Vladimir Putin is trying to trick Donald Trump and the US into delaying sanctions, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has told Sky News.

Speaking to Sky News’ Yalda Hakim at the Presidential Palace in Kyiv, the Ukrainian president was asked about the Russian and US leaders’ summit in Alaska last month – and whether he thought it was a mistake.

“I think it gave a lot to Putin,” he said, “and I believe, if it was a trilateral meeting, we would have some result.”

During their summit in Alaska, the Russian leader is said to have told Mr Trump he wants the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions – and would give up other Ukrainian territories held by his troops in exchange.

Since then, the US president has resumed threats of sanctions against Russia and called for NATO countries to stop buying Russian oil to end the war.

Russian strikes on Ukraine have also continued, and in the last few days there have been incursions into the airspaces of Poland and Romania, while a proposed summit between Mr Zelenskyy and Mr Putin has not materialised.

After being asked whether Mr Putin is trying to trick Mr Trump, Mr Zelenskyy agreed.

He added: “He’s doing everything he can to avoid sanctions, to prevent US and Trump from putting sanctions on him, and if you keep postponing applying sanctions any further, then the Russians will be better prepared.”

Mr Zelenskyy also told Hakim that Mr Putin “wanted to escape from political isolation” with the Alaska summit, and believes “he should have paid more” for the meeting with the US president.

“He should have received a setback in this war and stop,” he said. “But instead, he received de-isolation. He got the photos with President Trump.

“He received public dialogue, and I think this opens the doors for Putin into some other summits and formats, because that’s how it is, and we see that, we observe this, and I don’t think he paid anything for it.”

The Ukrainian president continued to say that Mr Putin “should pay, firstly, because he started the war, and secondly, because (he is) trying to find a way out of isolation”.

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Mr Zelenskyy added that it is “very important not to give Mr Putin this space, because otherwise he won’t feel compelled that he has to stop the war”.

“He’s waging the war and everyone is trying to stop him by arguing, by asking him – but instead force should be used,” he said. “He understands force. That’s his language. That is the language he understands.

“He doesn’t speak many languages, but that’s the language of force he understands, just like Russian, his mother tongue – and we ask very much European and US countries to do that, to show that.

“Yes, they take some steps, such as sanctions, for example, but more needs to be done, quicker.”

Sky News will broadcast an extended interview in President Zelenskyy from 6am on Tuesday morning

At times, the sound of these military drills was deafening.

There were fighter jets screaming overhead, air strikes on “enemy” forces, and tracer rounds from artillery units pounding out of the barrels.

Fireballs and mushroom clouds would periodically appear far off on the landscape, followed by a sudden explosive thud several seconds later.

I was watching from the safety of a viewing platform, along with other members of the international media.

But even at that distance, the various blasts were still powerful enough to reverberate through me.

This was the fourth day of ‘Zapad-2025’ – the joint military drills Russia holds with Belarus roughly every four years.

It took place at a training ground near the city of Borisov in Belarus, 150km from the Lithuanian border.

Moscow and Minsk insist the exercises are “defensive”. In this case, they said they were gaming out how they would respond to an attack by a NATO member.

But as I watched, I couldn’t help feeling that the training aspect was only one part of it.

The other part felt like theatre – a show of strength designed to intimidate those watching across the border on Europe’s eastern flank.

The drills were smaller than previous years, most likely because Russia still needs its troops and equipment at the front in Ukraine.

But it still felt like Moscow was trying to send a message here – that despite the costs and casualties incurred fighting Kyiv, it’s still a force to be reckoned with.

For Belarus’s neighbours, these are anxious times. The last Zapad drills in 2021 were used as a springboard for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine a few months later. And so this time, Poland has closed its border, and like Lithuania, it’s holding military drills of its own.

Afterwards, I tried to catch up with some of the defence dignitaries from foreign militaries, who had been invited to observe the drills. I wanted to see what they made of the show.

“A very good demonstration,” a senior officer from Pakistan told me, declining to give his name.

“It gives us an insight of how war is being fought, with new technologies, in this part of the world.”

But what about Poland’s concerns?

“Are they right to be nervous?” I asked. “Would you be nervous if you were next door?”

“Why would I be nervous?” he replied. “Being Pakistani, I know what I’m capable of. So I shouldn’t be nervous by somebody else doing exercises.”

“So NATO has no need to worry?” I continued.

“No, I don’t think so. NATO shouldn’t be worried.”

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There were actually some representatives from NATO members among the observers.

Delegations from Hungary and Turkey are no surprise – both countries have good relations with Moscow – but a team from the United States did raise eyebrows.

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A further sign, it seems, that the Trump administration is seeking to build bridges with the Kremlin, despite the lack of progress towards a Russia-Ukraine peace deal.

Unfortunately, none of those officials would answer my questions. Wary, perhaps, of sticking their head above the parapet, as the alliance seeks to present a united front.

JD Vance has paid tribute to Charlie Kirk while hosting his show and claimed “left-wing extremism” was a factor in his assassination, while the FBI director said DNA matching the suspect’s was found on evidence at the scene.

The vice president hosted The Charlie Kirk Show from the White House in tribute to the right-wing influencer, who was killed at Utah Valley University on Wednesday.

“The last several days have been extremely hard,” he said, adding that: “Everyone in this building owes something to Charlie… I don’t think I’m alone in saying that Charlie was one of the smartest political operators I’ve ever met.”

During his opening monologue, Mr Vance said “we have to make sure that the killer is brought to justice,” before claiming that left-wing extremism was part of the reason behind Mr Kirk’s death.

“We have to talk about this incredibly destructive movement of left-wing extremism that has grown up over the last few years,” he said, “and I believe is part of the reason why Charlie was killed by an assassin’s bullet.

“We’re going to talk about how to dismantle that and how to bring real unity that can only come when we tell the truth and everybody knows that they can speak their mind without being cut down by a murderer’s gun.”

Later, while speaking with White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, Mr Vance said the Trump administration is trying to stop “festering violence from the far-left from spreading”.

And in his closing remarks, the vice president claimed without evidence that “Liberal billionaires rewarded” and funded outlets that published criticisms of Mr Kirk after his death.

He also claimed, again without evidence: “People on the left are much likelier to defend and celebrate political violence. This is not a ‘both sides’ problem.”

FBI: Suspect linked to evidence at scene

Tyler Robinson, 22, from Washington in Utah, was arrested after a manhunt on suspicion of killing Mr Kirk, and is due to appear in court on Tuesday.

He is being held without bail on suspicion of aggravated murder, a felony discharge of a firearm causing serious bodily injury, and obstruction of justice.

The motive of the shooting is unclear, while experts said engravings left on ammunition at the scene of the shooting were “extremely online”.

But Utah’s Republican governor, Spencer James Cox, previously claimed in an interview with The Wall Street Journal that he had been “deeply indoctrinated with leftist ideology”.

And on Sunday’s NBC News Meet The Press show, Mr Cox said the suspect was in a relationship with his roommate, who was in the process of transitioning – something unnamed officials confirmed to the channel. So far, no official has yet said whether the relationship is relevant to their investigation.

Later on Monday, FBI director Kash Patel told Fox News that evidence found at the scene had been linked to Robinson via DNA sequencing.

He told Fox and Friends that DNA matching Robinson’s was found on a towel allegedly wrapped around a firearm that was discarded in a wooded area near the university – stressing no other evidence from the scene had been processed as of yet.

Mr Patel added that the suspect’s actions were premeditated, and repeated the claim that the killing was based on his political beliefs.

“His family has collectively told investigators that he subscribed to left-wing ideology,” he said, “and even more so in these last couple of years, and he had a text message exchange… in which he claimed that he had an opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk, and he was going to do it because of his hatred for what Charlie stood for.”

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Vance says ‘I owe so much to Charlie’

The vice president and Mr Kirk were close friends, with Mr Vance saying in his first tribute that “he was a true friend” and that “he didn’t just help us win in 2024, he helped us staff the entire government”.

The vice president also said on the Rumble show that “I owe so much to Charlie”, adding that Mr Kirk texted friends that Mr Vance should be the vice presidential nominee for Donald Trump in the run-up to last year’s presidential election.

“It’s such an honour to have people show me that Charlie said ‘we want JD to be the VP nominee’,” he added.

“Do you know what it means to me that such a good guy, such a good friend, such a lion and visionary of our movement was advocating for me?”