How popular is Zelensky in Ukraine?published at 13:19 Greenwich Mean Time 19 February

13:19 GMT 19 February

By Jake Horton

During his news conference on Tuesday, US President Donald Trump claimed that Volodymyr Zelensky’s popularity was extremely low, saying: “He's down at 4% approval rating.”

It's unclear what the source of the claim is. We have asked the White House to clarify this.

Official polling is limited in Ukraine and it is extremely difficult to carry out accurate surveys during a time of war.

However, a survey conducted this month found that 57% of Ukrainians said they trusted the president, according to the Ukraine-based Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, external.

That was down from 77% at the end of 2023, and 90% in May 2022 - suggesting that the Ukrainian president has suffered a drop off in his popularity.

Some other polls suggest Zelensky is trailing his nearest rival, former army chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi in the first round of any future election, indicating the two would face each other in a run-off.

Read more: Fact-checking Trump claims about war in Ukraine

Image source, Getty Images

French President Emmanuel Macron is set to host a second meeting with European leaders on the war in Ukraine in just a few hours.

Around 15 countries are expected to take part, with most joining on video link as Macron dials in with Romania's interim president Ilie Bolojan from the Elysée Palace in Paris.

It comes just two days after an emergency Ukraine security meeting joined by the UK, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, Denmark and the Netherlands, alongside top EU representatives and Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte.

There, they announced they'd spend more on their own defence, and agreed Ukraine needs to be involved in decisions about its future, as talks continued between Russia and the US yesterday, with no invite for the rest of the world.

The UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is expected to host another meeting in coming weeks, after he goes to Washington DC to talk with US President Donald Trump, the BBC understands.

Vitaliy Shevchenko
BBC Monitoring's Russia editor

Ukrainian parliament speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk is rejecting demands for presidential elections in Ukraine.

"Ukraine needs bullets, not ballots", he says in a Facebook post.

He writes: "Reinventing democracy under shelling is not democracy, it's a stage-managed play, whose main beneficiary is in the Kremlin."

"You have my full support, President Volodymyr Zelensky," the Ukrainian parliament speaker, who is from Zelensky's Servant of the People party, says.

Ukrainian law prohibits the holding of elections in wartime.

Image source, EPA

If you're just joining us now, welcome. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke to press in Kyiv a short while ago - here are the keys lines from his speech.

• Us President Donald Trump is "living in a disinformation space" fuelled by Russia, he said, following the US leader's comments about his approval rating
• Zelensky said he couldn't "sell the state" after rejecting the first draft of a rare earth minerals agreement with the US, saying it made no mention of the security guarantees Ukraine sought and demanded 50% of its minerals
• The cost of the war in Ukraine so far is $320bn Kyiv says, with $120bn paid for by Ukraine and the rest coming from the US and Europe - numbers the US disputes
• Zelensky also said he was "ready to go to the front line" with US envoy Keith Kellogg, so he could "see for himself" what was happening

The US has paused immigration applications filed by migrants from Ukraine and Latin America under some Biden-era schemes, according to the BBC's US partner CBS News

The decision was made because of concerns over fraud and security, it added, citing two US officials and an internal memo.

Approximately 240,000 Ukrainians were welcomed into the US as part of Biden's Uniting for Ukraine policy. Many of them have filed applications that would allow them to legally stay, or even settle in the US, according to CBS News.

The freeze on processing will remain in place whilst officials review vetting procedures, it adds.

As we reported earlier, Keith Kellogg, Trump's US special envoy to Ukraine, arrived in Kyiv this morning.

At a news conference a short while ago, Zelensky said it was "very important for me that he himself [Kellogg] walks on Kyiv streets, other cities" to see the real situation to dispel disinformation being spread by Russia.

Zelensky said that Kellogg "earlier said that 20-30% of the capital was gone, everything ruined".

"I want him to see everything for himself," said the Ukrainian president, "and then talk to people about whether they trust their president, whether they trust Putin. Let him ask them about Trump: what they think after comments made by the president".

He added that he is "ready to go to the front line" with Kellogg, so he would be able to talk to Ukrainian military personnel.

Rift between Zelensky and Trump laid barepublished at 11:16 Greenwich Mean Time 19 February

11:16 GMT 19 February

Vitaliy Shevchenko
BBC Monitoring's Russia editor

Image source, Reuters

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s news conference has laid bare the rift between him and Donald Trump.

It also shows how close Ukraine is to losing the US as an ally – and some are saying that’s happened already.

Trump’s words are very close to what Moscow’s been saying, but what action he will take to end the war in Ukraine is still unclear.

Image source, Getty Images

Zelensky says the cost of the war in Ukraine so far is $320bn, saying Kyiv and US have different numbers on this.

About $120bn has come from Ukraine taxpayers, and $200bn from the US and EU, he adds.

The US supplied $67bn in weapons as well as budget support, he says.

Trump has previously said the US wants the equivalent of $500bn worth of rare earth minerals from Ukraine in exchange for its continued support.

“It’s not $500bn – that’s not a serious conversation," Zelensky says.

He says that the US alleges 90% of support for Ukraine comes from them, but "the truth is somewhere else".

"We are grateful for their support," he adds.

Zelensky turns now to a question about a proposal from Trump which would allow the US to take a percentage of Ukraine's rare earth minerals, including lithium and titanium.

He says he rejected it because the first draft said Ukraine would have to grant the US 50% ownership of its materials, and made no mention of the security guarantees Zelensky sought.

"I am protecting Ukraine, I can’t sell it away, I can't sell our state," he adds.

Zelensky says now that if anyone wants to replace him as leader right now, it won’t work as his approval rating is high.

The Ukrainian leader goes on to cite a survey, which he says suggests 58% of Ukrainian people have confidence in him as leader.

He also says Ukraine is seeing "a lot of disinformation" from Russia.

"With all due respect to President Donald Trump as a leader....he is living in this disinformation space," he adds.

His comments come after Trump claimed Zelensky - who won a five-year term in 2019 - was "down at 4% approval rating".

Zelensky says Ukraine has "evidence" that disinformation about the 4% approval rating is being spread by Russia, and "these numbers are being discussed between America and Russia".

In the last few moments we've been hearing from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who says his country is hoping for an "allied position in Europe, in the EU and the US around Ukraine in this unjust war".

He says it is not easy, but Kyiv is working on it, adding that Ukraine is working on arranging meetings - without saying who will be attending.

We'll bring you more from Zelensky shortly, but you can also follow our live stream by pressing Watch live at the top of this page.

Russian media reacts to US talks on ending war in Ukrainepublished at 10:19 Greenwich Mean Time 19 February

10:19 GMT 19 February

Steve Rosenberg
Russia editor

Image source, Reuters

One image dominates this morning's Russian newspapers: senior Russian and American officials at the negotiating table in Riyadh.

Russian media are welcoming the prospect of warmer ties with Washington and pouring scorn on European leaders and Kyiv.

"Trump knows he will have to make concessions [to Russia] because he is negotiating with the side that's winning in Ukraine," writes pro-Kremlin tabloid Moskovsky Komsomolets. "He will make concessions. Not at America's expense, but at the expense of Europe and Ukraine."

"For so long Europe had gone around all puffed up, thinking of itself as the civilised world and as a Garden of Eden. It failed to notice it had lost its trousers… now its old comrade across the Atlantic has pointed that out…".

On the streets of Moscow I don't detect that level of gloating.

"Trump is a businessman. He's only interested in making money," Nadezhda tells me. "I don't think things will be any different. There's too much that needs to be done to change the situation."

"Perhaps those talks [in Saudi Arabia] will help," says Giorgi. "It's high time we stopped being enemies."

Read Steve Rosenberg full piece

Lavrov speaks now about Ukraine.

He stresses that there is “no alternative to eradicating the root causes of the Ukrainian crisis”, adding that this was “underlined" by President Putin during his phone call with President Trump on 12 February.

Referring to Tuesday’s talks in Saudi Arabia, Lavrov says “we paid particular attention to this subject”.

“Above all this is about removing threats to Russia’s security that were created for many years by dragging Ukraine into Nato," he says. Ukraine is not currently a member of Nato, but in 2008 the alliance agreed the country would eventually join.

While Russia has repeatedly said Ukraine's membership would be a security threat, Nato has argued that every country had a right to choose which groupings to join.

We're hearing from Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov now, who is speaking from the Duma in Moscow.

He's talking about what he calls a move towards “multi-polarity” in the world, with more countries starting to reject pressure from external forces and form new groupings like Brics, which stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

Lavrov says the West is not fully accepting this, trying to preserve its dominance in global affairs.

Image source, EPA

We're expecting to hear from Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who was at the US-Russia talks in Saudi Arabia yesterday.

He's delivering a press conference in Moscow, where he's expected to discuss Russia's foreign policy.

You can follow our live stream by pressing Watch live at the top of this page, but we'll also bring you text updates on any key lines.

EU ambassadors have agreed a new round of sanctions on Russia, the bloc's diplomats say.

The 16th package of sanctions includes a ban on Russian primary aluminium import, and listing of 73 new shadow fleet vessels, the Reuters news agency reports.

The sanctions will be formally approved by EU ministers on Monday - on the third anniversary of Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Ukraine's air force says it shot down 106 out of 167 Russian drones launched in an overnight attack.

Another 56 drones were "lost in location", causing no damage, it adds.

The Odesa, Kyiv, Sumy, Cherkasy and Zaporizhzhia regions were hit, the air force says, providing no further details.

President Volodymyr Zelensky says at least 160,000 people in the city of Odesa are now without heating and electricity, following the Russian attack.

Image source, Reuters

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has referred to the US-Russia talks as "the infamous meeting in Riyadh", in his first comments since the discussions on Tuesday.

He says Moscow "yet again lied" during the talks, during which Kyiv was not present, about not targeting Ukraine's energy infrastructure.

Zelensky posted the comments on social media alongside a video from Odesa, where he says Russian drones attacked civilian energy infrastructure, specifically electricity transformers.

"We have to remember that Russia is run by pathological liars, and they cannot be trusted - they must be pressured for peace."

Image source, Reuters

US President Donald Trump's special envoy for Ukraine has arrived in Kyiv ahead of a planned meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Upon his arrival, Kellogg told reporters his visit “is a chance to have good potential negotiations".

"We will listen. We are ready to provide what is needed. We understand the need for security guarantees. Part of my mission is to listen," he said.

"Then I will return to the United States, talk to President Trump, Secretary Rubio, the rest of the team. Just to ensure we get this right."

Ukrainian MP Oleksiy Honcharenko says US President Donald Trump's latest remarks about Ukraine were "not pleasant to hear".

But speaking to the BBC Radio 4's Today programme, he says: "It’s not about someone being offended, we’re not in a kindergarten - it’s too serious."

"We’re being killed here every day, we’re dying here every day," he adds.

Honcharenko stresses that "no matter who says what - our task should be to end the war" with Ukraine's sovereignty being preserved.

"We don’t need just to be sitting at the [negotiating] table. Our aim should be a deal under which we keep our sovereignty, which means: our army, our military production, our right to make choices where we’re moving... European Union, Euro-Atlantic integration," he tells the programme.

At the same time, the MP says “we can’t lose the Americans as our allies in our situation” and “we need to rally Europe around us.

"Because President Trump rightfully said: between the United States and Russia there is an ocean, but between Europe and Russia there is just Ukraine,” he says.