Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says he wants to work “directly” with US President-elect Donald Trump and is open to his ideas, highlighting Kyiv’s eagerness to keep its most important ally onside as Russia intensifies its attacks.

In further remarks to Sky News, the UK’s former representative to Nato, Sir Adam Thomson, said that Mr Zelensky appeared to be preparing domestic audiences for compromises, while “making opening moves” in a likely extended negotiation with Mr Trump over which line to take with the Kremlin.

The war he started in 2022 by invading Ukraine, he implied, was another such moment. “We are witnessing the formation of a completely new world order, nothing like we have had in the past, such as the Westphalian or Yalta systems,