Ukraine’s Zelensky urges to ‘end the war’, not just ‘pause’ in fighting
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday urged a complete end to his country’s war with Russia and not just a “pause” in the devastating fighting since February 2022.
“Our common task is to end the war, not just to achieve a pause in hostilities. A dignified peace is needed. For this to truly happen, everyone must be on the side of peace,” he told a joint press conference with Irish prime minister Micheal Martin.
NATO’s Rutte says he expects new contributions to Ukraine arms aid program
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said on Tuesday that he expected new contributions from allies to the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List (PURL) program, a Ukraine arms funding mechanism, in the coming days.
He also said he welcomed US-led efforts to end the war in Ukraine and that he was confident that these would eventually “restore peace in Europe”.
US delegation to meet Putin in latest bid to end Ukraine war
As high-stakes war discussions unfold, US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, are meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow today, where the Kremlin insists it is open to peace talks but maintains its war objectives must still be met, casting doubt on its willingness to end the conflict.
Ahead of the meeting, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke with leaders of the UK and France, as well as Witkoff, and is now in Dublin for trade and security talks with Irish officials. Meanwhile, on the battlefield, Russia claims to have seized the strategic eastern city of Pokrovsk, a statement Ukraine has dismissed as political posturing aimed at shaping the negotiations. Professor of International Politics at Clinton Institute, University College Dublin, Scott Lucas joins us for more.
No consensus yet on Ukraine’s NATO membership, Rutte says
NATO Chief Mark Rutte repeated on Tuesday that the consensus needed for Ukraine to join the alliance is not there at the moment.
“The practical situation is, as you know, that there is consensus required by all allies for Ukraine to join NATO. And right now, as you know, there is no consensus on Ukraine joining NATO,” he told reporters.
NATO chief ‘confident’ US, Ukraine efforts can eventually bring peace
NATO chief Mark Rutte on Tuesday said he was “confident” US efforts to end the Ukraine war could bring peace, as Washington’s representatives were in Moscow to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“We are all working to bring the war against Ukraine to an end, with a just and lasting peace. We welcome the ongoing efforts led by the United States to make this a reality,” Rutte told journalists on the eve of a meeting of NATO foreign ministers.
“I am confident that these sustained efforts will, eventually, restore peace in Europe.”
Poland charges man with orchestrating sabotage from Russia
Polish prosecutors are charging a Russian in absentia with directing a group of saboteurs and spies as part of a suspected destabilisation campaign due to Warsaw’s strong support for Ukraine.
Prosecutors said 28-year-old Mikhail Mirgorodsky used the Telegram messaging application to direct a group of some 30 people who carried out sabotage in Poland on behalf of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB).
“The investigation findings indicate that Mikhail Mirgorodsky, while residing in Russia, organised Russian intelligence activities in Poland in 2023 and led an organised criminal group carrying out espionage, sabotage … and propaganda activities,” they said in a statement.
They have made five charges against him in absentia, including ordering threats against Ukrainians in Poland, arson attacks, ordering a thwarted attempt to derail a train in 2023 and financing crime with cryptocurrency exchanges.
Serbia will allow payments and transactions for Russian oil firm NIS this week
Serbia will allow payments and transactions for the US-sanctioned Russian-owned oil company NIS until the end of the week, despite the risk of secondary sanctions itself, President Aleksandar Vucic said.
Russia’s Gazprom Neft and Gazprom, which own a majority stake in NIS, must dispose of their ownership in the company, which is under US sanctions because of its Russian ownership.
Serbia risks secondary sanctions if its banks, including the central bank, maintain payments with NIS, but Vucic said that these payments would continue until Monday.
“We have agreed, at the risk of Serbia, to ensure payment transactions with NIS until the end of the week … to allow NIS to pay workers, make due payments,” he said after meeting government officials in charge of energy.
Italy to extend permission for military supplies to Ukraine
Italy’s government is set to approve a parliamentary decree that will allow it to continue supplying military equipment to Ukraine to support its war effort against Russia, a government document showed.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Italy has approved 12 packages of military aid for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s government, which also included air defence systems known as SAMP/T.
The document did not specify how long the authorisation would be extended for, but decrees approved so far have allowed shipments of arms for one year without seeking parliamentary approval for each new supply.
Zelensky says Geneva document ‘refined’ after US peace talks
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that US and Ukrainian negotiators had “refined” a framework peace agreement developed in Geneva during their recent talks in Florida.
Writing on X, he said Ukraine was approaching diplomacy with “utmost seriousness” and wanted more of its foreign partners involved in the process. He also said Russia had launched “disinformation campaigns” ahead of a meeting between US and Russian officials.
Kremlin says Putin to meet Witkoff and Kushner in Moscow after 14 GMT
Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner in the Kremlin after 1700 Moscow time (1400 GMT), Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Translators will accompany the US delegation to their meeting with Putin, Peskov added. Witkoff has previously been criticised for relying on a Kremlin translator.
Putin, Witkoff and Kushner are expected to hold talks on a possible way to end the war in Ukraine.
Russia escalated drone, missile attacks on Ukraine in November, AFP analysis shows
Russia escalated its drone and missile attacks on Ukraine throughout November, according to an AFP analysis.
Moscow launched a total of 5,660 missiles and long-range drones at Ukraine last month, daily reports published by Kyiv’s air force showed, marking a two percent increase over the previous month.
Russian strikes have plunged tens of thousands into blackouts, with Moscow targeting Ukraine’s power grid for the fourth winter running in what Kyiv and its allies say is a deliberate strategy to wear down Ukraine’s civilian population.
The Ukrainian air force said Russia had launched 5,445 long-range drones and 215 missiles—a three percent increase in unmanned aerial vehicles, but a two percent decrease in missile launches.
Trump’s many peace plan negotiators
Russia claims capture of two settlements in eastern Ukraine
Russia claims to have captured two more settlements in eastern Ukraine: Zeleny Hai and Dobropillia in the Zaporizhzhia region in eastern Ukraine, the state news agency TASS reports, citing the Defence Ministry.
The battlefield report from Moscow could not be independently verified.
Ukraine military says it still holds northern part of Pokrovsk
Ukrainian troops are holding the northern part of the strategic city of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine, the military corps fighting in the city said.
The 7th Rapid Response Corps of airborne assault troops said it conducted assaults in the south of the city where Russian troops prevail. The statement from the Ukrainian unit comes after Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed what his commanders told him was the full Russian capture of Pokrovsk.
Sweden donates €100 million in aid to Ukraine
Sweden is donating 1.1 billion Swedish crowns (€100 million) to Ukraine for civilian aid to help the country prepare for the upcoming winter, the government announced.
As US tries to sell peace plan to Russia, Ukraine worries about security guarantees
Donald Trump’s special peace envoy Steve Witkoff is due to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin this Tuesday to discuss a blueprint to the end the war in Ukraine.
Although the plan, which has now been boiled down to 19 points from the previous 28 after being seen as overwhelmingly pro-Russian, is still very favourable for Moscow.
One of the biggest questions, as FRANCE 24’s Washington correspondent Fraser Jackson explains, is if the deal will contain sufficient security guarantees for Ukraine.
Why is the Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk so important for Russia?
Pokrovsk is a road and rail junction in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region. It was previously an important logistics hub for the Ukrainian army and is situated on a key road the troops used to supply other embattled outposts along the frontline.
Russia wants to take the whole of the Donbas region, which comprises the Luhansk and Donetsk provinces. Ukraine still controls about 10 percent of Donbas – an area of about 5,000 square kilometres in mostly northern Donetsk.
Capturing Pokrovsk and Kostiantynivka to its northeast, which Russian forces are also trying to envelop, would give Moscow a platform to drive north towards the two biggest remaining Ukrainian-controlled cities in Donetsk – Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.
Pokrovsk would be Moscow’s most important single territorial gain inside Ukraine since it took the ruined city of Avdiivka in early 2024.
Tanker carrying sunflower oil ‘attacked’ in Black Sea, Turkey says
The Midvolga 2 tanker has “reported that it was attacked 80 nautical miles off our coast,” Turkey’s maritime affairs directorate wrote on X, saying the tanker was “sailing from Russia to Georgia loaded with sunflower oil” with 13 crew on board.
The incident took place just days after two other tankers were hit by explosions off the Turkish coast.
A Ukrainian security source claimed responsibility for those attacks, telling AFP drones had hit vessels that were “covertly transporting Russian oil”.
What does Russia want?
- Russia’s key demands include a pledge that Ukraine never joins NATO
- That Kyiv drastically caps its army
- That it is handed full control of Donbas
- That its illegal annexations of Crimea, Donbas, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson are recognised
- That Russian speakers and Russian Orthodox believers in Ukraine are protected.
Russia controls almost 20 percent of Ukrainian territory
Russian forces control more than 19% of Ukraine, or 115,600 square kilometres, up one percentage point from two years ago, and have advanced in 2025 at the fastest pace since 2022, according to pro-Ukrainian maps.
Russian military commanders told Vladimir Putin on Monday that their forces had captured the frontline Ukrainian towns of Pokrovsk and Vovchansk.