Ukraine war live: Zelenskyy welcomes Putin calls for talks but says Russia must agree to ‘full, lasting, reliable’ ceasefire

In late-night address in Moscow, Russian president dismissed calls by European leaders for 30-day ceasefire to start on Monday

Vladimir Putin’s proposal for “direct talks” with Kyiv came hours after leaders from the UK, France, Germany and Poland travelled to Kyiv to meet Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

As my colleague Shaun Walker notes in this story, the European leaders told the Russian president to sign up to an unconditional ceasefire by Monday or face increased sanctions and weapons transfers to Ukraine.

It is a positive sign that the Russians have finally begun to consider ending the war.

The entire world has been waiting for this for a very long time. And the very first step in truly ending any war is a ceasefire. There is no point in continuing the killing even for a single day.