he had had while volunteering in 2020 have, quote , lived with me 2020 have, quote, lived with me for a long time afterwards. those are the latest gb news headlines. now let's go back to nigel. >> for the very latest gb news direct to your smartphone. sign up to news alerts by scanning the qr code or go to. gbnews.com/alerts. >> well, of course, negotiations continuing about ending the russia—ukraine war. they've been going on today in brussels with european leaders and indeed with the ukrainian leader, as you might have just seen on the news. our defence secretary of

meeting, his counterpart in america and potentially next week, a big get together in the white house, perhaps even the french, british, ukrainian and american leaders being together in one room. most people in this country, and i include in that most politicians and most of our mainstream media, and i think most public opinion thinks that zelenskyy has been a very brave wartime leader. and last night we had somebody on the programme very much in his favour. but there are 1 or 2 questions. is it possible that he could be a barrier to the peace process? is it time the ukrainians had elections? and remember, this is gb news, where we debate absolutely everything. i'm joined in the studio by alexander temerko, ukrainian british businessman and political campaigner. i'm joined by john redwood, former conservative mp and minister, and paul richards, former labour special adviser and columnist. alexander, welcome back on to gb

news. you wrote a big article yesterday in which you which you asked some questions about the leadership of zelenskyy . and of leadership of zelenskyy. and of course, you know what happened in the oval office at the end of last week. and your view was that zelenskyy had displayed poor diplomatic behaviour. >> i was witnesses there because in this dramatic situation, i was in washington and i can see in this my eyes what happened there. i think it was very predictable because zelenskyy my opinion. zelenskyy doesn't want to sign a disagreement, deal agreement, trade deal agreement. i can say without strong guarantee, military guarantee for protect ukraine after ceasefire that he why he wanted to visit an america and wanted to visit an america and wanted to ask president trump and

discuss with him how we can protect ukraine after ceasefire and what can be after we signed and what can be after we signed a great peaceful deal, and what can be after we signed a great peaceful deal , that is. a great peaceful deal, that is. and trump has another vision. he is a neither signed trade deal with ukraine and which include a lot of ukrainian resources, rare minerals, strategic resources, reservoirs, bridges, a lot of everything ports. that is a quite complex paper. but you know, i know just a bit trump for his this style of negotiation. he's a probably a business style negotiation. but zelenskyy a bit doesn't understand this style of negotiation because trump know putin better than zelenskyy, know putin because trump and longer and trump want to say putin. listen, i have agreement with ukraine 1 trillion one half

trillion. but it doesn't matter. thatis trillion. but it doesn't matter. that is a bigger than your budget and that is a mine. and actually i have a idea to grow in business across ukraine. and we need to negotiate situation. and i need a peace, i need a ceasefire. that is a key point. what trump wants to say. putin, what is a piece of paper needed? >> trump to. >> trump to. >> start negotiation with putin? >> start negotiation with putin? >> you're saying that zelenskyy went in there not understanding the way trump operates? fine, i get that, but it does. a lot of people would say this, that there's a lot of pressure being put by the americans on zelenskyy. what pressure is he putting on putin? >> listen, people doesn't know what kind of negotiation between trump and putin must be going to in the future. actually, for if we return to this deal, a trade deal we return to this deal, a trade deal, i'll be very appreciate trump and say thousand times thank you for you are big businessman, global businessman,

a leader of the biggest country. want to be promoted. my economy, my country, my peace. nobody cannot promote a ukraine more today than trump with this deal. nobody talk about ukraine resources, ukraine economy on the top level like i do the trump i believe for that is a achievement. but zelenskyy has another agenda. and his agenda talk about about next step. what happened when we say. >> so is this minerals agreement. and i agree with you economically it's going to be great for ukraine. there's no question about that. absolutely great for american companies as well. absolutely i understand all of that. do you see this as the first step towards the kind of security guarantees that ukraine needs? >> absolutely. and he said, we are never leave ukraine. if we will be there, if our economy will be there, if our economy will be there, if our economy will be in ukraine. and he say, there's a for my understanding,

trump plan as a three level first ceasefire, second election and then new government and new president signed a new peaceful agreement. >> so you think the election should happen sort of immediately after a ceasefire, do you? >> absolutely. and then zelenskyy is not is a bit tricky talk for okay. impossible to provide a proper democratic election in the war is true. but we are talking about ceasefire. and then during the almost one year which given this ukraine to prepare election and we receive a very serious research from ukraine, parliament and ukraine legal, one of the biggest legal company who can say and explain how can do that? it's from ukraine company. it's inside ukraine. >> you sound to me like you're quite optimistic that an end of the war is coming. >> absolutely optimistic. >> absolutely optimistic. >> but that means, of course, accepting that crimea is not coming back.

>> well, i'm ukrainian, i was born in