Lithuanian president warns that Kyiv faces winter under siege from drones and missiles while Putin plays for time
Lily Shanagher
Lily has reported on the Iran war, Latin America and domestic events. You can contact her at lily.shanagher@telegraph.co.uk or via X @lilyshanagher
Published 06 November 2026 5:00am GMT
Russia will delay peace talks until spring 2027 and continue to pummel Ukraine through the winter months, the president of Lithuania has warned.
Gitanas Nauseda said hybrid warfare in Europe would continue while Moscow put pressure on Kyiv with its drones and missiles, and delayed any form of serious negotiations until next year.
“The Russian leadership currently sees no need to enter into negotiations – at least not before spring 2027,” he said in an interview with WELT, which, like The Telegraph, is part of the Axel Springer Global Reporters Network.
Mr Nauseda’s warning called into question recent attempts by the US, EU and Ukraine’s allies to re-engage both sides of the conflict in renewed peace talks.
On Thursday, Melania Trump brought together officials from Russia and Ukraine at the White House and urged them to work together on a ceasefire.
The US first lady implored officials including Kirill Dmitriev, Vladimir Putin’s envoy, to follow the example of Oleshky, a border town under siege for which she helped broker a deal that led to the evacuation of 800 people.
Ukrainian, Russian and American officials would travel to Abu Dhabi next week to discuss the advancement of peace negotiations, Steve Witkoff, Donald Trump’s special envoy, said.
Mr Witkoff added that the US would mediate discussions on post-war security arrangements, de-escalation, humanitarian efforts, and the next steps toward peace.
The EU hosted talks on Ukraine on Wednesday in Brussels with representatives from the US, Ukraine, Nato and other European countries as a way of co-ordinating before the trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi.
But Mr Nauseda dismissed the prospect of Russia engaging in peace talks in good faith, saying: “The Russians will merely pretend to negotiate. I do not trust them.
“Russia will make demands that Ukraine will find unacceptable from the outset, deliberately ensuring that the so-called negotiations fail.
“If Ukraine survives this winter – and I am convinced it will – the chances of serious talks will increase in 2027. I do not expect them any earlier.”
Mr Nauseda said Russia would “continue putting pressure on Ukraine through air strikes against its cities” through the winter months. Russia’s drones and missiles have targeted Kyiv’s energy infrastructure during the war in an effort to freeze the country into submission.
“That is why we must continue providing military assistance to Ukraine, particularly air defence equipment,” the Lithuanian president added. “At the same time, we must help rebuild its energy infrastructure.”
European efforts to get peace talks on track were criticised by Giorgia Meloni on Thursday. The Italian prime minister said the continent risked becoming irrelevant in any talks unless it ended competing diplomatic initiatives and agreed on a single representative empowered to speak on its behalf.
She said that she was not seeking a place at the negotiating table for herself or Italy, but that Rome would not accept commitments being negotiated without an EU mandate. She called for a spokesman to be decided to represent the bloc.
Mr Nauseda said Russia’s hybrid war against Europe continued through a range of measures, citing “illegal migration, weather balloons entering our airspace, and drones coming from Ukraine or Russia”.
“We have received intelligence about possible provocations,” he added, saying Vilnius had hastened efforts to secure its border after a suspected Russian provocation, just as Poland has.
Warsaw said on Tuesday it had deployed security forces along its border with the exclave of Kaliningrad amid concerns over sabotage.
Donald Tusk, the Polish prime minister, said men carrying torches had been seen making “disturbing movements” near the 143-mile frontier with the Russian territory on Monday night.
Mr Nauseda ruled out a conventional Russian attack on Nato territory for now, but said the provocations would continue.
“I don’t think Russia is currently ready for large-scale operations. Russia’s resources are tied up on the Ukrainian battlefield, and Russia is not succeeding there,” he said.
“But Putin is testing us and moving ever closer to Article 5, NATO’s collective defence commitment.”
He added that Lithuania was “very ambitious” and aimed to be “much better equipped” by the second half of 2027 to deal with any Russian threat.
Kremlin ‘cares little’ for its people
Mr Nauseda predicted Putin would continue the war as long as he had sufficient resources and said that although the economic situation in Russia was worsening, “the Kremlin cares little about the population’s standard of living”.
The Lithuanian leader downplayed the role the US played in helping Russia after Mr Trump was seen to pivot towards Putin by overriding sanctions and buying diesel from Moscow to ease fuel costs before the US midterm elections.
“Some developments can be explained by the midterm elections, such as the diesel deal or the US decision to import fertilisers from Belarus,” Mr Nauseda said.
“The actions of our most important ally are sometimes difficult to predict,” he said. “Let us wait and see what happens next.”
Original article, copiously illustrated, can be seen here :
Unfortunately I fear that Mr Nauseda is correct.
RuZZia is evil.
Nostradamus Nigel Farage’s brilliant prediction for the midterms was : “Trump won’t get smashed.”
Well done Nige, you tosser.
He has published an article in today’s Telegraph entitled : “My government will be one of all the talents.”
In the article he made demeaning comments about the employment history of his Labour and Conservative opponents.
My comment was :
Obviously modesty prevented Nigel from mentioning one of his own longstanding employers : RT.
Apart from his friend George Galloway, no U.K. politician appeared on that squalid lie factory more often than himself.
“A government of all the talents.”
As long as its members share your anti-Ukraine, pro-Russia views eh Nige?
Shaun Pinner posted a photo of Melania standing with Kirill Dmitriev, juxtaposed with a tragic photo of a Ukrainian baby victim of putler’s vermin.
Dmitriev is an evil conspiracy-theorist cockroach nazi who talks about “globalists” and QAnon. In other words, exactly Krasnov’s type of putinaZi motherfucker who should never be allowed inside any civilised country except in chains.
Shaun’s comment :
I’m sorry, this is absolute bullshit…..
It’s a slap in the face to Ukrainians and democracy everywhere, this is a toddler murdered in their stroller by Russia.
Roman Sheremeta :
Russia gave him a choice — betray Ukraine or die in prison.
Volodymyr Mykolayenko, the former mayor of Kherson, refused to serve the occupiers and spent more than three years in russian captivity, where he was beaten with batons and fists and tortured with electric shocks from the very first day.
When russia invaded in 2022, Mykolayenko joined the territorial defense forces. A few weeks later, he was abducted, stuffed into a car trunk, and transferred through prisons in Crimea, as well as in the Voronezh and Vladimir regions. The torture did not stop for a single day.
For every word spoken in Ukrainian, he was beaten. Prisoners were fed potato peels, watery soup, and a single piece of bread per day. For vitamins, they gathered nettles growing by the fence. In the morning, the guards played Orthodox sermons on the radio; in the evening, they tortured the prisoners.
Russian officers offered him money, safety, and any position he wanted in the occupation administration. He refused. They lined him up against a wall and staged a mock execution.
“I told them I have two grandsons — they will continue my life,” he recalls.
In 2022, Mykolayenko refused early release so that a gravely ill young prisoner could take his place. Later, he accidentally overheard from an investigator that Kherson had been liberated. “That was the day I truly felt free,” he says.
On August 24, 2025 — Ukraine’s Independence Day — he was freed during a prisoner exchange. He returned exhausted but unbroken. His mother’s home was destroyed, and his own apartment damaged.
“I will return to Kherson — to rebuild it and to defend it again, if necessary.”
Source: translated and adopted from Tymofiy Mylovanov
Shaun Pinner :
Russia has offered literally nothing, and Trump, now the First Lady, are jointly giving the Kremlin a reach-around.
There will never be peace if you can’t address the realities, there will never be long term peace without justice.
It’s sickening, Russia invaded, Russia stole children, Russia has wiped out towns and cities, displaced 10 million people and conducts ethnic cleansing on a Nazi level.
This worm is in the White House, lording it🤬
(Accompanying Pic of Dmitriev in the WH).
Wise words from Operator Starsky :
One thing Democrats should understand now – people didn’t vote Democrats, people voted against Trump.
Trump’s former electorate didn’t care when MAGAnderthals were conquering Greenland and Canada, laying red carpet in front of putin, or redacting mentions of Trump’s name in the Epstein Files. They didn’t care when Trump spent more time playing golf and sleeping on camera than actually doing something good.
It’s when fuel prices skyrocketed but people’s welfare not so much (and blaming Ukraine for that didn’t work), which was absolutely natural and expected.
One thing the russian terrorists learned today was that Americans didn’t care if their elected representatives were black, white, or Muslim (definitely not after two years of ICEis shooting civilians).
Americans care if they have stability and reliable economy, which is exactly what corrupted pro-russian oligarchs failed and will always fail to sustain – just like they did in Ukraine before we’ve kicked them out in 2014.
Now, Democrats should work really hard on their mistakes. Because russians are already working on theirs.
Roman Sheremeta :
Beyond tragic. Ukrainian delegation is forced to stand by the russian war criminals who represent the terrorist state responsible for kidnapping Ukrainian children, killing civilians, and attempting to genocide the entire nation.
I understand that Melania wants to earn brownie points. But you don’t do it at the expense of an already suffering victim. Shameful and despicable.
Roman Sheremeta:
Instead of providing Ukraine with air defense systems and imposing sanctions on russia as it continues to murder Ukrainian civilians every single day, the Trump regime lets Putin’s sanctioned envoy spread russian propaganda inside the White House.
Unfortunately, russia still runs the White House.
Yes, the ruskie mafia are still in control of the WH, but not of Congress anymore.
Roman Sheremeta :
Unfortunately, russia still runs the White House.
Journalist: “Did you meet with the Ukrainian delegation today?”
Trump: “No, just with the head person of Russia.”
Journalist: “Putin right now kills Ukrainian civilians in their apartments, in their buses, in their schools. Did you bring that up?”
Trump: “I always bring it up and I also bring it up the other way because, the other way, they kill too. Both sides.”
The latest in a long line of despicable, putrid and downright evil statements from Krasnov, who should burn in hell with his idol putler.
Joni Askola :
Ukraine has no option to make peace, only to surrender or fight. Ukrainians choose to fight, which is a basic right for anyone under attack.
Trump’s Putin Claim Crumbles as Secret Deal Revealed
Bombshell new details of how the tyrant has helped Tehran have emerged.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-claim-that-vladimir-putin-is-not-helping-tehran-crumbles-as-secret-russia-iran-deal-revealed
DT commenter Carpe Jugulum :
Start with absolute, incontrovertible facts.
Putin ordered his armed forces to invade Ukraine. Bucha was the beginning and they have committed murderous atrocities every single day since. There is no trace of honour, compassion or even honesty from Putin on down within his despotic regime. They are all utter and complete murdering filth.
Negotiating with people like Putin is an exercise in futility, he breaks agreements on a whim. He understands force.
The UK, EU and NATO now have a choice. Do we stand for our values, our morality and our solidarity with a citizenry undergoing their own blitz from the Nazis of Russia or do we mutter about sanctions.
We enacted a no-fly zone over Libya, Ukraine deserves no less and far more.
If Putin chooses to ‘escalate’ from there then Russian forces in Ukraine should be sterilised. That needs to be made clear from the start.
Our history is one of opposing fascism, it needs another chapter.
You criticise Farage, but the English people … the real English people … cannot survive Establishment multiracialisation; and there is no other path to change but through the half-way house of Reform. Let me remind you, the ultimate value on English soil is the life of the English people, exactly as the ultimate value on Ukrainian soil is the life of the Ukrainian people. It’s the same fight against different enemies.
This site concerns itself with the interests of Ukraine. The U.K. is one of Ukraine’s biggest providers of military aid. As a Budapest signatory, it is our obligation to at least try to help Ukraine defend itself from a horde of filthy savages.
Your scummy party and particularly its leader is a long term servant of fascist ruZZia.
That is why Farage will never be PM.
Scratch beneath the surface and I expect it will turn out that you too are a putlerist.