Wars 2022 02/24 Monitoring Russian and Ukraine War.

[Saif]

Russian drones, missiles pound Ukraine before Zelenskiy-Trump meeting

Explosions sounded in Kyiv as Ukraine's air defence units went into action, and the military said on the Telegram messaging app that missiles were being deployed.

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Russian drones, missiles pound Ukraine before Zelenskiy-Trump meeting
Reuters
Published: 27 Dec 2025, 14: 08

Smoke rises from a burnt car at the site of a repair workshop damaged during Russian missile and drone strikes, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine on 27 December 2025. Reuters

Russia attacked Kyiv and other regions of Ukraine with missiles and drones on Saturday, ahead of what President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said would be a key meeting with US President Donald Trump to work out a deal to end nearly four years of war.

Before the attacks, Zelenskiy said his talks in Florida on Sunday would focus on the territory to be controlled by each side after a halt to the fighting that began in February 2022 with President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Russia's smaller neighbour, Europe's deadliest conflict since World War Two.

Explosions sounded in Kyiv as Ukraine's air defence units went into action, and the military said on the Telegram messaging app that missiles were being deployed. The air force said Russian drones were targeting the capital and regions in the northeast and south.

The attack was continuing at 8 a.m. (0600 GMT) and an air raid alert remained in effect in the capital, Reuters eyewitnesses said. At least eight people were wounded, Kyiv authorities said.

Controlling territory is diplomatic stumbling block

Russia's strikes prompted the temporary closure of Rzeszow and Lublin airports in southeastern Poland, to the west of Ukraine, after the Polish armed forces scrambled fighter jets, the Polish Air Navigation Services Agency posted on X.

Russia made no immediate comment on the attacks.

On Thursday night, Russia struck Ukraine's energy infrastructure and stepped up attacks on the southern region of Odesa, the site of Ukraine's main seaports, Ukrainian authorities said.

Amid the continued fierce fighting, territory remains the main diplomatic stumbling block. A 20-point draft in the U.S.-driven campaign to clinch a peace plan is 90 per cent complete, Zelenskiy told journalists in Kyiv.

He said a security guarantee agreement between Ukraine and the U.S. was almost ready - a key element after guarantees in earlier post-Soviet years proved meaningless.

"A lot can be decided before the New Year," Zelenskiy posted on social media.

Trump said the United States was the driving force behind the process.

"He doesn't have anything until I approve it," Trump told Politico. "So we'll see what he's got."

Before their meeting, Trump and Zelenskiy will have a call on Saturday, joined by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and other European leaders, a commission spokesperson said.

Zelenskiy told Axios the U.S. had offered a 15-year deal on security guarantees, subject to renewal, but Kyiv wanted a longer agreement with legally binding provisions to guard against further Russian aggression.

Trump said he believed Sunday's meeting would go well. He also said he expected to speak with Putin "soon, as much as I want."

Nuclear plant, free economic zone also at issue

In addition to territory, a critical point is control of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station, Europe's largest, seized by Russia in the opening weeks of the war.

Moscow demands that Ukraine withdraw from the areas of the eastern region of Donetsk that Russian troops have failed to occupy in their drive to secure all of the Donbas, which also includes the Luhansk region.

Kyiv wants the fighting halted at the current lines.

Under a U.S. compromise, a free economic zone would be set up if Ukraine leaves parts of the Donetsk region, though details have yet to be worked out.

Axios quoted Zelenskiy as saying that if he is not able to push the U.S. to back Ukraine's "strong" position on the land issue, he was willing to put the 20-point plan to a referendum - as long as Russia agrees to a 60-day ceasefire to allow Ukraine to prepare for and hold the vote.

He said he wanted more pressure applied to Russia.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Kyiv's version of the 20-point plan differed from what Russia had been discussing with the U.S., according to Interfax-Russia news agency.

But he expressed optimism that matters had reached a "turning point" in the search for a settlement.

Putin's foreign policy aide, Yuri Ushakov, spoke with members of the Trump administration after Moscow received U.S. proposals about a possible peace deal, the Kremlin said on Friday. It did not disclose how Moscow had viewed the documents.​

 

[Saif]

Zelensky looks to close out Ukraine peace deal at Trump meet

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will sit down Sunday with Donald Trump and seek to secure the US president's stamp of approval for a new proposal to end the nearly four-year conflict with Russia. The 20-point plan, which emerged from weeks of intense US-Ukraine negotiations, lacks...

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Zelensky looks to close out Ukraine peace deal at Trump meet
AFP Palm Beach, United States
Published: 28 Dec 2025, 14: 48

Volodymyr Zelensky and Donald Trump AFP file photo

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will sit down Sunday with Donald Trump and seek to secure the US president's stamp of approval for a new proposal to end the nearly four-year conflict with Russia.

The 20-point plan, which emerged from weeks of intense US-Ukraine negotiations, lacks Moscow's approval, and the face-to-face in Florida comes in the wake of a massive Russian missile and drone attack on Kyiv.

The meeting, to be hosted by Trump at his opulent Mar-a-Lago residence at 1:00 pm (1800 GMT) Sunday according to the White House, will be the pair's first in-person encounter since October, when the US president refused to grant Zelensky's request for long-range Tomahawk missiles.

During a stopover in Canada on Saturday, Zelensky said he hoped the talks would be "very constructive" and said Russian leader Vladimir Putin had shown his hand with the latest assault on the Ukrainian capital.

"This attack is again, Russia's answer on our peace efforts. And this really showed that Putin doesn't want peace," he said.

Europeans vow support

While in Canada, Zelensky held a conference call with European leaders who, according to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, pledged their full support for his peace efforts.

Russia has accused Ukraine and its European backers of trying to "torpedo" a previous US-brokered plan to stop the fighting.

EU chiefs Ursula von der Leyen and Antonio Costa, who participated in the conference call, said the European Union's backing for Ukraine would never falter and vowed to maintain pressure on the Kremlin to come to terms.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told state news agency TASS that Moscow would continue its "engagement with American negotiators" but criticized Europeans saying: "After the change of administration in the US, Europe and the European Union have become the main obstacle to peace."

"They are making no secret of their plans to prepare for war with Russia," Lavrov added.

"The ambitions (of European politicians) are literally blinding them: not only do they not care about Ukrainians, but they also don't seem to care about their own population."

Trump has so far been non-committal on the new peace proposal.

Zelensky "doesn't have anything until I approve it," the president said in an interview with Politico on Friday. "So we'll see what he's got."

The talks will address a plan that would stop the war along its current front lines and could require Ukraine to pull back troops from the east, allowing the creation of demilitarized buffer zones.

As such, it contains Kyiv's most explicit acknowledgement yet of possible territorial concessions.

But is does not envisage Ukraine withdrawing from the 20 percent of the eastern Donetsk region that it still controls -- Russia's main territorial demand.

Trump has made ending the Ukraine and Gaza wars the centerpiece of his self-proclaimed second term as a "president of peace."

But the Ukraine war has, by his own admission, proved far harder than he expected, and the president has repeatedly voiced his frustration with both sides for failing to secure a truce.

Security guarantees

In Canada, Zelensky told reporters that security guarantees would be a key focus of the talks in Florida.

"Security guarantees must be simultaneous with the end of the war, because we must be confident that Russia will not start aggression again," he stressed.

"We need strong security guarantees. We will discuss this and we will discuss the terms."

Ukraine insists it needs more European and US support in terms of funding and weaponry -- especially drones.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who met with Zelensky during his stopover on Saturday, announced CAN$2.5 billion (US$1.82 billion) in fresh economic assistance to help Ukraine rebuild once the war ends.

The latest Russian attack, which saw 500 drones and 40 missiles pummel the Ukrainian capital and its infrastructure, knocked out power and heating to hundreds of thousands of Kyiv region residents during freezing temperatures.

Just south of the capital, Kherson city military administration said Russia launched an attack that left part of the city without electricity.​

 

[Saif]

Ukraine deal closer but no talks breakthrough: Trump

Trump said it would become clear within weeks whether it was possible to end the war that has killed tens of thousands of people.

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Ukraine deal closer but no talks breakthrough: Trump

AFP Palm beach, United States
Published: 29 Dec 2025, 09: 32

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky listens as U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a press conference following their meeting at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club on 28 December, 2025 in Palm Beach, Florida. AFP

US President Donald Trump said Sunday that a deal was closer than ever to end Russia's invasion of Ukraine but reported no apparent breakthrough on the flashpoint issue of territory after new talks with the warring countries' leaders.

Trump, who had promised a peace deal on day one of his nearly year-old presidency, said it would become clear within weeks whether it was possible to end the war that has killed tens of thousands of people since February 2022.

In a pre-New Year's diplomatic sprint, Trump brought Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to Florida, where the two met with top aides over lunch, a day after Russia unleashed major new attacks on residential areas of the capital Kyiv.

Much like when Zelensky last met Trump in October, Russian president Vladimir Putin also spoke shortly beforehand by telephone with the US leader, who immediately insisted that Moscow was "serious" about peace despite the assault.

"I really believe we're, Mr. President, probably closer than -- far closer than -- ever before with both parties," Trump said with Zelensky at his side in the tea room of his Mar-a-Lago estate.

"Everybody wants it ended," Trump said.

After their talks, Zelensky and Trump spoke jointly by telephone with key European leaders, who have been particularly alarmed about any decisions that would embolden Russia.

Zelensky said that he and European leaders could return jointly for talks with Trump in Washington in January.

The Ukrainian president stayed studiously polite throughout his visit, mindful of his disastrous White House meeting on February 28 where Trump and vice president JD Vance publicly berated him for not being sufficiently grateful.

Territory impasse

Trump, for all his stated optimism, gave few details on the progress he cited, instead digressing into familiar grievances about his predecessor Joe Biden, who committed billions of dollars for Ukraine's defense and speaking of his own friendly rapport with Putin.

Trump acknowledged continued disagreement between Kyiv and Moscow on territory. The current plan, revised after weeks of intense US-Ukrainian negotiations, would stop the war at the current frontlines in the eastern Donbas region and set up a demilitarised area, while Russia has long demanded territorial concessions.

"It's unresolved, but it's getting a lot closer. That's a very tough issue, but one that I think will get resolved," Trump said.

Trump offered to address the Ukrainian parliament to promote the plan -- an idea, however unlikely, that Zelensky was quick to welcome.

Zelensky has voiced an openness to the revised US plan, marking Kyiv's most explicit acknowledgement yet of possible territorial concessions, although Ukrainians voters would need to approve it in a referendum.

By contrast, Russia has shown no signs of compromise, as it sees hope in the grinding gains it has made over four years against tough Ukrainian defenses.

The Kremlin in its readout of talks between Putin and Trump called on Kyiv to make a "brave decision" and immediately withdraw troops from Donbas, casting European leaders as the impediment to peace.

"Russia and the United States share the same position which is that the Ukrainian and European proposal for a temporary ceasefire (...) would only prolong the conflict and lead to a resumption of hostilities," the Kremlin's diplomatic advisor Yuri Ushakov told reporters.

'90 per cent' agreed by Ukraine

Trump's advisors have previously floated the idea of offering NATO-like security guarantees to Ukraine, meaning in theory that the alliance's members would respond militarily if Russia attacks again.

Zelensky said that the peace framework laid out by Trump was "90 per cent agreed" and that "US-Ukraine security guarantees: 100 percent agreed."

Zelensky said the two sides were still finalizing a "prosperity plan" for Ukraine as well as the sequencing of the various actions.

Russia had adamantly rejected any entrance of the former Soviet republic into NATO.

In its latest assault with drones and missiles, Russia knocked out power and heating to hundreds of thousands of residents during freezing temperatures.

"If the authorities in Kyiv don't want to settle this business peacefully, we'll resolve all the problems before us by military means," Putin said on Saturday.​

 

[Saif]

US offered Kyiv 15 years of security guarantees: Zelensky

The US has offered Ukraine ‘solid’ security guarantees for 15 years with a possibility of an extension but Kyiv is seeking a longer period, president Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday after meeting Donald Trump.

www.newagebd.net

US offered Kyiv 15 years of security guarantees: Zelensky
Agence France-Presse . Kyiv, Ukraine 30 December, 2025, 01:32

The US has offered Ukraine ‘solid’ security guarantees for 15 years with a possibility of an extension but Kyiv is seeking a longer period, president Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday after meeting Donald Trump.

Zelensky held talks with Trump in Florida, where the US leader said a deal to end almost four years of war with Russia was closer than ever.

The wartime president said the issue of territory and the future of Ukraine’s Moscow-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant were the remaining unresolved parts of a plan to end the war.

But Zelensky added that he considered the presence of international troops in Ukraine a necessary part of the guarantees, which Russia has rejected in the past.

Still, the Kremlin agreed with Trump’s assessment that talks were in their final stages, while repeating its maximalist demand for Kyiv to withdraw from eastern Ukraine.

Kyiv was hoping for a meeting with European and American officials in Ukraine in the ‘coming days’ to work on documents to end the conflict, Zelensky said.

Any deal to end Europe’s worst conflict since WWII ‘must be signed by Ukraine, Russia, the US and Europe’, he said.

Security guarantees were a priority for Kyiv.

‘Without security guarantees, this war cannot be considered truly over. We cannot acknowledge that it has ended, because with such a neighbour there remains a risk of renewed aggression,’ Zelensky said.

He had told Trump the 15-year offer was too short a period for Kyiv.

‘I told him that we really want to consider the possibility of 30, 40, 50 years,’ he added. ‘The president said he would think about it.’

Zelensky spoke as Russia continued its relentless attacks into the holiday season and pressed on with its maximalist demands in Ukraine.

Zelensky repeated that Kyiv was ready for ‘any’ format of meetings — including with Putin if necessary — but said he still did not think the Kremlin chief wanted peace.

He accused Putin of misleading Trump.

‘On the one hand, he tells the president of the United States that he wants to end the war and that this is his desire,’ Zelensky said.

‘And on the other hand he strikes us with missiles and gives instructions to his generals about where to advance.’

Putin has for weeks told Russians Moscow was intent on achieving its aims in Ukraine by force if diplomacy fails.

Moscow wants to keep all the territory it occupies in Ukraine as well as be handed lands in eastern Ukraine still controlled by Kyiv.

The Kremlin on Monday again called for Ukraine to withdraw from unoccupied parts of Donbas, warning that ‘Ukraine is losing territory and will continue to do so.’

It said it expected Putin and Trump to speak by phone in the ‘very near future.’

Trump on Sunday acknowledged the issue of territories were unresolved between the warring countries, showing little sign of a breakthrough.

‘It’s unresolved, but it’s getting a lot closer. That’s a very tough issue, but one that I think will get resolved,’ Trump said.

Zelensky also said it was a remaining issue and offered little detail, only saying:

‘We will act in accordance with the interests of Ukraine.’

The current plan, revised after weeks of intense US-Ukrainian negotiations, would stop the war at the current frontlines in the eastern Donbas region and set up a demilitarized area, while Russia has long demanded territorial concessions.

But the Kremlin has shown no sign of compromise, with Putin repeatedly saying his troops will seize the rest of Ukrainian land he has proclaimed as Russian.

Outnumbered and exhausted Ukrainian troops have struggled to hold back a Russian advance, which picked up pace since autumn.

Moscow on Monday said it took another village, Dibrova, in the Donetsk region.​

 

[Saif]

Russia says Ukraine attacked Putin's home, Kyiv calls this 'lie'

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky called Russia's claim "a complete fabrication" designed to undermine the peace process, but Donald Trump directed his criticism at Kyiv.

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Russia says Ukraine attacked Putin's home, Kyiv calls this 'lie'

AFP Kyiv, Ukraine
Published: 30 Dec 2025, 10: 36
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Vladimir Putin Afp

Russia accused Ukraine on Monday of having fired dozens of drones at one of president Vladimir Putin's residences, an accusation that Ukraine called a "lie" aimed at undermining US-led efforts to end the war.

Russian Foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, who does not typically announce drone strikes, said Ukraine had fired "91 long-range unmanned aerial vehicles" at Putin's home in the Novgorod region between late Sunday and early Monday, all of which were shot down.

"Given the complete degeneration of the criminal Kyiv regime, which has shifted to a policy of state terrorism, Russia's negotiating position will be reconsidered," Lavrov said, without elaborating or providing evidence for Russia's assertions.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky called Russia's claim "a complete fabrication" designed to undermine the peace process, but US president Donald Trump -- who held a call with Putin earlier Monday -- directed his criticism at Kyiv.

"I don't like it. It's not good," Trump told reporters of the alleged attack at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida. "You know who told me about it? President Putin told me about it."

"It's a delicate period of time. This is not the right time," Trump added.

Russia's accusation comes at a pivotal moment in the peace process.

Ukraine says it has agreed to 90 per cent of a US-drafted peace plan -- including the issue of post-war security guarantees.

But the issue of territory remains unresolved and Russia -- which has been advancing on the battlefield for months -- has repeatedly rejected plans that do not yield to its maximalist demands.

In his call with Trump on Monday, Putin said he was still committed to the peace process but would "revise" Russia's negotiating position in light of the alleged drone attack, according to the Kremlin.

Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, describing it as a "special military operation" to demilitarise the country and prevent the expansion of NATO.

Kyiv and its European allies say the war, the largest and deadliest on European soil since World War II, is an unprovoked and illegal land grab that has resulted in a tidal wave of violence and destruction.

Territory main sticking point

Trump said a peace deal was "very close" following talks with Zelensky on Sunday.

Zelensky announced on Monday the United States had finally promised security guarantees in a post-war settlement -- albeit for 15 years, with the possibility of an extension.

But the key issue of territory and the future of the Moscow-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine remains unresolved.

Putin has been pushing for full control of Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region as part of a post-war settlement and said Monday that his army still aimed to take it and three other Ukrainian regions Moscow claims as its own by force.

In Kyiv, where residents have been living under relentless Russian attacks for almost four years, few were hopeful of a breakthrough.

"Security guarantees have already been signed before -- and what did that give us? Absolutely nothing," photographer Anastasiia Pashchenko told AFP.

In Moscow, where criticism of Russia's invasion is banned, residents told AFP they wanted the fighting to end, but on the Kremlin's terms.

"Only Russia can put forward some conditions," said 53-year-old engineer Alexei.

Nikita, a 23-year-old who fought in Ukraine for a year, lauded Russia's advance in eastern Ukraine, even if it came "at a cost".

"Russia is a superpower that still needs to be reckoned with," he said.​