Much of our coverage this morning has been on the two high-level diplomatic meetings taking place this week. One in France, attended by a group of European leaders, and the other in Saudi Arabia, by US and Russian officials.

If nothing else, their agendas are united in topic: the Ukraine war and how to end it.

Before they begin, here's a look back at the latest developments so far, and what else is to come:

• Rubio and Russia in Riyadh: Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other key US officials are travelling to Saudi Arabia for talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and President Vladimir Putin's aide, Yuriy Ushakov. Kyiv has not been invited to the talks in Saudi Arabia, a Ukrainian government source told the BBC
• Meanwhile, in Paris: Hastily arranged talks between UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer - along with leaders of France, Germany, Italy, Poland, and others - will begin this afternoon
• Starmer's post-war proposal: Ahead of the meeting, Starmer said the UK was "ready and willing" to put British peacekeeping troops in Ukraine. Germany and Sweden suggest they'd send send them too
• Fighting continues: There have been emergency blackouts in several Ukrainian regions following Russian attacks on energy infrastructure. One Ukrainian MP says it doesn't seem like Russia wants peace at all. Russia's defence ministry says it intercepted and destroyed 90 Ukrainian drones on Sunday night.

More now from Moscow, where Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has been briefing reporters on Tuesday's US-Russian talks in Saudi Arabia.

Peskov is quoted by Russia's state-run Ria Novosti news agency as saying that the talks will be aimed at "restoring the entire complex of Russian-American relations, and about preparing possible negotiations on Ukraine".

Image source, Reuters

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and President Vladimir Putin's aide, Yuriy Ushakov, are flying to Saudi Arabia to meet US officials, Russian state-run media reports.

We reported earlier that the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, was also due in the capital, Riyadh, to meet officials from Moscow and begin talks on ending the Ukraine war.

Rubio is joined by US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff.

Image source, Getty Images

Liza Fokht
BBC Russian service, reporting from Paris

Image source, Reuters

President Emmanuel Macron, who has called European leaders to the Elysée Palace for an urgent meeting on Ukraine, has a long history with Vladimir Putin.

After former German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s departure from politics in 2021, France sought to take over Germany’s role as Europe’s main diplomatic channel to Russia.

Two weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Macron travelled to Moscow for a meeting with Putin – a desperate but ultimately futile attempt to prevent the war.

After that, contact between Moscow and Paris has been minimal, with France becoming one of Kyiv’s staunchest allies.

In 2023, Putin blamed Macron for ruining their once “good relationship”.

Now, the French leader faces the difficult task of convincing the Kremlin that his country – and Europe as a whole – deserves a seat at the table in negotiations over a possible ceasefire in Ukraine.

Image source, EPA

Sweden could also bolster Ukraine's post-war peacekeeping mission, its foreign minister tells the country's public broadcaster.

Maria Malmer Stenergard's comments come after Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the UK was "ready and willing" to contribute to security guarantees in Kyiv, which could include putting its own own troops on the ground.

"We must now first negotiate a just and sustainable peace that respects international law, that respects Ukraine and that first and foremost ensures Russia can't just pull back, build new strength and attack Ukraine or another country in just a few years' time," Stenergard tells Sveriges Radio.

"Once we have such a peace established we need to ensure it can be maintained and then our government doesn't exclude anything," she adds.

• Zooming out: Sweden has long maintained military neutrality, but that all changed in February 2022 when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Since then, Sweden - along with its Nordic neighbour, Finland - have joined Nato

Vitaliy Shevchenko
BBC Monitoring's Russia editor

Now for an update on the ground in Ukraine.

At least three civilians were killed in Russian shelling in Ukraine on Sunday, local authorities report.

In the eastern Donetsk region, two residents of the village of Bilytske were killed in Russian shelling, the head of the regional military administration, Vadym Filashkin, says.

Bilytske is outside the crucial town of Pokrovsk, which has been the site of fierce fighting for months.

In Nikopol, in the Dnipropetrovsk region in south-eastern Ukraine, a 52-year-old man died of shrapnel wounds and a 74-year-old local resident was injured in Russian shelling, the head of the regional administration, Serhiy Lysak, says.

Lysak also says four locals were injured in the Russian shelling of Marhanets.

Image source, PA Media

A former British intelligence chief has warned that any peacekeeping force sent to Ukraine after the war must have “a very clear mandate” to ensure that any ceasefire agreement between Kyiv and Moscow holds.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, ex-MI6 boss Sir John Sawers explains that the border between Russia and Ukraine would be a “very substantial frontline to police”.

And, in the event that troops are overrun, Sawers suggests that this “could cost British lives”, but also “our capacity to uphold the peace that we are there to keep”.

“We have to be very clear what the mission is, what the rules of engagement are should the Russians attack," he adds.

"Do we fight back or do we simply report it to some other body?"

Image source, PA Media

The former head of the British Army has spoken to the BBC about Keir Starmer's willingness to put British troops in Ukraine, if and when the war ends.

Lord Richard Dannat tells BBC Breakfast that sending soldiers to Ukraine would "come at a considerable cost".

"Frankly, we haven't got the numbers and we haven't got the equipment to put a large force onto the ground for an extended period of time at the present moment.

“We've got to have the right number of people with the right equipment and the right training, and start to fund that now."

He adds: "The prime minister is doing the right thing. But, of course, doing the right thing comes at a price."

Image source, Getty Images

Following on from that post about blackouts across Ukraine, Ukrainian MP Kira Rudik, from the pro-European party Holos, has spoken to our colleagues on BBC World Service's Newsday.

"Every single night we’re under attack," she says.

"For us it doesn’t seem like Russia wants peace at all, and we’re truly surprised that someone in the world [US President Donald Trump] thinks otherwise.

"For them to want peace would be very simple – to pull their troops out of Ukraine and that’s it."

Emergency blackouts are in place in several Ukrainian regions following Russian attacks on energy infrastructure, Ukraine's state-own electricity transmission operator Ukrenergo says.

It provides no further details, but Ukraine's largest private power company DTEK reports outages in the capital Kyiv and the wider region, and also in the central Dnipropetrovsk region.

There are also blackouts in Kherson in Ukraine's south, Roman Mrochko, head of the Kherson city military administration, reports on Telegram.

In another southern city, Mykolayiv, about 100,000 people have been left without heating following a Russian drone attack.

Meanwhile, Russia's defence ministry says it intercepted and destroyed 90 Ukrainian drones on Sunday night.

Image source, Getty Images

After Prime Minister Keir Starmer suggested British peacekeeping troops might be stationed in Ukraine, Health Secretary Wes Streeting has also been speaking about UK policy.

Asked on the Today programme if he was nervous about the prospect of British troops facing Russians on the Ukraine border, Streeting says: "We do not talk about deploying British troops ever lightly."

But the health secretary adds: "I don’t think we should be in any doubt whatsoever that the front line in Ukraine is the front line for Europe and the front line for Britain’s security too."

Image source, Reuters

Ukrainian President Zelensky says more than 46,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed since Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, with "tens of thousands more missing in action or in captivity".

Those missing in action could be dead or in captivity, Zelensky told NBC News on Sunday.

Ten days earlier, on 6 February, Zelensky said 45,100 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed and around 390,000 had been wounded. Military experts in Ukraine and the West believe the number could be far higher.

Zelensky also said 19,500 Ukrainian children have been deported to Russia - read more about Russia's policy of forced child deportations here.

Russia hasn't released battlefield losses, but UK Defence Intelligence estimated in December that an average of 1,523 Russian soldiers were being killed and wounded every day.

Zelensky says up to 350,000 Russian soldiers have been killed - other reports suggest that number could be much higher.

As we've reported, the UK is "ready and willing" to put peacekeeping troops in Ukraine.

Now a German MP tells the BBC that Germany will also likely be part of any European commitment.

"We don’t want to step in with troops in that war," Jurgen Hardt tells the Today programme.

But he adds: “If there is a peacekeeping mission in Ukraine to make sure that the ceasefire and peace remains, and there’s a clear basis on international law for that… I cannot imagine that Germany would step out of that concept."

Image source, EPA

Harry Farley
Political correspondent

Sir Keir Starmer is hoping to be a bridge between a Donald Trump White House and European leaders. The argument from Downing Street is the US sees the UK differently to Europe.

But remember one of the new US administration’s demand is for increased defence spending from Nato countries.

The government has promised to "set out a path" to spend 2.5% of GDP on defence. But there is no timescale for when that target would be reached.

And there have been calls from military chiefs to go much further than 2.5%. Donald Trump himself has talked about 5%.

I put this to people inside government last night. One Whitehall source pointed out that the US doesn’t yet spend 5% itself.

But when I pressed them on the possibility of going beyond 2.5%, they gave no indication that would happen.

"We all recognise that defence spending needs to increase, which is why we increased it by £3bn in our first budget," one defence source said.

"Right now the priority is getting the path to 2.5% confirmed. This would be a level not seen in 14 years. It is a recognition that we live in a more dangerous world."

Image source, Getty Images

As European leaders meet in Paris, and the US and Russia prepare for talks in Saudi Arabia, Prime Minister Keir Starmer outlined the UK's position on Ukraine in the Daily Telegraph:, external

• On defence spending, he wrote: "Europe must step up further to meet the demands of its own security... we have talked about it for too long – and President Trump is right to demand that we get on with it"
• On putting British troops on the ground, he said the UK is "ready and willing to contribute to security guarantees to Ukraine by putting our own troops on the ground if necessary"
• On Ukraine joining Nato, he said it "may take time [but] we should continue to support Ukraine’s irreversible path to joining the alliance"
• And Starmer concluded: "As I will say in Paris, peace comes through strength. But the reverse is also true. Weakness leads to war"

Image source, Getty Images

As we’ve been reporting, the US secretary of state is due to arrive in Saudi Arabia this morning to meet Russian officials to discuss the Ukraine war.

And last night, US President Donald Trump said he himself could meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Saudi Arabia "very soon".

"I think he [Putin] wants to stop fighting," Trump told reporters after a flight on Air Force One last night.

"I think he wants to end it, and they want to end it fast. Both of them," he said, adding, "Zelensky wants to end it, too".

Asked whether he believes Putin wants to seize all of Ukraine, Trump said: "That was my question to him.

"If he's going to go on... that would have caused me a big problem."

Last week, Trump said he had a "lengthy and highly productive" phone call with Putin about ending the war.

Image source, Reuters

As European leaders meet in Paris, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is on his way to Saudi Arabia for talks with Russian officials, aimed at ending the war in Ukraine.

Rubio is joined by US national security adviser Mike Waltz and the US special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff.

It's not known exactly who Rubio will meet - but on Saturday, he spoke on the phone to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Kyiv has not been invited to the talks in Saudi Arabia, a Ukrainian government source told the BBC this weekend.

But on Sunday, US President Donald Trump said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky "will be involved" in the process.

Image source, EPA

Europe’s leaders will gather in the French capital today to discuss their defence policy, the Ukraine war - and how a ceasefire there might look.

We expect the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and Denmark, plus a representative from the EU Council and Nato, to be at the Paris talks.

The meeting has been hastily organised as US officials prepare to meet a Russian delegation in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.

The French foreign minister says today’s summit shouldn’t be "over-dramatised" - but it comes at a crucial moment in the Ukraine war, as US President Donald Trump pushes Russia and Ukraine to start peace talks.

Military spending, too, will likely be discussed in Paris. Donald Trump wants European countries to spend 5% of GDP on defence - the current Nato target is 2%.

• Read more: Our Europe editor Katya Adler says Europe is looking to show a united front

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky had earlier called for the creation of an "army of Europe" amid rising concern the US may no longer come to the continent's aid.

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, Zelensky said that US Vice-President JD Vance had made it clear the old relationship between Europe and America was "ending" and the continent "needs to adjust to that".

"Let's be honest. Now we can't rule out the possibility that America might say no to Europe on an issue that threatens it," he said. "Many, many leaders have talked about Europe that needs its own military - an army of Europe."

But such a proposal has been shot down by at least one European leader - Polish foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski said in a TV interview that there would not be a "unification of national armies".

"But I have been an advocate for Europe, for the European Union, to develop its own defence capabilities," he said. But he added that Polish troops would not fight in Ukraine.

Read more here on what Zelensky has said so far.

Image source, EPA

Earlier, we reported that UK PM Keir Starmer said he was prepared to deploy troops to Ukraine if needed - ahead of an emergency summit that will be held later today by European leaders.

In an article in the Daily Telegraph, the prime minister called this "a once in a generation moment for the collective security of our continent".

"This is not only a question about the future of Ukraine. It is existential for Europe as a whole. Securing a lasting peace in Ukraine that safeguards its sovereignty for the long-term is essential if we are to deter Putin from further aggression in the future," he said.

He agreed that Europe must increase their defence spending and take on a greater role in Nato.

The UK currently spends around 2.3% of GDP on defence and has committed to increase defence spending to a 2.5% share of the economy, without giving a timeframe for this.

"[But] while European nations must step up in this moment - and we will - US support will remain critical and a US security guarantee is essential for a lasting peace, because only the US can deter Putin from attacking again," said Starmer.