Berlin, Dec 15 (AP) European leaders are expected to cement support for Ukraine Monday as it faces Washington's pressure to swiftly accept a US-brokered peace deal.

After Sunday's talks in Berlin between US envoys and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukrainian and European officials are set to continue a series of meetings in an effort to secure the continent's peace and security in the face of an increasingly assertive Russia.

Finnish President Alexander Stubb, one of the key European interlocutors between US President Donald Trump and Zelenskyy, was spotted on Monday morning in downtown Berlin.

Zelenskyy sat down on Sunday with Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner in the German federal chancellery in the hopes of bringing the nearly four-year war to a close.

Washington has tried for months to navigate the demands of each side as Trump presses for a swift end to Russia's war and grows increasingly exasperated by delays. The search for possible compromises has run into major obstacles, including control of Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, which is mostly occupied by Russian forces.

The US government late Sunday said in a social media post on Witkoff's account after the five-hour meeting that “a lot of progress was made.” Earlier in the day, Zelenskyy voiced readiness to drop his country's bid to join NATO if the US and other Western nations give Kyiv security guarantees similar to those offered to NATO members. But Ukraine continued to reject the US push for ceding territory to Russia.

Putin wants Ukraine to withdraw its forces from the part of the Donetsk region still under its control, among the key conditions for peace.

The Russian president has cast Ukraine's bid to join NATO as a major threat to Moscow's security and a reason for launching the full-scale invasion in February 2022. The Kremlin has demanded that Ukraine renounce the bid for alliance membership as part of any prospective peace settlement.

Zelenskyy emphasised that any Western security assurances would need to be legally binding and supported by the US Congress.

In London, meanwhile, the new head of the MI6 spy agency is set to warn on Monday of how Putin's determination to export chaos around the world is rewriting the rules of conflict and creating new security challenges.

Blaise Metreweli will use her first public speech as chief of the United Kingdom's foreign intelligence service to say that Britain faces increasingly unpredictable and interconnected threats, with emphasis on “aggressive, expansionist” Russia.

Drone strikes continue ----------------------------- Russia fired 153 drones of various types at Ukraine overnight Sunday into Monday, according to Ukraine's Air Force. The air force said early Monday that 133 drones were neutralised, while 17 more hit their targets.

In Russia, the defence ministry on Monday said forces destroyed 130 Ukrainian drones overnight. An additional 16 drones were then destroyed between 7 am and 8 am local time on Monday.

Eighteen drones were shot down over Moscow itself, the Russian defence ministry said.

Flights were temporarily halted at the city's Domodedovo and Zhukovsky airports as part of safety measures, officials said.

Damage details and casualty figures were not immediately available.

Pax Americana is over ---------------------------- German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who has spearheaded European efforts to support Ukraine alongside French President Emmanuel Macron and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, said Saturday that “the decades of the Pax Americana are largely over for us in Europe and for us in Germany as well.” “Pax Americana” refers to the US's postwar dominance as a superpower that has brought relative peace to the globe.

Merz warned that Putin's aim is “a fundamental change to the borders in Europe, the restoration of the old Soviet Union within its borders.” “If Ukraine falls, he won't stop,” Merz warned during a party conference in Munich.

Macron, meanwhile, vowed Sunday on social platform X that “France is, and will remain, at Ukraine's side to build a robust and lasting peace — one that can guarantee Ukraine's security and sovereignty, and that of Europe, over the long term.” Putin has denied plans to attack any European allies. (AP) SKS SKS