European allies of Ukraine have given a cautious welcome to efforts to refine a United States peace proposal initially criticised for appearing to be weighted in favour of Russia’s maximalist demands.

The leaders Germany, Finland, Poland and the United Kingdom were among those agreeing on Monday that progress had been made in the previous day’s talks between Washington and Kyiv in Geneva that yielded what the US and Ukraine called a “refined peace framework”.

Still, the European leaders stressed work remained to be done.

“It was possible to clear up some questions, but we also know that there won’t be peace in Ukraine overnight,” said German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, adding that the peace plan initially drafted by the US had been “modified in significant parts”.

He welcomed the “interim result”.

“The next step must be that Russia must come to the table,” he said from Angola, where he was attending a summit between African and European Union countries. “This is a laborious process. It will move forward at most in smaller steps this week. I do not expect there to be a breakthrough this week.”

US President Donald Trump had blindsided Kyiv and its European countries last week with a 28-point peace plan criticised by some as a Russian wish list that called for Ukraine to cede more territory, accept limits on its military and abandon its ambitions to join NATO.

Britain, France and Germany responded by drawing up a counter-proposal that would cease fighting at present front lines, leaving discussions of territory for later, and include a NATO-style US security guarantee for Ukraine, according to a draft seen by Reuters news agency.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that Ukraine’s allies in the “coalition of the willing” – a broad term for about 30 countries supporting Kyiv – will hold talks about the negotiations on Tuesday by video.

The German Foreign Office said that chief diplomats of Germany, Finland, France, the UK, Italy and Poland consulted Monday with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha on further steps toward ending the war.

Also attending the summit in Angola, European Council President Antonio Costa said there was “new momentum” in negotiations.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the European Union would “engage further tomorrow with our partners from the coalition of the willing”.

‘Big progress’

On Monday, Trump indicated Sunday’s talks had gone well.

“Is it really possible that big progress is being made in Peace Talks between Russia and Ukraine??? Don’t believe it until you see it, but something good just may be happening,” the US President wrote on Truth Social.

Trump had given Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is under the doubled pressure of Russia’s continued advance on the front line and a corruption scandal that has tainted his administration, until Thursday to agree to a framework to end the war. He also accused Zelenskyy of showing “zero gratitude” for peace efforts.

Zelenskyy said on X on Monday that he was expecting a full report that evening on the Geneva talks.

“To achieve real peace, more, more is needed. Of course, we all continue working with partners, especially the United States, and look for compromises that strengthen but not weaken us,” he said.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk also said on Monday that negotiations were a “delicate matter” since “no one wants to discourage Americans and President Trump from having the United States on our side in this process”.

The Kremlin said it had not been informed of the results of the Geneva talks, but that it was aware that “adjustments” were made to the US proposal.

In a call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin repeated his view that the initial US plan could “serve as a basis for a final peace settlement”.

During the call, Erdogan said Turkiye was ready to support efforts to bring Russia and Ukraine together, including helping to facilitate direct talks between the two.

However, Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov said the European plan appeared “entirely unconstructive and unsuitable for us”, according to a report in the Russian state-run TASS news agency.

Reporting from Moscow, Al Jazeera’s Yulia Shapovalova said Russia was unlikely to accept the European revisions.

“If all Russian conditions and interests are not taken into account, Russia is ready to continue fighting because, according to Vladimir Putin, Russia is pretty successful on the battlefield and it wants to achieve its goals,” she said.

In comments made by video to a meeting at the Swedish Parliament, Zelenskyy had indicated that territory would still be a key sticking point, accusing Russian President Vladimir Putin of seeking “legal recognition for what he has stolen”.

Grim reality

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has decimated the east of the country, forcing millions to flee their homes, ravaging towns and cities, and killing tens of thousands in Europe’s worst conflict since World War II.

On Monday, the war continued to grind on, with Russian forces keeping up their deadly and devastating strikes on civilian areas while making battlefield advances in Ukraine’s southeastern Zaporizhia region.

Russian drones hit residential areas of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city overnight, killing four people and wounding 13, including two children, authorities said.

On Monday, Russian forces struck the city of Pavlohrad in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region with drones, wounding three people and damaging industrial facilities, according to regional authorities.

That morning, Russian shelling killed a 61-year-old woman in Kherson, according to the military administration of the city in southern Ukraine.

Across the border, Russian air defences downed Ukrainian drones en route to Moscow, forcing three airports serving the capital to pause flights.

A reported Ukrainian drone strike on Sunday knocked power out for thousands of residents near Moscow, a rare reversal of Russian attacks on energy targets that regularly cause power blackouts for millions of Ukrainians.

A father has told the BBC he felt powerless as he witnessed gunmen on motorbikes abduct dozens of children, including his son, after storming a Catholic boarding school in northern Nigeria in the early hours of Friday.

The father said he was asleep when he was awoken by the noise of the gunmen as they went past his home with the children they had seized from St Mary’s school in Papiri village in Niger state.

“They [the children] were being trafficked on foot the way shepherds control their herds. Some children were falling and the men would kick them and instruct them to stand up.

“The gunmen were on about 50 motorcycle bikes while controlling them,” said the father, whose name we have changed to Theo for his safety.

Speaking to the BBC in the dormitory where his son used to sleep, Theo said he was in no position to stop the abduction.

“I felt like going [to help] but I thought better of it. Even if I did go, what could I do? I couldn’t do anything,” he told the BBC, adding that he called the police but it was too late by the time they arrived.

The Christian Association of Nigeria has said that 303 students and 12 members of staff were taken from the school, but that 50 of the children managed to escape and have been reunited with their families.

The school was run by the chairman of the association’s Niger chapter, who has shared a list of those abducted with the BBC.

However, police said they were only aware of a few children escaping on the night of the abduction, and could not confirm that 50 more had escaped.

The Niger state governor, Umar Bago, told local media that the number of abducted students had been exaggerated, and it was “far, far below” 303.

The governor blamed the school authorities for opening the establishment despite threats by unknown gunmen four years ago, and again two months ago.

“The schools in that area have been closed for four years now. I was surprised to learn the school is still open,” Bago said.

He also insisted that the attack was just a “scare” and that all students would be rescued sooner or later.

Along with some other parents, Theo has been camping outside the school, angry with the government’s response to the abductions.

“Our children were kidnapped but the government doesn’t seem to pay attention to it,” said Theo.

He said he was frustrated that the state governor had not visited the school, and only went to a nearby community to speak to security agencies and local leaders.

“We have concluded that the government is not concerned about us – we feel like we are not part of the country, they have abandoned us.”

The pain being endured by the parents of those children who are still missing is all too evident.

“I am sad, my whole life is filled with sadness,” said a mother, whose son was among the children taken by the gunmen.

“He’s my only son, he’s my first-born, please help us,” she said.

Another parent, Lucas, told the BBC that two of his children had been abducted, but the youngest one, a six-year-old boy, was lucky and managed to avoid falling into the clutches of the kidnappers.

“When I saw him, I was so excited. I called him by name, he turned and ran to me. I hugged and embraced him,” he said.

The northern part of Niger where Papiri is located has recently become a hot-spot for kidnappings for ransom.

The payment of ransoms has been outlawed in an attempt to cut the supply of money to the criminal gangs, but to little effect.

The BBC team drove about 500km (310 miles) to Papiri from the Niger state’s capital, Minna and was advised several times not to take certain routes and, for periods, was escorted by police.

Many blame the crisis on the size of the state. In terms of landmass, Niger is the largest state in Nigeria, and larger than European countries like Denmark and the Netherlands.

It also has a lot of forests, which criminal gangs, referred to locally as bandits, use as camps and routes to connect to other states in Nigeria, as well as neighbouring countries.

The abduction at the school was the third to hit Nigeria in a week.

Last Monday, more than 20 schoolgirls, who the BBC has been told are Muslim, were kidnapped from a boarding school in Kebbi state, which borders Niger.

A church was also attacked further south in Kwara state, with two people killed and dozens of worshippers abducted.

Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu cancelled his trip to the G20 summit, held in South Africa at the weekend, to deal with the crisis.

He posted on social media on Sunday that all the 38 worshippers abducted in Kwara state had been rescued.

The spate of abductions has forced the closure of many boarding schools across Nigeria, with parents rushing to collect their children.

The government is under pressure from US President Donald Trump, who warned earlier this month that he would send troops to Nigeria with “guns a-blazing” if it “continues to allow the killing of Christians” by Islamist militants.

The Nigerian government has said claims that Christians are being persecuted is “a gross misrepresentation of reality” as “terrorists attack all who reject their murderous ideology – Muslims, Christians and those of no faith alike”.

While some kidnappings are carried out by Islamist militant groups, many are carried out for ransom by criminal gangs, highlighting the deep security crisis in the country.