British evacuations out of Afghanistan could not have happened without the US – and an extension depends on G7 talks with Joe Biden tomorrow, the armed forces minister has told Sky News.
James Heappey said the mission to fly out thousands of British nationals and Afghans who worked for the British over the past 20 years could not have happened without the US Air Force.
He told Sky News: “It is certainly the case that the mission in Kabul this week is fundamentally underpinned by a US presence, not just the number of troops at the airport but the role the US Air Force is playing in delivering air traffic control and all of the other airfield services.
“There is a hard reality that there would be no international airlift without the way the US is underpinning it.”
Image: Eight flights of people were evacuated in the past 24 hours by the British
President Joe Biden has set a deadline for allowing people to flee the Taliban after they took over Afghanistan on 15 August of the end of the month.
Mr Biden has signalled he could be willing to bow to demands, revealing discussions were already underway and he would tell the G7: “We will see what we can do.”
More on Afghanistan
Mr Heappey said the foreign secretary and defence secretary have been talking to their US counterparts about an extension but it is “a matter for the prime minister” tomorrow.
But, he said the decision is not solely up to the US president.
Image: Many more people are waiting to be evacuated from Kabul
“A conversation with the Taliban will follow,” he added.
“The Taliban will have a choice – they can either seek to engage with the international community and show they want to be a part of the international system, want to be engaged in international diplomacy, or they can turn around and say ‘no, there’s no opportunity for an extension’.
“This is not just a discussion amongst G7 leaders tomorrow, but also with the Taliban.”
However, Taliban spokesman Dr Suhail Shaheen told Sky News 31 August is “a red line” and there will be “consequences” if Mr Biden delays the withdrawal of US troops.
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‘Consequences’ if US delays withdrawal
Labour’s shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds told Sky News the prime minister “should be moving heaven and earth” to get an extension as he accused the UK government of being “asleep at the wheel” regarding the situation in Afghanistan.
Mr Heappey said the UK has extracted 1,821 people on eight flights from Kabul in the past 24 hours, with 6,631 evacuated in the past week.
He said that was originally “pretty much the target” but more people have come forward who are eligible to be brought to the UK under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) recently set up.
The armed forces minister said the “hard reality” was not all people eligible would be airlifted out but said there is a “second phase” where people will be able to register for ARAP at a refugee handling centre or embassies in the region.
“There were a number of people from civil society that weren’t part of ARAP, but the UK government has been trying to do the right thing,” he said.
Mr Heappey said the UK’s relationship with the US remains strong and they are working together around the world to support each other, including in Haiti, the Philippines, Subsaharan Africa and eastern Europe.
“Around the world, the US and the UK remain the closest of allies,” he said.
“Of course, when you disagree with your closest friend it hurts, it causes consternation on both sides, but nobody should think the UK and US have anything but the deepest and closest of friendships.”
Vladimir Putin made demands to take control of key regions of Ukraine during his talks with Donald Trump, it has been widely reported, as a condition for ending the war.
During their summit in Alaska, the Russian leader is said to have told the US president he wants the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions – and would give up other Ukrainian territories held by his troops in exchange.
The plans were reported by several news outlets, citing sources close to the matter, as Mr Trump scheduled a further meeting with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Washington DC for Monday. He has said this could potentially pave the way for a three-way meeting with Mr Putin.
Mr Trump reportedly backs the plans, according to some outlets – but Mr Zelenskyy has previously ruled out formally handing any territory to Moscow. Russia already controls a fifth of Ukraine, including about three-quarters of Donetsk province, which it first entered in 2014.
Details of the plans emerged after little was revealed during the high-profile summit between the US and Russian leaders on Friday.
Despite threats by the US president beforehand, of sanctions for Russia should there be no agreement on a ceasefire, a short news briefing after the talks ended with no mention of a suspension of fighting, no announced agreement on how to end the war, and little clarity about the next steps.
On Saturday, Mr Trump appeared to change his stance on what he hopes to achieve in Ukraine, indicating he wants a permanent peace settlement rather than a ceasefire.
“It was determined by all that the best way to end the horrific war between Russia and Ukraine is to go directly to a Peace Agreement, which would end the war, and not a mere Ceasefire Agreement, which often times do not hold up,” he said in a post on his social network site, Truth Social.
Image: Pic: Sergei Bobylev/ Sputnik/ Kremlin pool via AP
Trump: ‘Russia is a big power – they’re not’
In an interview with Fox News following the summit, Mr Trump signalled he and Putin had discussed land transfers and security guarantees for Ukraine, and had “largely agreed”. He said Ukraine has to made a deal, as “Russia is a very big power, and they’re not”.
Monday’s meeting at the White House will be the Ukrainian president’s second this year. His last descended into a fiery spat with Mr Trump and his vice president JD Vance, which saw him leave early.
After the fresh meeting was announced, Mr Zelenskyy in a post on X that he was grateful for the invitation.
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5:55
Trump and Putin’s body language analysed
“It is important that everyone agrees there needs to be a conversation at the level of leaders to clarify all the details and determine which steps are necessary and will work,” he said.
However, he said Russia had rebuffed “numerous calls for a ceasefire and has not yet determined when it will stop the killing”, which “complicates the situation”.
Mr Zelenskyy continued: “If they lack the will to carry out a simple order to stop the strikes, it may take a lot of effort to get Russia to have the will to implement far greater – peaceful coexistence with its neighbours for decades.
“But together we are working for peace and security. Stopping the killing is a key element of stopping the war.”
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23:24
Trump and Putin in Alaska – The Debrief
Putin releases statement on summit
In a statement on the summit, Mr Putin described the talks as “timely and quite useful” – but said the “removal” of what he calls the “root causes” of the crisis “must underlie the settlement”.
He continued: “We definitely respect the US administration’s position which wants the hostilities to stop as soon as possible. So do we, and we would like to move forward with settling all issues by peaceful means.
“The conversation was very frank and substantive, which, in my view, moves us closer towards making necessary decisions.”
Image: Keir Starmer welcomed Volodymyr Zelenskyy to Downing Street earlier this week. Pic: AP/ Kirsty Wigglesworth
European leaders who make up the “coalition of the willing” are set to hold a conference call today ahead of the crunch talks between Mr Trump and Mr Zelenskyy.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz will host the video conference.
In a statement on Saturday,Sir Keir said Mr Trump’s efforts had “brought us closer than ever before to ending Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine” and that his leadership “in pursuit of an end to the killing should be commended”.
He said he supported the next phase of talks, but added: “In the meantime, until (Putin) stops his barbaric assault, we will keep tightening the screws on his war machine with even more sanctions.”
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s military has reported an advance of up to 2km on the Sumy front in the country’s northeast.
“Zones of continuous enemy fire damage are being maintained,” the Ukrainian General Staff said on Telegram. “Ukrainian troops are repelling Russian forces”.
In the early hours of Sunday, a regional governor in Russia said a railway employee had been injured and a power line damaged by a Ukrainian drone attack.
The incident happened in the Voronezh region, Alexander Gusev said on Telegram.
European leaders who make up the ‘coalition of the willing’ are set to hold a conference call on Sunday – ahead of crunch talks between Donald Trump and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy next week.
The coalition – co-chaired by Sir Keir Starmer, France’s President Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz – has the aim of bringing countries together to protect a peace deal in Ukraine.
Top of the agenda at Sunday’s meeting will be securing a concrete commitment from Mr Trump on a security guarantee that would act as a powerful backstop in any Russia-Ukraine peacekeeping arrangement.
European leaders seemed buoyed by the US president’s most recent hints on the subject, in the knowledge that US military might is likely to deter Vladimir Putin from advancing in the future.
They will also discuss how to bring Mr Zelenskyy into talks after Mr Trump and Mr Putin’s Alaska meeting saw him left out in the cold.
Image: The Russian and US presidents met in Alaska on Friday. Pic: AP
Image: Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Pc: Reuters
In coordinated statements, European leaders said Mr Zelenskyy must play a greater role in future talks, and that peace cannot be achieved without him.
The hard bit will be to persuade the unpredictable US administration to change its approach, something that has proved almost impossible in the past.
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5:55
Trump and Putin’s body language analysed
When Mr Trump re-entered the White House and made it clear the US would no longer provide a blank cheque to protect peace in Europe, others decided they had to step up, and the ‘coalition of the willing’ was thrown together in March.
Since then, information about the allied peacekeeping effort has been patchy, but we know it includes over 30 countries, which have been asked to pledge whatever military support they can, including troops.
No deal has been reached to end the war in Ukraine – but Donald Trump has said there are “many points” he and Vladimir Putin agreed on during their highly anticipated summit.
Following the meeting in Alaska, which lasted more than two-and-a-half hours, the two leaders gave a short media conference giving little detail about what had been discussed, and without taking questions.
Mr Trump described the meeting as “very productive” and said there were “many points that we agreed on… I would say a couple of big ones”.
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2:20
Key moments from Trump-Putin news conference
But there are a few left, he added. “Some are not that significant. One is probably the most significant, but we have a very good chance of getting there…
“We haven’t quite got there, we’ve made some headway. There’s no deal until there’s a deal.”
Mr Putin described the negotiations as “thorough and constructive” and said Russiawas “seriously interested in putting an end” to the war in Ukraine. He also warned Europe not to “torpedo nascent progress”.
Image: Donald Trump greets Vladimir Putin at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska. Pic: AP/ Julia Demaree Nikhinson
After much build-up to the summit – with the US president threatening “severe” consequences for Russia should it not go well – it was ultimately not clear whether the talks had produced meaningful steps towards a ceasefire in what has been the deadliest conflict in Europe in 80 years.
Mr Trump said he intended to speak with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other European leaders, who were excluded from the discussions, to brief them.
Despite not reaching any major breakthrough, the US leader ended his remarks with a thank you, and said he would probably see Mr Putin again “very soon”.
When the Russian president suggested that “next time” would be Moscow, he responded by saying he might face criticism, but “I could see it possibly happening”.
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2:10
Trump applauds Putin and shares ride in ‘The Beast’
The red carpet treatment
The news conference came after a grand arrival at the Elmendorf-Richardson military base in Anchorage, where the US president stepped down from Air Force One and later greeted his Russian counterpart with a handshake and smiles on a red carpet.
Mr Putin even travelled alongside Mr Trump in the presidential limousine, nicknamed “The Beast”.
It was the kind of reception typically reserved for close US allies, belying the bloodshed and the suffering in the war.
Before the talks, the two presidents ignored frantically-shouted questions from journalists – and Mr Putin appeared to frown when asked by one reporter if he would stop “killing civilians” in Ukraine, putting his hand to his ear as though to indicate he could not hear.
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3:22
‘Fury, anger and disgust’ in Ukraine
Our US correspondent Martha Kelner, on the ground in Alaska, said he was shouting “let’s go” – apparently in reference to getting the reporters out of the room.
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3:02
What we learned from Trump-Putin news conference
A ’10/10′ meeting
During his first day back in the White House in January, Mr Trump had pledged confidently to bring about an end to the war in Ukraine.
But seven months later, after infamously berating Mr Zelenskyy during a meeting at the Oval Office in February, and then stanching the flow of some US military assistance to Kyiv, he still does not appear to have brought a pause to the conflict.
In an interview with Fox News before leaving Alaska, Mr Trump described the meeting with Mr Putin as “warm” and gave it a “10/10”, but declined to give details about what they discussed.
He also insisted that the onus going forward could be on Mr Zelenskyy “to get it done”, but said there would also be some involvement from European nations.
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7:06
Trump’s body language was ‘disappointed’
What happens next?
Mr Trump is expected to speak to Mr Zelenskyy, Sir Keir Starmer and European leaders about the talks.
A meeting of ambassadors from European countries has been scheduled for 8.30am UK time, EU presidency sources have told Sky News.
European heads of state and Mr Trump are also likely to have a virtual meeting later in the day.
Despite the US president’s efforts to bring about a ceasefire, Russian attacks on Ukraine have only intensified in the past few months.