World affairs editor Sam Kiley writes:

It is an attempt to force the surrender of Ukraine to Russia.

The Ukrainian president is joining 27 European Union leaders for emergency talks on Thursday, on how to deal with the sudden emasculation of the Ukrainian war effort.

The Russian ambassador to the UK has claimed that Downing Street is leading efforts to resist a peace deal.

“The UK is at the head of those who are resisting a quick peace,” Andrey Kelin told Sky News.

“I hear France would like to be the leader of this moment in Europe, the UK also would like to have a leading position, Germany also would like to have a leading position in the efforts of rearmament.

“If they will really pass this silly decision of rearmament of Europe, then what are they going to do with these stores after the conflict is over? They will just sit with projectiles and other ammunition, excessive.

“The UK… are claiming that we are the threat to the UK every other day, if not every day. I’m sick and tired of that,” he added.

Russia has accused French president Emmanuel Macron of “nuclear blackmail” following his suggestion that France could extend its nuclear umbrella to allies.

In a televised address on Wednesday, Mr Macron said France could use its nuclear deterrence for other countries and said he would hold a meeting of army chiefs from European countries willing to send peacekeeping troops to Ukraine after a peace deal.

“Notes of nuclear blackmail are clearly heard in E. Macron’s speech. Paris’ ambitions to become the nuclear ‘patron’ of all of Europe have burst out into the open, by providing it with its own ‘nuclear umbrella’, almost to replace the American one,” the Russian foreign ministry said

“Needless to say, this will not lead to strengthening the security of either France itself or its allies” the ministry said.

Earlier on Thursday Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Macron’s nuclear rhetoric posed a threat to Russia.

Ukraine brought the White House’s suspension of military aid on themselves, Keith Kellogg has said.

When challenged about the move at the Council for Foreign Relations, Mr Kellogg said: “Look, very candidly, they brought it on themselves.”

US senators had told Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky not to clash with Donald Trump in a meeting before he went to the White House.

“You don’t try to challenge the president of the US in the Oval Office that in fact you need to side with me and not the Russians.

“He was forewarned. It’s not like president Zelensky was not made aware [of] what we wanted out of Ukrainians.”

The US is employing a “sticks and carrots” approach to bring Ukraine and Russia to the negotiating table, the White House’s Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg said.

“The continued isolation and lack of engagement with the Russia as the war in Ukraine continued is no longer a viable or a sustainable strategy, and is certainly not a responsible approach diplomatically for the US to continue,” Mr Kellogg said in a speech at the Council for Foreign Relations.

“So what you see now are urgent attempts to bring both sides to the table in order to get to a peace settlement.

This means applying “pressure points and incentives, sticks and carrots” Mr Kellogg added.

The White House’s envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, is speaking at the Council for Foreign Relations.

He discusses the clash between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky in Washington last week.

“President Zelensky clearly wanted President Trump to side publicly with the United States against Russia,” Mr Kellogg said.

“President Trump however was not approaching as a matter of one side gaining advantage over the other, but instead was instead focussed on peace.”

Around 20 countries are interested in joining Sir Keir Starmer’s ‘coalition of the willing’ to put peacekeeping troops in Ukraine, it is understood.

UK officials convened talks on Wednesday largely made up of European and Commonwealth nations who expressed interest in joining the force.

The US is “destroying” the rules-based world order by cozying up to Russia, Ukraine’s ambassador to the UK said on Thursday.

“It’s not just the axis of evil and Russia” disrupting the global system, Valerii Zaluzhnyi told a conference hosted by the Chatham House think tank, “but the U.S. is finally destroying this order”.

Talks between Washington and Moscow over the Ukraine war show that the White House is making “makes steps toward the Kremlin, trying to meet them halfway”.

Europe could be Russia’s next target, he said, adding that Nato could cease to exist in a few years if the current course continues.