Kyiv should be concerned in Ukraine peace talks, Poland’s Tusk says, as he warns in opposition to permitting Russia to problem borders ‘with impunity’
Polish prime minister Donald Tusk is talking proper now, briefing the Polish media after this weekend’s consultations amongst European leaders, as he says they “stay united of their method.”
He says that “for Poland and our European companions, it should be clear that you simply can not change borders with pressure,” and Russia should not be allowed to learn from its invasion on Ukraine.
“The West, together with European international locations, won’t settle for Russian calls for which merely quantity to the seizure of Ukrainian territory,” Tusk says.
He warns in opposition to Russia getting the thought it will possibly problem different international locations’ borders “with impunity.”
Tusk additionally attracts on Polish historical past to repeat the precept of “nothing about Ukraine with out Ukraine.”
“From historical past we all know — and Poland has typically been a sufferer of this — that when the good powers determined about different international locations with out the participation of these international locations in negotiations, the results had been grave.”
Key occasions
Albania battles wildfires amid excessive temperatures
Actually, some elements of south-eastern Europe had been already going through excessive situations over the weekend, with wildfires raging in Albania, reportedly forcing evacuations and destroying houses in rural communities.
AFP reported that over a dozen fires had been energetic within the Balkan nation, after a whole bunch of firefighters and troopers managed most of almost 40 fires that flared within the final 24 hours, in accordance with the defence ministry.
Round 800 Albanian troops have been deployed, together with navy plane and helicopters from surrounding international locations, to battle the wildfires.
A number of elements of the Balkans are tipped to climb above 40C this week, as a heatwave sweeps the area, with a few of the highest temperatures anticipated in Serbia, Bosnia and Croatia.
Heatwave anticipated to maneuver to central, japanese Europe subsequent – evaluation
Brendan Wooden
for the MetDesk
After a interval of cooler climate, swaths of central and japanese Europe face one other heatwave as scorching air over south-western Europe pushes north-west.
Since late July, massive elements of the Iberian peninsula have endured persistent warmth, with temperatures often climbing to the excessive 30s to low 40s celsius.
With southern and south-western Europe already enduring intense warmth, the arrival of this heat air into central and japanese elements is more likely to mark the beginning of a widespread scorching spell that would persist for a number of days.
Southern Europe swelters underneath lethal heatwave as temperatures move 40C
Ajit Niranjan
Lethal warmth of as much as 42C is searing southern Europe, as scientists warn of a “molotov cocktail” of weather conditions that’s fuelling huge wildfires throughout the Mediterranean.
Météo-France positioned greater than half the nation underneath heatwave warnings on Monday morning, with 12 out of 96 administrative items on the mainland underneath the best pink alert, whereas Spain’s Aemet warned of “excessive hazard” in Zaragoza and the Basque Nation because it issued yellow and orange warnings for nearly all the remainder of the nation.
Each climate companies forecast temperatures above 40C over the approaching days and referred to as for vigilance amid forecasts of “a really intense, even distinctive” heatwave in elements of the continent.
The excessive temperatures have alarmed specialists as firefighters wrestle to include harmful wildfires. In France, which introduced its largest hearth since 1949 underneath management on Sunday, authorities reported that one particular person had died within the blaze, whereas 20 firefighters and 5 civilians had been injured.
French forecasters mentioned warmth information had been more likely to be damaged on Monday and Tuesday as temperatures move 42C within the south-west. Temperatures hit a document excessive of 41.4C within the village of Tourbes, close to Béziers, on the weekend.
In Spain, temperatures on Monday had been anticipated to rise additional within the Ebro basin, the southern and japanese thirds of the Iberian peninsula, and the japanese Cantabrian Sea. They had been forecast to fall within the north-west, significantly in Galicia.
In Italy, the place temperatures of 40C are anticipated to hit Florence on Wednesday, tourist trails were closed on Mount Vesuvius on Sunday as firefighters fought a blaze on the slopes of the volcano.
The world has warmed by about 1.4C due to fossil gas air pollution, which types a heat-trapping blanket across the Earth, and the destruction of nature, which sucks carbon dioxide from the air.
In Europe, which has warmed almost twice as quick as the worldwide common, a heat and dry air mass hanging over a lot of the Iberian peninsula and France has coincided with excessive ranges of summer time sunshine which have pushed temperatures even larger.
Excessive warmth throughout south-western Europe
As we’re ready for extra updates on Ukraine – with EU overseas ministers set to satisfy within the subsequent few hours – I’m maintaining a tally of the temperatures throughout the continent given the intense warmth warnings in elements of south-western Europe.
Meteo France is reporting 38 Celsius – and greater than 40 Celsius anticipated later at this time – in Toulouse and Bordeaux.
Spain’s Aemet is exhibiting 36-38 Celsius throughout massive elements of the north of the nation, with 39 Celsius in La Almunia de Doña Godina, and 38 Celsius in Zaragoza.
Let’s cross to our Europe setting correspondent Ajit Niranjan for extra.
Israeli plans for Gaza ‘a catastrophe ready to occur,’ Macron says
In the meantime in France, the nation’s president Emmanuel Macron warned that Israel’s plans to extend its navy presence in Gaza amounted to “a catastrophe ready to occur,” as he floated the thought of a world coalition with an UN mandate to assist the territory, Reuters reported.
For all the most recent information on the state of affairs in Gaza, comply with our dwell weblog right here:
Finland brings fees in opposition to Eagle S captain, officers over cable cuts in 2024
In the meantime, over in Finland, the nation’s nationwide prosecutor’s workplace mentioned it has introduced fees in opposition to the captain and first and second officers of the Eagle S oil tanker over chopping of undersea cables within the Gulf on Finland in December final 12 months, Reuters reported.
The three are suspected of aggravated prison mischief and aggravated interference with communications, an announcement by the prosecutor mentioned.
The prosecutor’s statement mentioned the crew of the Cook dinner Islands-registered Eagle S, which was carrying Russian oil within the Baltic Sea, are suspected of “chopping 5 submarine cables … by dragging … achor on the seabed for about 90 km.”
It added that the incident triggered a disruption to providers and “no less than” 60 million euros in damages.
The Finnish customs service mentioned on the time it had seized the vessel’s cargo and that the Eagle S was believed to belong to Russia’s so-called shadow fleet of ageing tankers that search to evade sanctions on the sale of Russian oil.
Concessions will not persuade Russia to cease killing, Zelenskyy says, as he requires extra strain on Moscow
Again to Ukraine, the nation’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has as soon as once more urged companions to step up strain on Russia, saying it was “dragging out the conflict” and confirmed little interest in ending the conflict.
In a put up on social media channels, Zelenskyy mentioned that “one other week has ended with none try by Russia to comply with the quite a few calls for of the world and cease the killings.”
Going through fixed Russian assaults, “we’re holding our positions and doing the whole lot to destroy or drive out the occupier,” Zelenskyy mentioned.
We’re defending the lives of our folks and strengthening our air defences. That is what the state of affairs within the conflict appears to be like like.
Turning to diplomacy, he mentioned that “Russia refuses to cease the killings, and due to this fact should not obtain any rewards or advantages.”
This isn’t only a ethical place – it’s a rational one. Concessions don’t persuade a killer.
He reiterated that Ukraine was working with companions to “deliver nearer a real peace – peace by way of power,” which he mentioned was “the one sort of peace that may be achieved with Russia.”
On France, AP famous that the pink alert has been issued solely eight instances because it was created in 2004 after a lethal summer time the 12 months earlier than.
It’s reserved for excessive, extended warmth with main well being dangers and the potential to disrupt every day life.
France faces ‘excessive threat day’ with temperatures set to exceed 40 Celsius
Angelique Chrisafis
in Paris
Twelve départements within the south-west of France had been positioned on the best heatwave alert on Monday, together with the Aude, Charente-Maritime, Dordogne and Lot.
French forecasters mentioned temperatures might exceed 42C in some locations and it was possible that information can be damaged.
Individually, a swathe of France stretching from the Mediterranean coast as much as the Jura was placed on the second-highest heatwave alert.
The well being minister, Yannick Neuder, advised BFMTV that Monday can be “a excessive threat day” and suggested folks to assist those that had been susceptible.
Jakub Krupa
With elements of Europe on excessive warmth alert at this time, let’s cross to Angelique Chrisafis for the most recent from France.
Over 100 former MEPs urge EU to droop its affiliation settlement with Israel
Lisa O’Carroll
Greater than 100 former members of the European parliament have written to European Fee president Ursula von der Leyen and the EU’s chief diplomat Kaja Kallas urging them to droop the EU-Israel affiliation settlement.
In a strongly worded letter they alleged the EU’s “failure” to take “sturdy motion” in opposition to Israel over its actions in Gaza might expose member states to “complicity in conflict crimes”.
The letter was signed by former MEPs throughout the political spectrum together with these within the European Conservatives and Reformists, (ECR) which counts Giorgia Meloni’s social gathering as a member; the conservative European Folks’s Celebration (EPP) group which put ahead Von der Leyen as candidate to guide the EU, and the Greens and the Progressive Alliance of Socialists & Democrats (S&D) and ALDE/Renew centrist teams.
“The present collective hunger of Gazans by the Israeli state is nothing in need of a conflict crime. This violates the elemental human rights on which all EU Affiliation Agreements with third international locations are based mostly,” it says.
They mentioned:
“We welcome the belated choice by the Fee on 28 July to suggest suspending Israel’s participation within the EU’s Horizon analysis programme. Nonetheless, that is too little, too late. The Fee’s personal evaluation in June clearly confirmed Israel’s breach of Article 2 of the Settlement.
Within the absence of an finish to the closure of border entry to Gaza permitting unimpeded humanitarian entry by the UN and related NGOs we, as 110 former Members of the European Parliament, insist that the Fee urgently requests that Member States agree to totally droop the EU-Israel Affiliation Settlement.
The Fee’s personal evaluation factors to clear violations of the human rights clause of the settlement (Article 2).”
As talked about within the opening put up, EU overseas ministers are assembly (nearly) later at this time to coordinate their subsequent steps and current a united entrance.
They may communicate to Ukraine’s overseas ministry Andriy Sybiha at 3pm UK (4pm CEST), and stick with it speaking about different points afterwards.
Israel and the state of affairs in Gaza can be on the agenda, so let’s cross to Lisa O’Carroll for the most recent.
US pledged to seek the advice of European companions earlier than assembly Putin, Poland’s Tusk says
Tusk says the US has pledged to seek the advice of with European companions earlier than this Friday’s assembly with Putin.
He provides that the significance of sustaining the integrity of Ukraine’s territory “is not only a matter of solidarity with our neighbour, but in addition of our personal safety.”
He says he has “a lot of fears and many hope” concerning the Trump-Putin assembly, as he notes Trump’s “tactic … of unpredictability at instances, with regards to numerous strikes and actions.”
He says that elements of Putin’s proposal on territory seem like “one-sided” and it’s “tough to see why it’s unacceptable” for Ukraine.
That ends his press convention.
Kyiv should be concerned in Ukraine peace talks, Poland’s Tusk says, as he warns in opposition to permitting Russia to problem borders ‘with impunity’
Polish prime minister Donald Tusk is talking proper now, briefing the Polish media after this weekend’s consultations amongst European leaders, as he says they “stay united of their method.”
He says that “for Poland and our European companions, it should be clear that you simply can not change borders with pressure,” and Russia should not be allowed to learn from its invasion on Ukraine.
“The West, together with European international locations, won’t settle for Russian calls for which merely quantity to the seizure of Ukrainian territory,” Tusk says.
He warns in opposition to Russia getting the thought it will possibly problem different international locations’ borders “with impunity.”
Tusk additionally attracts on Polish historical past to repeat the precept of “nothing about Ukraine with out Ukraine.”
“From historical past we all know — and Poland has typically been a sufferer of this — that when the good powers determined about different international locations with out the participation of these international locations in negotiations, the results had been grave.”
Alaska good match for Trump-Putin assembly as place of mutual inconvenience – evaluation
Dan Sabbagh
in Kyiv
It’s unlikely that Vladimir Putin will arrive in Alaska on Friday to current Donald Trump with a territorial demand for the forty ninth state, offered by Tsar Alexander II to the US for $7.2m (£5.4m) in 1867.
The Russian president, in spite of everything, has one other land deal on his thoughts – to steer Trump of the deserves of swapping elements of Ukrainian territory in return for him maybe agreeing to the ceasefire the US president so desperately desires, however doesn’t know the right way to get.
Putin’s influential overseas affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov, mentioned Alaska was an “fully logical” location for the summit, as if the hop throughout the Bering Strait that divides the international locations is an easy journey.
The hole between the US and Russian mainlands could also be 55 miles, however it’s roughly a nine-hour flight from Moscow to Anchorage, Alaska’s largest metropolis. Even for Trump, travelling from Washington DC on Air Pressure One, will probably be not a lot lower than eight hours. Alaska is a location of mutual inconvenience, which signifies that different components are at play.
The distant state is a great distance from Ukraine and its European allies, and dangers pushing each into the distant background. Although Trump appears open, in idea, to letting Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, attend, it’s exhausting to think about Putin being so welcoming. His prize, in spite of everything, are personal talks with the occupant of the White Home about sanctions, commerce, the attain of Nato in Europe – negotiating tracks far past his newest proposals for dominating Ukraine.
Above all, Alaska is a secure place for the Russian chief to go to. Putin remains to be wished by the worldwide prison courtroom, accused of conflict crimes in relation to the pressured deportation of kids from Ukraine to Russia in March 2023. There’s an arrest warrant out, however neither Russia nor crucially the US recognise the courtroom.
Nor are there any unfriendly international locations to overfly. A visit across the high of the globe is unlikely to run into surprising difficulties which may make travelling over the Black Sea to Istanbul in Turkey unattractive.
The Alaska assembly is solely the fourth US-Russia summit since 2010 and, whereas it stays attainable that the discussions will result in a ceasefire in Ukraine, there are few grounds for optimism when the conflict continues to be fought so bitterly on the frontlines and within the rear, with Russia repeatedly bombing Ukrainian cities, attempting to pressure its democratic neighbour into submission.
Confusion over the Alaska summit exhibits Putin nonetheless calls the photographs – evaluation
Shaun Walker
The provide to thrash out a Ukrainian peace deal at a bilateral summit with Trump represents precisely the kind of great-power deal-making Putin has at all times craved. Will probably be his first journey to the US since 2007, except for visits to the UN.
Precisely how the Alaska summit will look remains to be unclear, with a very Trumpian sort of confusion and chaos accompanying its announcement. Kyiv, European capitals and even Trump’s personal workers have been attempting to know what precisely was agreed within the Kremlin.
As worrying for Kyiv because the deliberate format of the talks is the obvious Russian deal now on the desk. The plan, because it has been reported after filtering by way of the Trump administration after which to European capitals, is that the Ukrainian military ought to unilaterally withdraw from the elements of Donetsk and Luhansk it nonetheless controls, which might presumably embrace the fortified navy stronghold of Kramatorsk. In trade, the Kremlin would comply with freeze the traces in different places.
Zelenskyy’s public posture that Ukraine won’t ever cede land is true up to a degree. Kyiv is unlikely to surrender authorized claims to its personal territory, however the Ukrainian elite and far of Ukrainian society is more and more prepared for a deal that will recognise Russian de facto management, maybe for a set time period, in trade for ending the combating.
The primary drawback with such a deal has at all times been what sort of ensures Ukraine would obtain that Russia wouldn’t merely use a ceasefire as time to regroup earlier than attacking once more. Temporary discussions earlier this 12 months a couple of European peacekeeping pressure to police a ceasefire had been rapidly scaled again to a “reassurance pressure” stationed removed from the frontlines. Ukrainians would due to this fact haven’t a lot to depend on however Putin’s phrase, which they’ve realized from expertise to not belief.
Over the previous few days, Zelenskyy and his crew have been rallying help amongst European leaders and attempting to place collectively an alternate, European plan. Sadly for Kyiv, earlier expertise suggests Trump is unwilling or unable to exert actual strain on Putin.
“If Putin and Trump attain an settlement instantly, Europe shall be confronted with a fait accompli. Kyiv – much more so,” mentioned Roman Alekhin, a Russian conflict blogger, on Sunday.
It’s precisely that prospect Ukraine’s management shall be doing their utmost to forestall within the days earlier than Friday’s summit.
Morning opening: Nothing about Ukraine with out Ukraine
Jakub Krupa
A bunch of European leaders insisted over the weekend that “the trail to peace in Ukraine can’t be determined with out Ukraine” amid rising issues concerning the US president Donald Trump’s plans to strike a take care of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, when the pair meets in Alaska on Friday.
A swiftly organized assertion signed by the leaders of Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, the UK, and the European Union reiterated that “a diplomatic resolution should defend Ukraine’s and Europe’s important safety pursuits.”
Talking to the German broadcaster ARD, German chancellor Friedrich Merz mentioned he hoped and assumed that Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, would even be concerned in Friday’s summit in Alaska and that he made representations to Trump on this problem.
“We can not settle for in any case that territorial questions are mentioned and even determined between Russia and America over the heads of Europeans and Ukrainians,” he mentioned. “I assume that the American authorities sees it the identical means.”
EU overseas ministers are assembly nearly for an emergency assembly at this time to debate the subsequent steps.
On Sunday, Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy welcomed the help, saying on X: “The top of the conflict should be honest, and I’m grateful to everybody who stands with Ukraine and our folks at this time for the sake of peace in Ukraine, which is defending the important safety pursuits of our European nations.
However there are nonetheless no ensures as to what’s going to occur subsequent and what concessions Trump may be prepared to comply with, leaving Kyiv and most European capitals deeply uncomfortable forward of the summit on Friday, and they’ll need to use each minute to affect the US place.
Let’s see what the day brings.
Elsewhere, I shall be additionally maintaining a tally of one other excessive heatwave in elements of Europe, with Spain and France amongst international locations anticipating to see temperatures near or above 40 levels Celsius as soon as once more.
I’ll deliver you all the important thing updates right here.
It’s Monday, 11 August 2025, it’s Jakub Krupa right here, and that is Europe Stay.
Good morning.
