Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff will meet Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Tuesday, as diplomacy intensifies over ending the war in Ukraine.

Washington is “very optimistic” about reaching an agreement, Donald Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt said ahead of the trip, after Ukrainian officials met US representatives on Sunday.

Yet both sides have indicated there’s a long road ahead before resolving key sticking points, namely control of Ukrainian territory and post-war security guarantees for Kyiv.

Catch up on the latest Ukraine war developments here

Mr Putin implied last week he would stop fighting only when Ukrainian troops withdrew from all four Ukrainian regions that Russia illegally annexed in 2022.

Russia does not fully control these regions, but its armed forces made their biggest advance in Ukraine for a year in November, capturing 270 square miles, according to analysis by the AFP news agency.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said repeatedly that giving up territory is not an option.

Europe ‘exposed’

He was in Paris on Monday for talks with French president Emmanuel Macron, who held a joint call with Prime Minister Keir Starmer and reiterated his support for Ukrainian sovereignty.

But the diplomacy set in motion by Trump’s peace plan “painfully exposed” Europe’s weakness, Nigel Gould-Davies of the International Institute for Strategic Studies wrote in a recent commentary.

“Despite being the main source of Ukraine’s economic and military support, it is marginal to the diplomacy of the war and has done little more than offer amendments to America’s draft peace plan.”

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All the while, European allies have been the target of so-called “hybrid warfare”, not least repeated airspace incursions by Russian drones and fighter jets.

NATO’s most senior military officer went as far as to say on Monday that the alliance could consider a “pre-emptive strike” against Russia a “defensive action”, according to the Financial Times.

Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone’s remarks were condemned as extremely irresponsible and an attempt to escalate tension by the Kremlin.

Rescue and recovery and efforts are under way in parts of South and Southeast Asia where the number of those killed in devastating floods continues to rise.

The extreme weather last week has killed at least 366 people in Sri Lanka, 604 in Indonesia, and 176 in Thailand, according to authorities.

Rescuers are searching for 464 missing people in Indonesia, and a further 367 in Sri Lanka, after a cyclone and other storms triggered flooding and landslides in the region.

In a post on X, the King and Queen Camilla said they were “deeply saddened” to hear about devastating storms and added their “heartfelt condolences” to the families of those who have died.

Hundreds of thousands in shelters in Sri Lanka

Sri Lankan authorities said about 218,000 people were in temporary shelters after downpours that triggered landslides, primarily in the tea-growing central hill country.

People were seen salvaging belongings from flooded homes along the banks of the Kelani River, near the capital Colombo on Monday.

Meanwhile, train and flight services have resumed after being disrupted last week, but schools stayed closed, officials said.

Cyclone Ditwah was the “largest and most challenging” natural disaster in Sri Lanka’s history, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake said.

The cyclone also brought heavy rain to India’s southern state of Tamil Nadu over the weekend, with authorities saying three people were killed in rain-related incidents.

The storm, which as of 5pm UK time on Monday was about 20km (12 miles) off the coast of the state capital Chennai, has weakened into a “deep depression” and was expected to weaken further in the next few hours, weather officials said.

Over a million affected in Indonesia

More than 28,000 homes have been damaged in Indonesia, with 1.4 million people affected by torrential rains following a tropical storm that formed in the Malacca Strait.

The country’s president, Prabowo Subianto, called it a catastrophe and pledged to rebuild infrastructure as he visited the three affected provinces on Monday, where nearly 300,000 people have been displaced by the flooding.

‘Nothing remains’

“The water just rose up into the house and we were afraid, so we fled. Then we came back on Friday, and the house was gone, destroyed,” said Afrianti, 41, who only goes by one name and lives in West Sumatra’s Padang city.

She and her family of nine have made their own tent shelter beside the single wall that remains of their home.

“My home and business are gone, the shop is gone. Nothing remains. I can only live near this one remaining wall,” she said.

Highest one-day rainfall in Thai city for 300 years

In Thailand, flooding in eight southern provinces affected about three million people and led to a major mobilisation of its military to evacuate critical patients from hospitals and reach people stuck in floodwaters for days.

In the worst-affected city of Hat Yai, a southern trading hub, 335mm (13 inches) of rain fell on 21 November, its highest single-day tally in 300 years, followed by days of unrelenting downpours.

King offers ‘heartfelt condolences’

King Charles and Queen Camilla responded to the crisis in a statement posted on X and praised the work of emergency responders: “We wish to express our heartfelt condolences to the families of those who have so tragically lost their lives.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the many whose homes have been destroyed and to all who are awaiting news of loved ones missing.

“These disasters remind us of the increasingly urgent need to restore the balance and harmony of Nature.”

Thailand’s Prime Minister Anutin Charnivirakul expects residents to be able to return home within seven days, a government spokesperson said on Monday.

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The first batch of compensation payments was set to be distributed on Monday, starting with 239m baht (£5.6m) for 26,000 people, the spokesperson added.

In Malaysia there have been at least three deaths and authorities are still on alert for a second and third wave of flooding as 11,600 remain in evacuation centres.

“Many options” are on the table to deal with Venezuelan drug gangs, the White House has said, as the US considers attacking on land.

President Trump is meeting his national security team on Monday and could discuss what would be a major escalation in strikes that have so far only targeted boats.

Karoline Leavitt, the president’s press secretary, did not detail what the meeting would focus on. However, Mr Trump said last week that land strikes would start “very soon”.

“There’s many options at the president’s disposal that are on the table – and I’ll let him speak on those,” Ms Leavitt told reporters.

American forces have carried out at least 21 strikes on boats it claims were carrying narcotics to its shores over the last few months.

The US has accused Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro of being involved in the drugs trade – a claim he denies.

Venezuela has said the attacks, which have killed more than 80 people, amount to murder and that President Trump’s true motivation is to oust Mr Maduro and access its oil.

President Maduro – widely considered a dictator by the West – said on Monday that Venezuelans are ready “to defend [the country] and lead it to the path of peace”.

“We have lived through 22 weeks of aggression that can only be described as psychological terrorism,” he said.

Concerns have been raised over the legality of the US attacks, which the Pentagon has sought to justify by designating the gangs as foreign terror organisations.

Tensions remain high over America’s large deployment in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific, which includes its flagship aircraft carrier and thousands of troops.

The US has released videos of boats being blown up but has not provided evidence – such as photos of drugs – to support the smuggling claims.

Controversy also surrounds the first incident, on 2 September, in which 11 people were killed – with a follow-up strike targeting the boat after the first attack left two survivors in the water.

US media reported defence secretary Pete Hegseth gave an order beforehand that everyone on board should be killed.

However, there are concerns about the legality of the second strike if the survivors posed no threat.

Mr Hegseth dismissed the reporting as “fake news” and insisted all actions in the region are compliant with US and international law.

“Every trafficker we kill is affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization,” he said on X.

President Trump said on Sunday he would not have wanted a second strike and that Mr Hegseth had denied giving such an order.

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Ms Leavitt confirmed on Monday that the boat had been hit by a second strike – but denied Mr Hegseth gave the order for the follow-up.

Instead, she said he had authorised US navy vice admiral Frank Bradley to attack and the admiral acted “well within his authority and the law, directing the engagement to ensure the boat was destroyed and the threat to the US was eliminated”.

As the US weighs its next steps, Mr Trump said on Sunday he had spoken to President Maduro by phone and that the conversation went neither “well or badly”.

In recent days, he also stated that Venezuela’s airspace should be considered closed – with the South American nation calling it a “colonial threat” and “illegal, and unjustified aggression”.