European leaders scared of voters and failing to defend democracy, Vance tells security summit – Europe live

Here’s a recap of the latest developments:

• Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country wants “security guarantees” and a joint US-Ukrainian peace plan before he enters into any talks with Vladimir Putin to end the war in his country. Zelenskyy held talks with US vice-president JD Vance on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, after which both men agreed that further talks were required to see if they could reach a common understanding.

• Vance launched a brutal ideological assault on Europe, accusing its leaders of suppressing free speech, failing to halt illegal migration and running in fear from voters’ true beliefs. In a chastising speech in Munich, the US vice president lectured European leaders on what he claimed was the continent’s failure to listen to the populist concerns of voters.

• The EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said Vance’s speech felt like the US was “trying to pick a fight” with Europe. German defence minister Boris Pistorius said Vance’s intervention was “not acceptable”. Norwegian prime minister Jonas Gahr Støre criticised Vance for “not addressing some of the key security issues that we face today,” which he called a “missed opportunity.”

• Britain’s foreign secretary David Lammy said he and Vance agreed that Zelenskyy must be part of any peace talks to end the war with Russia. Lammy said he was “very encouraged” in his conversations with Vance about Ukraine.

• The Kremlin is assembling a high-level negotiating team to engage in direct talks with the US to end the war in Ukraine, according to a report. Members of the Russian negotiation team will reportedly include top-level political, intelligence and economic figures, including Kirill Dmitriev, a close adviser to Putin and outspoken supporter of Trump, suggesting that a key focus of Russia’s negotiating strategy in likely to be on sanctions reduction.

• Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, warned that there was “no point trying to negotiate” with Putin, amid talks on ending the Ukraine war. “There are only two possible outcomes for any deal with Putin. If he remains in power, he will find a way to break the agreement. If he loses power, the agreement will become meaningless,” she said.

• A Russian drone carrying a high-explosive warhead struck the protective containment shell of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine overnight, Zelenskyy said. The attack came hours before the start of the Munich Security Conference.

We’re closing this blog now. Thanks for following along.

US vice president JD Vance met the leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, Alice Weidel, according to German media reports.

The meeting was held outside the Munich Security Conference venue because the AfD was not invited to the conference, public broadcaster ZDF reports.

As we reported earlier, Vance appeared to back the AfD when he called for an end of political “firewalls,” a pointed reference to a consensus among German parties not to work with the AfD.

A German government spokesperson said Vance should not interfere in the upcoming election. “I don’t think it is right for foreigners, including those from friendly foreign countries, to interfere so intensively in an election campaign in the middle of an election period,” the spokesperson said.

Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, warned that there was “no point trying to negotiate” with Russian president Vladimir Putin, amid talks on ending the Ukraine war.

“Even if you decided to negotiate with Putin, just remember he will lie,” Navalnaya told the Munich Security Conference on Friday, according to Agence-France-Presse.

Putin “will betray”, she said. “He will change the rules at the last moment and force you to play his game.”

There are only two possible outcomes for any deal with Putin. If he remains in power, he will find a way to break the agreement. If he loses power, the agreement will become meaningless.

Navalnaya was speaking two days before the first anniversary of her husband’s death in a Russian prison.

UK foreign secretary David Lammy also met with Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, while at the Munich Security Conference on Friday.

Lammy posted a photo of the meeting, which took place almost a year to the day after Navalny died in a Russian prison.

“I made clear our commitment to weaken Putin’s attempts to stifle opposition to Yulia Navalnaya,” Lammy wrote.

We will continue to do all we can to constrain the Kremlin - today’s sanctions are take aim at Putin’s inner circle.

Britain’s foreign secretary David Lammy said he and US vice president JD Vance agreed that Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, must be part of any peace talks to end the war with Russia.

“I was very encouraged in our conversations about Ukraine,” Lammy told Reuters after meeting with Vance earlier in the day.

Lammy said he and Vance “share the view that there has to be an enduring peace” and agreed that Ukraine would “have to be part of that negotiated deal”.

“All of us have this desire to bring this horrendous war to an end,” he said, adding:

Negotiations have not yet begun. These are talks, if you like, about talks, and we will continue to support Ukraine.

The pair also touched upon Nato, Aukus and the special relationship between the UK and the US, according to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).

US vice president JD Vance said Washington wanted to achieve a “durable, lasting peace” in Ukraine, after holding talks with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Munich. Vance said:

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’s going to have Eastern Europe in conflict just a couple years down the road.

Vance, who was seated alongside US secretary of state Marco Rubio and Keith Kellogg, Donald Trump’s special envoy on the Ukraine war, continued:

It’s important for us to get together and start to have the conversations that are going to be necessary to bring this thing to a close.

“That’s all I’m going to say for now, because I want to preserve the optionality here for the negotiators and our respective teams to bring this thing to a responsible close,” he added.

The Kremlin is assembling a high-level negotiating team to engage in direct talks with the US to end the war in Ukraine, CNN reports, citing sources.

Members of the Russian negotiation team will include top-level political, intelligence and economic figures, including Kirill Dmitriev, a close adviser to Vladimir Putin who played a key behind-the-scenes role in a recent release from Russia of American teacher Marc Fogel, the outlet reports.

CNN reports that Dmitriev, the head of Russia’s sanctioned sovereign wealth fund, has been an outspoken supporter of Donald Trump and has said that Trump’s win “opens up new opportunities for resetting relations between Russia and the United States.”

According to the outlet, Dmitriev’s participation in potential peace talks indicates that a key focus of Russia’s negotiating strategy in likely to be on sanctions reduction.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he had held “good” talks with US vice president, JD Vance.

Zelenskyy told reporters after the meeting:

We have good conversation today. Our first meeting, not last, I’m sure.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, shortly before sitting down with US vice president JD Vance, said the only Russian official he was prepared to talk to was its president, Vladimir Putin.

Zelenskyy said he would only be prepared to meet with Putin after Ukraine had agreed on a common plan with US president Donald Trump and European leaders.

I will meet with Russians - with only one Russian guy, with Putin - only after we will have common plan with Trump, Europe … and we will sit with Putin and stop the war. Only in this case I’m ready to meet.

Trump had given him his personal phone number and told him that he could call any time he wanted, Zelenskyy added.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy told US vice president JD Vance that Kyiv wants “real security guarantees” before any talks to end the war with Russia.

Speaking during a meeting on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, Zelenskyy said Ukraine was “very thankful” for US support. He added:

We need to speak more, to work more and to prepare the plan [for] how to stop [Vladimir] Putin and finish the work … We want peace very much, but we need real security guarantees.

The EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, reacting to US vice president JD Vance’s speech, said it felt like Washington was “trying to pick a fight” with Europe.

Kallas told reporters:

Listening to that speech, they try to pick a fight with us and we don’t want to a pick a fight with our friends.

She added that allies should be focusing on bigger threats like Russia’s aggression on Ukraine.

I am now handing this blog over to my US colleague Léonie Chao-Fong in Washington, as we await updates on Zelenskyy’s talks with JD Vance.

Here are the three things you need to know from today’s Europe Live (so far):

• Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and US vice-president JD Vance were locked in bilateral discussions at the Munich Security Conference this evening as part of Donald Trump’s push for a negotiated peace agreement to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (18:18). We will bring you more on this when we get it. But in his earlier comments, Zelenskyy repeatedly called for iron-clad security guarantees for Ukraine, saying that otherwise there is a risk of Russian aggression against Nato (12:41), and refused to recognise occupied Ukrainian territory as Russian (12:47).

• US vice-president JD Vance has urged Europe to put forward a positive case for freedom and act against “the threat that I worry most, the threat from within” which he put as “the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values” through restrictions on free speech, content moderation rules online, and political firewalls against radical parties (15:44).

• Pope Francis has been hospitalised for treatment of his ongoing bronchitis, the Vatican has said in a brief press statement. He also cancelled events over the next few days, as he is epxected to undergo further treatment.

If you have any tips, comments or suggestions, email me at jakub.krupa@theguardian.com. Thanks for all your emails and engagement today.

I will see you again on Monday, BUT our Europe Live blog does not end here today, so don’t go anywhere yet – it’s over to Léonie in Washington!

Norwegian prime minister Jonas Gahr Støre just offered his take on JD Vance’s speech.

He says that the fact that he was able to deliver his speech at a keynote slot even if Europeans don’t agree with him show that freedom of speech is doing fine in Europe, thank you very much.

“The vice-president can decide that this is how he would like to address his audience. He likes to raise these themes, and although we may disagree that is that is fair enough,” he says.

But he pointedly criticises Vance for “not addressing some of the key security issues that we face today,” which he calls a “missed opportunity.”

“What’s happening in Ukraine, what’s happening in Russia, what’s happening in China is less important than the presumed loss of freedom of speech in Europe? I disagree,” he says.

A Russian citizen suspected of acts of sabotage against “Poland, the US, and other allies” was arrested and deported from Bosnia and Herzegovina to Poland, Polish prime minister Donald Tusk has just said in a social media post.

He released no further details about the arrest nor the alleged acts of sabotage, but congratulated intelligence services and the prosecutor’s office saying the arrest further “confirmed hostile Russian activity.”

Meanwhile, Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis welcomed Ursula von der Leyen’s promise of changes to EU fiscal rules (14:30).

“Greece has long advocated to exempt defence investments from fiscal constraints. We welcome the proposal … to activate the escape clause, enabling EU member states to strengthen their defence capabilities. A crucial step for our collective security,” he said in a social media post.

Earlier today, Zelenskyy also met with a delegation of US senators.

In a social media post, he said he expressed his thanks for “for the bipartisan support Ukraine has received since the very beginning of the full-scale invasion, and for the contributions made to protect thousands of lives.”

“The Russian Federation does not want to end the war and continues to escalate global tensions. That is why U.S. military support is crucial for Ukraine. Only in this way can we achieve a just and lasting peace,” he told them.

The meeting between the pair has now started, Zelenskyy’s press secretary told Reuters.

We will bring you any top lines from their meetings when we get them.

While in Munich, Ukraine’s Zelenskyy meets also with other, European allies.

Earlier today, he spoke (and hugged) with Lithuanian president Gitanas Nausėda, who assured him that “Lithuania’s support for Ukraine is ironclad.”

“Peace comes through strength, and we stand ready to further strengthen Ukraine’s defence,” he said in a social media post.

He added that:

The only acceptable peace is one that is sustainable, preventing the aggressor from further threatening Europe and the entire democratic world.