Britain tried to open a back-channel to Vladimir Putin amid fears Donald Trump would sideline Europe’s interests in Ukraine, it has been revealed.
Moscow today said that while there had been contact between the UK’s national security adviser Jonathan Powell and Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov, the dialogue did not work out.
The confirmation follows an earlier report from the Financial Times that Powell tried to open the back-channel with Putin over British and European worries that the US would sideline their interests in Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Britain had shown no desire to listen to Russia‘s position on the Ukraine conflict.
Peskov said: ‘There were indeed contacts. A dialogue took place, but it did not continue.’
He did not say when the conversation took place.
‘During this contact there was an acute desire of the interlocutor to talk about the position of the Europeans and there was a lack of any intention or desire to listen to our position,’ Peskov said.
‘Given the impossibility of exchanging views, the mutual dialogue has not developed.’
Britain tried to open a back-channel to Vladimir Putin (pictured) amid fears Donald Trump would sideline Europe’s interests in Ukraine, it has been revealed
A firefighter works at the site of a Russian drone strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kharkiv, Ukraine November 12, 2025
The US has long been Ukraine’s main single backer in its fight against Russia’s invasion.
Between January 2022 and August 2025, the US has given just over £101billion to Ukraine in military, financial and humanitarian aid, according to the Kiel Institute’s Ukraine Support Tracker.
The EU, meanwhile, has collectively given £156billion to support the fight against the Kremlin in that same period.
But the Kiel Institute reported that the US’ material support for Ukraine drastically dropped from January 2025, the same month that Donald Trump took office for the second time.
And Trump reportedly pressed Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky into accepting Putin’s conditions for ending the invasion last month.
These conditions included surrendering parts of the eastern Donbas region in exchange for small areas of the two southern regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, both of which are on the frontlines of the invasion.
The October summit between Zelensky and Trump reportedly descended into a ‘shouting match’, with Trump ‘cursing all the time’ and warning the Ukrainian leader: ‘If [Putin] wants it, he will destroy you’.
At one point, Trump is said to have pushed aside battlefield maps in an attempt to dismiss further discussion.
A firefighter works at the site of a Russian drone strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Chuhuiv, Kharkiv region, Ukraine November 7, 2025
A Russian army soldier fires a Fagot anti-tank missile system towards an Ukrainian position at an undisclosed location on November 7 2025
Nearing its fourth year, the invasion of Ukraine has been a protracted war that has cost both sides dearly.
And now Zelensky is facing an internal battle, with a major corruption scandal and mounting accusations that the Ukrainian presidency is using the judiciary to intimidate and silence critics presenting a significant test for him.
Justice Minister German Galushchenko, a former energy minister, was suspended on Wednesday after being caught up in an investigation into one of Zelensky’s top allies, who is accused of orchestrating a $100-million scheme to secure kickbacks from the power sector.
While Galushchenko denies any wrongdoing, the scandal has sparked anger as Ukraine’s electricity grid is creaking under a barrage of attacks from Russia as the country heads into winter.
These challenges come at a critical time for Zelensky, who has remained popular and largely unchallenged since Russia invaded in 2022, with Moscow’s forces advancing in the east.
It also shows how strained the tightrope that Ukraine has been forced to walk – between centralising power to run the war, and forging on with democratic reforms key to joining the EU – is becoming.
The latest case to trigger accusations that Zelensky’s team are weaponising the judicial system to intimidate critics was last month’s arrest of Volodymyr Kudrytsky, who led national energy company Ukrenergo until 2024, on embezzlement accusations.
Kudrytsky and his backers reject the claims as retribution for criticising Ukraine’s strategy to defend the energy grid from Russian attacks.
Firefighters stand at an impact site after a Russian drone attack, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine, on November 8, 2025
Firefighters work at the site of the Russian drone strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Odesa region, Ukraine in this handout picture released November 11, 2025
‘It’s purely political. It couldn’t happen without the involvement of the presidential office,’ Kudrytsky, currently on bail, told AFP, saying that he was being lined up as a scapegoat.
The authorities want to ‘demonstrate what will happen if you comment on sensitive matters,’ he added, pointing to his strained ties with the country’s leadership.
Kudrytsky has won some high-profile supporters.
Business ombudsman Roman Waschuk said the evidence ‘appears quite flimsy’ and warned against ‘targeting people for simply performing their normal corporate functions.’
Opposition lawmaker Inna Sovsun told AFP it was part of a strategy of using criminal investigations to silence people.
‘So you know there is a case against you, and they will try to use it if you do something they don’t like,’ she said.
Zelensky said Kudrytsky ‘was a chief of a big system, and that system had to secure our energy. He had to do it.’
The grid has been battered by Russian attacks and charges that Kyiv could have done more to protect the network are sensitive.
Russian army soldiers fire to shoot a Ukrainian drone on an undisclosed location in Ukraine on November 7 2025
Servicemen of the 24th Mechanized Brigade named after King Danylo on the frontline positions near Chasiv Yar, Ukraine, October 28 2025
Alongside the court cases, this week’s allegations of a massive corruption scandal involving Timur Mindich, co-owner of the production company founded by the president, have fuelled worries about the centralisation of power amid the war.
Zelensky’s office had this summer tried to strip the independence of the two agencies investigating and prosecuting the case – the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO).
The dynamic presents a challenge to Brussels, which supports Ukraine’s bid to join the bloc but is pressing Kyiv to build on democratic reforms if it wants to join the bloc.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine has been plagued by corruption scandals – with graft and rule-of-law major vulnerabilities in Kyiv’s EU bid.
While Brussels has praised progress made since the 2014 revolution, its latest monitoring report said: ‘The integrity, meritocracy and capacities of the judiciary and prosecutorial service… remain weak.’
Activists have also pointed to other cases.
Zelensky’s predecessor and political rival Petro Poroshenko was charged with corruption earlier this year, a move he denounced as politically motivated.
Odsea mayor Gennadiy Trukhanov was stripped of his Ukrainian citizenship over allegations – denied by him – that he possesses a Russian passport.
Even some of his critics said it was a case of Zelensky’s office trying to tighten control over a region run by the opposition.
And one NABU detective, Rusln Magamedrasulov, remains in custody, charged with aiding an aggressor state for allegedly doing business with Russia.
Pilots from the Predator Brigade’s unmanned vehicle unit of the Ukrainian Patrol Police in Donetsk assemble a GARA bomber drone on a nighttime strike mission against Russian forces on the Pokrovsk front line, Ukraine, November 2 2025
A Ukrainian recruit learns how to fire a RPG-7 grenade launcher at an undisclosed location on November 5, 2025
Supporters say that case is fabricated – retribution for his work investigating the scandal that came to light this week.
Other NABU staff have been detained or had their homes searched, heaping pressure on the agency.
‘Some people are afraid. But if you’re talking about the general staff of the NABU, most of them are very motivated,’ head Semen Kryvonos told AFP.
There is mounting worry about how Zelensky will respond.
‘The question now is – what will be their reaction,’ said Daria Kaleniuk, head of the Anti-Corruption Action Center .
‘If Zelensky will decide to cover his inner circle and attack.’
The Daily Mail has contacted the Cabinet Office for comment.
