Ukraine-Russia war – live: Zelensky says working with Trump would be ‘hard’ as leaders expected to talk soon

Volodymyr Zelensky has said working with Donald Trump will be hard if the former US President is re-elected, “ but we are hard workers ”.

The Ukrainian president was asked about Mr Trump’s pick for vice president JD Vance , who has previously said he “does not care” what happens in the conflict “one way or the other”.

“Maybe he really doesn’t understand what goes on in Ukraine , so we have to work with the United States ,” Mr Zelensky told the BBC.

Mr Zelensky is on Friday to become the first foreign leader to address the UK cabinet since Bill Clinton in 1997. He said he hoped Sir Keir Starmer ’s time as prime minister would be a “special” era in UK foreign policy. And he ruled out stepping down as prime minister until the war is over.

Sir Keir is expected to tell the Ukrainian leader that Britain will do more in the coming months to dent Russia ’s “war machine”, including agreeing a new defence export support treaty to help Kyiv draw on export finance.