WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump&rsquo;s special envoy will meet with Ukraine&#39;s Volodymyr Zelensky and other European leaders in Berlin this weekend, the White House said, as Washington presses for a plan to end Russia&rsquo;s war with Kyiv. A White House official on Friday confirmed to AFP the accuracy of a Wall Street Journal report that envoy Steve Witkoff will meet with Zelensky and European leaders over the weekend to discuss the status of peace negotiations. Germany&rsquo;s government has said Berlin will host the leaders, including the heads of the European Union and NATO, next Monday in the hours after Zelensky attends a German-Ukrainian business forum with Chancellor Friedrich Merz. Washington has been stepping up pressure on Kyiv to reach an agreement. Updated plan&nbsp;Ukrainian officials said they recently sent Washington an updated plan building on Trump&rsquo;s original 28-point peace proposal to end the war that began when Russia launched a large-scale invasion of its neighbor in February 2022. Trump&#39;s plan, publicly revealed last month, was accused of echoing Moscow&#39;s key demands, including Ukraine giving up crucial territory to Russia. The idea of a speedy accession by Ukraine into the European Union -- a move opposed by Moscow -- is included in the latest version of a US-led plan to end the war. &lsquo;Security guarantees&rsquo;Ukraine would join the EU as early as January 2027 under the latest US plan, a senior source familiar with the matter told AFP on Friday. Meanwhile, Europeans and Ukrainians are asking the United States to provide them with &ldquo;security guarantees&rdquo; before Ukraine negotiates any territorial concessions, the French presidency said on Friday.

Europe

A White House official on Friday confirmed to AFP the accuracy of a Wall Street Journal report that Witkoff will meet with Zelensky and European leaders over the weekend to discuss the status of peace negotiations.

US envoy Witkoff to meet Zelensky, Europe leaders in Berlin at weekend

KYIV: US President Donald Trump is &quot;extremely frustrated&quot; with Russia and Ukraine, his spokeswoman said on Thursday, as Kyiv said Washington was still pushing it to make major territorial concessions as part of its plan to end the nearly four-year war. &quot;The president is extremely frustrated with both sides of this war,&quot; Karoline Leavitt told reporters. &quot;He doesn&#39;t want any more talk. He wants action. He wants this war to come to an end.&quot; Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made remarks that appeared to show little had changed in Washington&#39;s core position on how the conflict should end since it sent a 28-point plan to Kyiv and Moscow last month that heavily favored Russia. Zelensky said that Washington was still pushing for it to cede land to Russia as part of an agreement to end the war that started with Moscow&#39;s February 2022 invasion. Washington wants only Ukraine, not Russia, to withdraw its troops from parts of the eastern Donetsk region, where a demilitarized &quot;free economic zone&quot; would be installed as a buffer between the two armies, Zelensky told reporters, including from AFP. Under the latest US plan, Moscow would also stay where it is in the south of the country, but pull some of its troops out of Ukrainian regions that Russian President Vladimir Putin has not claimed to have annexed in the north. Ukraine has been revising the original US proposal and this week sent a 20-point counter-proposal to Washington, the full details of which have not been published. &quot;We have two key points of disagreement: the territories of Donetsk and everything related to them, and the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (in the south). These are the two topics we continue to discuss,&quot; Zelensky told reporters at a briefing. &quot;They see Ukrainian forces leaving the territory of Donetsk region, and the supposed compromise is that Russian forces do not enter this territory ... which they already call a &#39;free economic zone&#39;,&quot; Zelensky said about the US plan. Zelensky has long said he has no &quot;constitutional&quot; or &quot;moral&quot; right to cede Ukrainian land and said on Thursday that Ukrainians should have the final word. &quot;Whether through elections or a referendum, there must be a position from the people of Ukraine,&quot; he said. &#39;Great many questions&#39;&nbsp;Zelensky also pushed back against the idea of a unilateral Ukrainian withdrawal in the Donetsk region. &quot;Why doesn&#39;t the other side of the war pull back the same distance in the other direction?&quot; he said, adding there were &quot;a great many questions&quot; still unresolved. Under the US plan, Russia would relinquish territory it has captured in the Kharkiv, Sumy, and Dnipropetrovsk regions &mdash; three areas over which Moscow has not made a formal territorial claim. In 2022, Russia claimed to formally annex the Donetsk, Kherson, Lugansk, and Zaporizhzhia regions, despite not having full control over them. Ukraine&#39;s troops still hold around one-fifth of the Donetsk region, according to AFP&#39;s analysis of data from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW). Much of eastern and southern Ukraine has been decimated by fighting. Tens of thousands have been killed and millions forced to flee their homes. Russia, which has the numerical advantage in manpower and weapons, has been grinding forward on the battlefield. It claimed on Thursday to have captured the town of Siversk in the Donetsk region, where its army is advancing at its fastest pace in a year, according to AFP&#39;s analysis. Ukraine&#39;s army&#39;s eastern command denied the Siversk claim. &#39;Pivotal moment&#39;&nbsp;After holding a video conference to discuss the latest proposals, Ukraine&#39;s European allies said that &quot;this is a pivotal moment for Ukraine, its people, and for the security we all share across the Euro-Atlantic region,&quot; the British prime minister&#39;s office said in a statement. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said late on Thursday that &quot;the coming week will be decisive&quot; in seeking to find a &quot;just and sustainable peace for Ukraine.&quot; &quot;Sustainable means that any peace agreement must not contain the seeds of future conflict and destabilize the broader European security architecture,&quot; she posted on X. Trump has largely sought to sideline Europe from the process, preferring to deal directly with Moscow and Kyiv in shuttle diplomacy led by his envoy Steve Witkoff and, lately, his son-in-law Jared Kushner. Zelensky said that although there was no strict deadline to finalize an agreement, Washington wanted to have the contours of a deal ready by Christmas. In Kyiv, a double bomb blast on Thursday killed a serviceman and wounded four others, in what city prosecutors said was a suspected terror act.

Americas

“The president is extremely frustrated with both sides of this war,” Karoline Leavitt says

Trump 'frustrated' with Kyiv, Moscow over talks on war

Web Desk

ISLAMABAD: Europe&#39;s biggest cultural event is in the spotlight. Five countries have pulled out of the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 over a question the organizers can&#39;t answer: Why was Russia banned for invading Ukraine, but Israel is still in despite UN findings of genocide in Gaza? The European Broadcasting Union&#39;s response to Russia&#39;s invasion was immediate. The organization announced in February 2022 that &quot;no Russian act will participate&quot; in that year&#39;s contest, according to its official statement. The executive board&#39;s decision cited concern that Russian inclusion &quot;would bring the competition into disrepute&quot; given the &quot;unprecedented crisis in Ukraine.&quot; Fast forward to 2025, and the contrast is stark. Despite the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry concluding in its June 2025 report that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza, Israel&#39;s broadcaster KAN competed in 2025 -- and is confirmed for 2026, according to EBU records. The International Court of Justice ruled in January 2024 that it was &quot;plausible&quot; that Israel&#39;s actions violate the Genocide Convention. UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese concluded in her October 2025 report &quot;Gaza Genocide: a collective crime&quot; that there were &quot;reasonable grounds to believe that the threshold indicating the commission of the following acts of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza has been met.&quot; The walkout Five national broadcasters have withdrawn from Eurovision 2026 -- to be held in Vienna in May -- an unprecedented move in the contest&#39;s seven-decade history. Ireland&#39;s RTE said it would not participate if Israel competed, calling it &quot;unconscionable given the appalling loss of lives in Gaza and the humanitarian crisis,&quot; according to its official statement. The Netherlands&#39; AVROTROS announced its withdrawal, with Managing Director Taco Zimmerman stating: &quot;Culture connects, but not at all costs. Universal values such as humanity and the free press have been seriously violated and are not negotiable for us.&quot; Slovenia&#39;s RTVSLO declared that its participation would be &quot;incompatible with the values&quot; of peace and equality, with board President Natalija Gorscak stating: &quot;Slovenia will not be there. Also on behalf of the [20,000] children who died in Gaza.&quot; The state broadcaster stated that the contest had become &quot;hostage to the political interests of the Israeli government.&rdquo; Spain and Iceland also withdrew, citing similar concerns about double standards and the impossibility of maintaining Eurovision as a neutral cultural event. The sponsorship question The broadcasters&#39; concerns about political interference extend beyond participation policy. Since 2020, cosmetics company Moroccanoil has served as a &quot;Presenting Partner&quot; and official sponsor of Eurovision, providing professional hairstylists for artists during the contest. According to the company&#39;s own terms and conditions on its official website, Moroccanoil is &quot;owned and operated by Moroccanoil Israel, Ltd or its affiliates or subsidiaries.&quot; A CNN investigation cited by Moroccan news outlet Hespress English reported that Moroccanoil manufactures 80% of its products at a facility in Israel, producing 150,000 bottles daily at a plant &quot;two hours north of Jerusalem.&quot; The sponsorship arrangement continued through 2025 and into 2026, even as withdrawing broadcasters criticized Israel&#39;s use of the contest for political purposes.&nbsp; Conversely, no comparable major sponsorship from Russian companies existed during Russia&#39;s participation, according to available EBU partnership records. &#39;Unprecedentedly complex&#39; At its general assembly, the EBU acknowledged that the contest &quot;is not immune to the pressures of global politics,&quot; according to its official statement. The organization expressed support for KAN&#39;s independence, noting the &quot;pressure it is repeatedly experiencing from the Israeli government,&quot; and announced plans to engage in dialogue with member broadcasters. But no such process was initiated for Russia; neither was any support expressed for the Russian public broadcaster&#39;s concerns about government pressure. What Eurovision says it stands for The contest&#39;s reach is broad. It reached 166 million viewers in 2025, achieving a 48% share of viewing, according to EBU data. Eurovision&#39;s website states: &quot;The Eurovision Song Contest&#39;s values are of universality and inclusivity and our proud tradition of celebrating diversity through music.&quot; When Russia was excluded, the EBU stated it was &quot;dedicated to protecting the values of a cultural competition which promotes international exchange and understanding, brings audiences together, celebrates diversity through music and unites Europe on one stage.&quot; The withdrawing broadcasters invoked those same values, arguing that permitting Israel&#39;s participation while Gaza faces what UN experts characterize as genocidal conditions violates the principles the EBU cited when excluding Russia. The question now facing Eurovision is whether its stated values are universal or applied&nbsp;selectively?

Entertainment

Russia's Ukraine invasion brought a quick Eurovision ban, but despite UN genocide findings in Gaza, Israel remains. 

Russia banned, Israel stays: Spotlight on Eurovision as 5 nations walk out over Gaza

ROME: President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday he was ready to hold new elections in Ukraine, and that he expected to send Washington within a day revised proposal on ending the nearly four-year war with Russia. US President Donald Trump is pressuring Kyiv to accept a deal formulated by Washington, the initial version of which was criticized by Ukraine&#39;s allies as overly favorable to Russia. &quot;We are working today (Tuesday) and will continue tomorrow (Wednesday). I think we will hand it over tomorrow,&quot; Zelensky told reporters after shuttling between European capitals to hammer out a response with allies. Trump, who earlier accused Zelensky of not reading the latest US proposals, said Russia had the &quot;upper hand&quot; in the conflict, in an interview with Politico published on Tuesday. He also accused Kyiv of &quot;using war&quot; to avoid elections, which have been postponed under the imposition of martial law since Russia invaded its neighbor. &quot;You know, they talk about a democracy, but it gets to a point where it&rsquo;s not a democracy anymore,&quot; Trump said. Ukrainian law prohibits holding elections under martial law, without which a presidential ballot was to have taken place in March 2024. But on Tuesday, following Trump&#39;s comments, Zelensky said he was ready to organize a new ballot. &quot;I am ready for the elections,&quot; Zelensky told journalists, adding that he is asking Ukrainian lawmakers to prepare &quot;proposals regarding the possibility of amending the legislative foundations and the law on elections during martial law.&quot; &#39;No legal right&#39;&nbsp;Zelensky spent the past few days shuttling between European capitals to hammer out a response to the US plan. On Monday, he held talks with European leaders in London and Brussels. On Tuesday, he went to Italy to meet Pope Leo XIV and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. Washington&#39;s proposals involved Ukraine surrendering land that Russia has not captured &mdash; the entire industrial Donbas region &mdash; in return for security promises that fall short of Kyiv&#39;s aspirations to join NATO. Zelensky on Monday said Washington&#39;s 28-point plan had been revised to 20 points after US-Ukraine talks at the weekend. He said the land issue and international security guarantees were two of the main sticking points. &quot;Do we envision ceding territories? We have no legal right to do so, under Ukrainian law, our constitution, and international law. And we don&#39;t have any moral right either,&quot; Zelensky said. &quot;The key is to know what our partners will be ready to do in the event of new aggression by Russia. At the moment, we have not received any answer to this question,&quot; he said. During a televised event on Tuesday, President Vladimir Putin called Ukraine&#39;s eastern Donbas region Russia&#39;s &quot;historical territory.&quot; &quot;This territory is important; it is our historical territory, absolutely,&quot; he said.

US President Donald Trump is pressuring Kyiv to accept a deal formulated by Washington, the initial version of which was criticized by Ukraine's allies as overly favorable to Russia.

Zelensky says ready to hold Ukraine elections

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Sunday said he felt &quot;a little bit disappointed&quot; with Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky for not engaging with a plan to end the war with Russia. &quot;So we&#39;ve been speaking to President Putin and we&#39;ve been speaking to Ukrainian leaders &mdash; including Zelensky, President Zelensky &mdash; and I have to say that I&#39;m a little bit disappointed that President Zelensky hasn&#39;t yet read the proposal, that was as of a few hours ago,&quot; Trump told reporters when asked on the red carpet for the Kennedy Center Honors. Days of negotiations between US and Ukrainian officials, including Zelensky, ended on Saturday without an apparent breakthrough, though Zelensky committed to conducting further talks toward &quot;real peace.&quot; The talks came after US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin, with Moscow rejecting parts of the US proposal. The US plan has been through several drafts since it first emerged last month, amid criticism it was too soft on Russia, which invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

US President Donald Trump speaks during the Kennedy Center Honors dinner at the State Department in Washington, DC, December 6, 2025. (Photo by Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP)

Days of negotiations between US, Ukrainian officials, including Zelensky, end without breakthrough, though Zelensky commits to conducting further talks toward "real peace."

Trump says 'a little bit disappointed' Zelensky has not read peace proposal

MIAMI: Ukrainian and US officials will hold a third straight day of talks in Miami on Saturday, with Washington saying the two sides agreed that &quot;real progress&quot; would depend on Russia&#39;s willingness to end the war. President Donald Trump&#39;s special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner have been meeting top Ukrainian negotiator Rustem Umerov and Andrii Hnatov, the chief of staff of Kyiv&#39;s armed forces. The talks come after Witkoff and Kushner met Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin on Tuesday to discuss a US plan to end the conflict, but Moscow rejected parts of the proposal. &quot;Both parties agreed that real progress toward any agreement depends on Russia&#39;s readiness to show serious commitment to long-term peace, including steps toward de-escalation and cessation of killings,&quot; said a readout of the Miami talks posted on X by Witkoff on Friday. The US and Ukrainian officials &quot;also agreed on the framework of security arrangements and discussed necessary deterrence capabilities to sustain a lasting peace.&quot; Washington&#39;s plan involves Ukraine surrendering land that Russia has not been able to win on the battlefield in return for security promises that fall short of Kyiv&#39;s aspirations to join NATO. But the nature of the security guarantees that Ukraine could get has so far been shrouded in uncertainty, beyond an initial plan saying that jets to defend Kyiv could be based in Poland. The US plan has been through several drafts since it first emerged late last month, amid initial criticisms that it was too soft on Russia, which invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Witkoff, Trump&#39;s former business partner-turned-roving global ambassador, and investor Kushner had hoped to persuade Putin to play ball but came away from Moscow without a deal. &#39;Genuinely friendly&#39;Still, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said the five-hour late-night Moscow meeting on Tuesday was cordial, and he praised Kushner joining the talks, which have been going on since spring. Putin and Witkoff &quot;had a genuinely friendly conversation and they understand each other perfectly,&quot; Ushakov said on Russian state TV on Friday. &quot;A new person has joined us, and I would say that he has turned out to be very useful,&quot; he said of Kushner. On the Ukrainian side, Mykhailo Podolyak, an advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, wrote on social media Friday that &quot;the diplomatic process takes place mostly behind the scenes.&quot; &quot;Ukraine seeks to end the war and is ready for talks,&quot; Podolyak said, adding: &quot;The United States wants a pragmatic process and a quick end to the war, expecting compromises from both sides.&quot; Trump said on Wednesday that the envoys had a &quot;reasonably good meeting&quot; with Putin, insisting that they had the &quot;strong impression&quot; that he would like to end the war. Trump has blown hot and cold on Ukraine since returning to office in January, initially embracing Putin and chastising Zelensky for not being grateful for US support. But he has also grown frustrated that his efforts to persuade Putin to end the war, including a summit in Alaska, have failed to produce results and recently slapped sanctions on Russian oil firms. Putin, who was in India this week meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said the talks were &quot;complex&quot; but that he wanted to engage with Trump&#39;s plan &quot;rather than obstruct it.&quot;

President Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner have been meeting top Ukrainian negotiator Rustem Umerov and Andrii Hnatov, the chief of staff of Kyiv's armed forces.

Ukraine, US to meet for third day, agree 'real progress' depends on Russia

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he believes Russia&#39;s President Vladimir Putin wants to end the Ukraine war despite inconclusive talks in Moscow, as US officials prepared for a follow-up meeting with Kyiv&#39;s top negotiator. Trump&#39;s envoy, Steve Witkoff, and son-in-law Jared Kushner huddled with Putin in the early hours at the Kremlin but reached no breakthrough on halting Europe&#39;s worst conflict since World War II. The Kremlin said afterward it found parts of the US plan to end the war unacceptable, even though the proposal includes Ukraine ceding parts of the eastern Donbas region it still holds nearly four years after Russia&#39;s invasion. &quot;I can tell you that they had a reasonably good meeting with President Putin,&quot; Trump said when an AFP reporter asked him about the talks, adding afterwards that the talks were &quot;very good.&quot; Trump said it was too soon to say what would happen &quot;because it does take two to tango.&quot; Pressed on whether Witkoff and Kushner got any sense that Putin genuinely wanted to halt Russia&#39;s nearly four-year-old invasion, Trump replied: &quot;He would like to end the war. That was their impression.&quot; Trump added that Ukraine &quot;pretty well&quot; backed the US proposal. However, he said Kyiv should have done so earlier, during his notoriously heated meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office in February. Witkoff and Kushner were now due to meet top Ukrainian negotiator Rustem Umerov in Florida on Thursday, two US officials told AFP, to follow up on the Kremlin talks. &#39;Successes of the Russian army&#39;&nbsp;But while the White House had voiced optimism ahead of the Kremlin talks, Moscow said that the two sides had failed to reach a compromise and that more work was needed. The Kremlin added on Wednesday that its army&#39;s recent battlefield successes in Ukraine had bolstered its position and that Kyiv&#39;s ties to NATO remained a key question. Russia&#39;s advance in eastern Ukraine gathered pace last month, and Putin has said in recent days that Moscow is ready to fight on to seize the rest of the land it claims if Kyiv does not surrender it. &quot;The progress and nature of the negotiations were influenced by the successes of the Russian army on the battlefield in recent weeks,&quot; Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov, who took part in the US-Russia talks, told reporters, including AFP. Moscow insisted it was incorrect to say Putin rejected the plan in its entirety. It also said Russia was still committed to diplomacy, despite Putin&#39;s stark warning earlier this week that Moscow was prepared to fight Europe if it wanted war. &quot;We are still ready to meet as many times as is needed to reach a peace settlement,&quot; Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. &#39;Opportunity to end the war&#39;In Kyiv, Zelensky said that though a window of opportunity for peace has opened, it must be accompanied by pressure on Moscow. &quot;The world now clearly feels that there is an opportunity to end the war, and the current activity in negotiations must be supported by pressure on Russia,&quot; he said in a regular evening address. The fresh talks come as NATO pledges to buy hundreds of millions of dollars worth of US arms for Kyiv. NATO chief Mark Rutte said it was positive that peace talks were ongoing, but that the alliance should make sure that &quot;Ukraine is in the strongest possible position to keep the fight going.&quot; Russian troops have been grinding forward across the front line against outgunned and outnumbered Ukrainian forces. Earlier this week, Moscow claimed to have captured the important stronghold of Pokrovsk, but a Ukrainian army unit fighting in the city said urban combat was still ongoing. European countries have expressed fears that Washington and Moscow will reach agreements without them and have spent the last weeks trying to amend the US plan so that it does not force Kyiv to capitulate.

Kremlin says it found parts of the US plan to end the war unacceptable, even though the proposal includes Ukraine ceding parts of the eastern Donbas region it still holds nearly four years after Russia's invasion.


Trump says Putin wants to end war, US to hold new talks with Ukraine

MOSCOW: High-stakes US-Russia talks to end the war in Ukraine failed to yield a breakthrough on Tuesday, as the Kremlin said &quot;no compromise&quot; had been reached yet on the key question of territory. Russian President Vladimir Putin met US President Donald Trump&#39;s son-in-law Jared Kushner and special envoy Steve Witkoff in the Kremlin, after earlier signalling that his forces were ready to fight on to achieve Russia&#39;s initial war goals. The meeting is a crucial moment for Ukraine in what could be a fraught week following days of frantic diplomacy. At the heart of it is a US plan to bring peace, which has since been revised under pressure from Kyiv and its European backers. On occupied Ukrainian territories, &quot;so far we haven&#39;t found a compromise, but some American solutions can be discussed,&quot; top Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said after the meeting in the Kremlin. &quot;Some proposed formulations do not fit us, and work will continue,&quot; he added. Trump said progress on ending the nearly four-year-long war would not be easy. &quot;Our people are over in Russia right now to see if we can get it settled,&quot; he said during a cabinet meeting at the White House. &quot;Not an easy situation, let me tell you. What a mess.&quot; Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday that any plan must end the war for good, not just a pause in the fighting that began with Moscow&#39;s offensive in February 2022. He also said in a social media post that &quot;there will be no simple solutions.&quot; &quot;What matters is that everything is fair and transparent. That there are no games played behind Ukraine&#39;s back. That nothing is decided without Ukraine &mdash; about us, about our future,&quot; he said. Moscow rejects amended plan&nbsp;Kushner and Witkoff were to present Putin with the new version of the US plan, which had been hammered out after the initial version raised fears in Kyiv and elsewhere in Europe that it made too many concessions to Moscow. Ushakov said the initial US plan was broken down into four parts, which were discussed during the five-hour meeting in the Kremlin. &quot;There were some points we could agree on,&quot; the top Putin diplomatic aide said, but &quot;the president did not hide our critical, even negative, stance on a number of proposals.&quot; Putin has demanded that Kyiv surrender territory Moscow claims as its own. The Kremlin also rejects any European force in Ukraine to monitor a truce. In his social media post, Zelensky said, &quot;The most difficult questions are about territories, about frozen (Russian) assets ... And about security guarantees.&quot; Still, the talks in Moscow were &quot;useful,&quot; Ushakov said, and Russia and the US positions did not grow further apart afterward. Russian pressure&nbsp;Putin appeared to send a hawkish message shortly before the US talks began. He said that Pokrovsk, an eastern Ukrainian stronghold that Russian forces claim they recently captured, was a &quot;good foothold for solving all the tasks set at the beginning of the special military operation,&quot; using the Kremlin&#39;s term for the war. Apart from Pokrovsk, Kyiv is under pressure on several fronts. Russian forces advanced swiftly in November in eastern Ukraine, and Kyiv has been rocked by graft scandals that ended with the resignation of its top negotiator on the conflict &mdash; Zelensky&#39;s right-hand man. Moscow has also stepped up drone and missile attacks on Ukraine in recent weeks, leaving hundreds of thousands without electricity and heating, with Zelensky accusing the Kremlin of trying to &quot;break&quot; his country. The Russian leader also accused Europe of sabotaging a deal on the conflict and sent a grim message, saying: &quot;We are not planning to go to war with Europe, but if Europe wants to and starts, we are ready right now.&quot; Zelensky has said he expects to discuss key issues with the US president and suggested Moscow&#39;s real motivation for the US talks was to ease Western sanctions. Kushner included&nbsp;Europe is worried that Washington and Moscow could strike a deal over its head or force Ukraine into making unfair concessions. The original 28-point US plan revealed last month hewed so closely to Moscow&#39;s demands that it prompted accusations that Russia was involved in drafting it, which Washington denied. Bloomberg last month reported on an audio recording showing that Witkoff helped coach Russian officials on how Putin should speak to Trump. Witkoff has met with Putin multiple times, but US media reported that it was the first time that Kushner &mdash; who also helped broker a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza earlier this year &mdash; has joined talks with Putin.

Russian President Putin meets US President Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, special envoy Steve Witkoff in Kremlin; meeting is a crucial moment for Ukraine in what could be a fraught week following days of frantic diplomacy.

US, Russia find 'no compromise' on key territory issue after Ukraine talks

MOSCOW: Donald Trump&#39;s son-in-law Jared Kushner and envoy Steve Witkoff will meet with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Tuesday for high-stakes talks on ending the war in Ukraine. The meeting -- preceded by days of frenzied diplomacy from Florida to Geneva to Abu Dhabi -- comes as Washington said it was &quot;very optimistic&quot; about ending Europe&#39;s bloodiest conflict since World War II. But Kyiv and its European allies worry that Witkoff, who has been criticised for his dealings with the Kremlin, will yet cede ground to Moscow. Ukraine&#39;s President Volodymyr Zelensky was in Ireland on Tuesday, shoring up European support, with the US-Russia meeting coming at a critical point for Kyiv. Russian forces have advanced fast in November in eastern Ukraine, and Kyiv has been rocked by graft scandals that ended with the resignation of its top negotiator -- Zelensky&#39;s right-hand man. Moscow has also stepped up drone and missile attacks on Ukraine in recent weeks, with Zelensky accusing the Kremlin of trying to &quot;break&quot; his country. In Ireland, Zelensky was briefed by Ukrainian negotiator Rustem Umerov returning from Florida, who said &quot;significant progress&quot; was achieved in US talks but that more work was needed on &quot;challenging&quot; issues. Zelensky has said he still expects to discuss key issues with the US president, including on territory, security guarantees and Ukraine&#39;s reconstruction. On Tuesday he said Moscow&#39;s real motivation for the US talks was to ease Western sanctions, rather than pursue peace. Putin has demanded that Kyiv surrender territory Moscow claims as its own for any deal to be possible. The diplomatic push comes as Kyiv said that fighting was ongoing in Pokrovsk, the eastern Ukrainian town that Moscow has tried to seize for months -- despite Moscow claiming one day earlier that it had seized the town and planted a flag in its centre. The fall of Pokrovsk would be a symbolic win for Moscow, which calls the city by its Soviet name Krasnoarmeysk. On the eve of the Witkoff meeting, Putin put on military attire as his commanders told him it had been taken. &quot;We all understand just how important&quot; the capture is, Putin said Monday. Last week, he repeated that Moscow was intent on capturing the rest of the Donetsk region by force if Kyiv does not give up land that it controls. &#39;Serious pressure&#39;Putin ordered the full-scale military assault on Ukraine in February 2022 -- calling it a &quot;special military operation&quot;.Kyiv and its European allies say the war is an unprovoked and illegal land grab that has resulted in a tidal wave of violence and destruction. Tens of thousands of civilians and military personnel have been killed since the war began, while millions of Ukrainians have been forced to leave their homes. Europe has worried that Washington -- which has backed Kyiv with funding and weapons -- and Moscow will strike a deal over its head or force Ukraine into making unfair concessions. &quot;I am afraid that, you know, all the pressure will be put on the weaker side, because that is the easier way to stop this war when Ukraine surrenders,&quot; EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas warned Monday. An original 28-point US plan last month hewed so closely to Moscow&#39;s demands that it prompted accusations that Russia was involved in drafting it -- which Washington denied. Bloomberg had last month reported that Witkoff had helped coach Russian officials on how Putin should speak to Trump. Much of the diplomacy in recent days has been aimed at giving greater weight to Ukraine&#39;s interests in any deal. French leader Emmanuel Macron has said the coming days could be &quot;decisive&quot; for Kyiv and for Europe. The talks came after 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&#39;s air force showed, marking a two percent increase over the previous month. &quot;This is serious pressure, not only psychological but also physical pressure on our population,&quot; Zelensky has said.

Jared Kushner and US envoy Steve Witkoff will meet Vladimir Putin in Moscow for talks on ending the Ukraine war, sparking European and Ukrainian fears of concessions as Russia steps up attacks and advances in the east.

US to hold talks with Putin on ending Ukraine war

HALLANDALE BEACH: US President Donald Trump said on Sunday there was a &quot;good chance&quot; of a deal to end the war in Ukraine after the latest US negotiations with Kyiv, as his envoy prepared to travel to Russia for follow-up talks. After hours of what both sides called &quot;productive&quot; discussions in Hallandale Beach, north of Miami, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that more work was required, and a source in Kyiv&#39;s delegation characterized the discussions as &quot;not easy.&quot; The talks, which come as Kyiv battles military pressure and reels from a domestic corruption scandal, set the stage for a visit to Moscow by Trump&#39;s envoy Steve Witkoff, who is expected to discuss Ukraine with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday. Washington has put forward a plan to end the nearly four-year conflict and is seeking to finalize it with Moscow and Kyiv&#39;s approval. &quot;Ukraine&#39;s got some difficult little problems,&quot; Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, referring to a corruption probe that recently forced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to sack his chief of staff and top negotiator. &quot;But I think that there&#39;s a good chance we can make a deal.&quot; Earlier, Rubio told reporters the Florida talks &mdash; also attended by Witkoff and Trump&#39;s son-in-law, Jared Kushner &mdash; were &quot;very productive&quot; but &quot;there&#39;s more work to be done.&quot; &quot;This is delicate. It&#39;s complicated,&quot; Rubio said. &quot;There are a lot of moving parts, and obviously there&#39;s another party involved here that will have to be a part of the equation, and that will continue later this week when Mr Witkoff travels to Moscow.&quot; Ukraine&#39;s security council secretary Rustem Umerov led Kyiv&#39;s delegation, which also included Andrii Hnatov, the chief of staff of Ukraine&#39;s armed forces, and presidential adviser Oleksandr Bevz. Umerov wrote on Facebook that he had briefed Zelensky on the &quot;substantial progress&quot; made in the talks. &quot;It is important that the talks have a constructive dynamic and that all issues are discussed openly and with a clear focus on ensuring Ukraine&#39;s sovereignty and national interests,&quot; Zelensky wrote on X after the talks. Flurry of diplomacy&nbsp;An initial 28-point US proposal &mdash; drafted without input from Ukraine&#39;s European allies &mdash; would have required Kyiv to withdraw from its eastern Donetsk region, and the United States would then have de facto recognized the Donetsk, Crimea, and Lugansk regions as Russian. The United States pared back the original draft following criticism from Kyiv and Europe, but the current contents remain unclear. A source close to the Kyiv delegation in Florida told AFP on Sunday that &quot;the process is not easy because the search for formulations and solutions continues.&quot; Another source briefed on the developments told AFP that &quot;the Americans really want the final points to be agreed upon&quot; ahead of the US talks in Moscow. Following the Florida negotiations, French President Emmanuel Macron is set to host Zelensky in Paris on Monday for talks. Rubio is set to skip a meeting of NATO foreign ministers on Wednesday and Thursday in Brussels, despite allies&#39; concerns about the US plan for Ukraine. But Witkoff will head to Russia on Monday and is expected to meet Putin on Tuesday. The flurry of diplomacy comes as the war &mdash; which has killed tens of thousands of civilians and military personnel and displaced millions of Ukrainians &mdash; shows no sign of easing. Russian oil terminal hit&nbsp;Ahead of the Florida talks, Russia&#39;s forces targeted Ukraine&#39;s capital and the region for two nights in a row as they advanced on the front line. A drone attack on the outskirts of Kyiv killed one person and wounded 11 late on Saturday, the regional governor said. Hours earlier, a Ukrainian security source said Kyiv was responsible for attacks on two oil tankers in the Black Sea that it believed were covertly transporting sanctioned Russian oil. One of Russia&#39;s largest oil terminals halted operations on Saturday following a drone attack. The Caspian Pipeline Consortium, a group that includes US oil majors Chevron and ExxonMobil and which owns the terminal, called the strike a &quot;terrorist attack.&quot; Ukraine, which did not comment on the incident, regularly targets Russian energy facilities in a bid to sap the country&#39;s war chest.

US secretary of state says more work is required; a source in Kyiv's delegation characterized the discussions as 'not easy.'


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