Europe has thrown its weight behind Volodymyr Zelensky’s dramatic appeal to Vladimir Putin, with EU officials endorsing the Ukrainian president’s push for face-to-face talks as a possible way to halt a war now grinding through its fifth year. Mr Zelensky set out that offer in an open letter to the Russian leader, proposing a direct meeting to negotiate an end to the conflict while making clear that, failing that, Kyiv was prepared to continue the fight. "We welcome President Zelensky's call for direct negotiations and also…

Ukrainian investigators have cast a harsh spotlight on President Volodymyr Zelensky's influential former chief of staff, naming him as a suspect in a sweeping corruption case that threatens to intensify pressure on the president's office at a delicate stage of the war with Russia. Kyiv's political establishment was jolted last year by the sprawling inquiry, which stirred public outrage and ultimately drove the former senior adviser — once Mr Zelensky's closest aide — Andriy Yermak, from office. Ukraine's anti-corruption…