German Chancellor Friedrich Merz made it clear on Thursday that it seems clear there will be no meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. 

Macron welcomed Merz for a working dinner at Bregancon Fort in southern France, where the leaders gave a statement to the press before their meeting.

Merz’s assessment of the breakdown of relations between Zelensky and Putin comes after Russia was just hours away from killing UK workers with a double-tap rocket strike on a British Council building and the European headquarters in Kyiv.

The two buildings were struck overnight as Russia unleashed a barrage of drones and hypersonic missiles on the Ukrainian capital leaving at least 19 dead including four children, the youngest of whom was just two.

Dramatic footage shows a missile exploding in a fireball explosion at around 5.40am before a second followed 20 seconds later leaving the building ‘severely damaged’. 

The British Council site, which offers educational courses and English language programmes, is run independently but receives sponsorship from the Foreign Office. 

British nationals are recruited from the UK to teach at the centre, and many would likely have been inside had the strike occurred just a few hours later, after it opened at 9am.

In June, Moscow banned citizens from working with the council, claiming it was a front for British spies, Reuters reported.