Closing summary
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has voiced support for Donald Trump’s proposal for Ukraine and Russia to freeze the war at the current frontlines, calling it “a good compromise” even as he acknowledged Moscow has made clear it will not accept the arrangement. “I think that was a good compromise, but I’m not sure that Putin will support it, and I said it to the president,” Zelenskyy said on a visit to Oslo, part of a tour of Scandinavia to seek additional military support.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Wednesday that Ukraine aims to receive and start using Swedish Gripen jets next year. “For our army, Gripens are a priority. It is about money, about manoeuvres,” he told a joint press conference with Swedish prime minister Ulf Kristersson during a visit to Linkoping.
The world must now increase pressure on the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, for the war in Ukraine to end, Kristersson told a press conference. Standing next to Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Kristersson said that Sweden “stands very united behind you and the Ukrainian people”.
Russia is implementing a methodical campaign to destroy Ukraine’s energy system and is targeting repair teams working at energy facilities after the initial strikes, energy minister Sviltana Hrynchuk said on Wednesday. Russia launched 405 drones and 28 missiles in its second major round of attacks on Ukrainian energy facilities so far this month, killing six people in Kyiv and the surrounding region and cutting off electricity across the country, officials said.
Plans to hold a summit between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in Budapest have been put on hold as Ukraine and its European allies rallied in pushing for a ceasefire without territorial concessions from Kyiv. The White House said there were now “no plans” for the US president to meet his Russian counterpart “in the immediate future” as a round of diplomacy at the end of last week failed to yield any significant progress towards ending the war.
Several people were killed and many more wounded as Russia launched more than 400 air attacks across Ukraine between Tuesday and Wednesday. A drone hit a kindergarten in Kharkiv, killing at least one person.
Russian Tu-22M3 long-range bombers conducted a scheduled flight over neutral waters in the Baltic Sea, Russian state-run news agency RIA reported, citing the defence ministry. At various stages of the mission the bombers were escorted by fighter jets from foreign countries, the ministry was cited as saying.
Russia said on Wednesday it had carried out a major training exercise involving nuclear weapons, a day after the United States announced a delay in plans for a second summit between presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump. The Kremlin released video showing general Valery Gerasimov, head of the general staff, reporting to Putin on the drills. They included practice launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles, which are capable of striking the United States.
Ukraine is urging European countries not to limit its use of a proposed $163 billion loan based on frozen Russian state assets, arguing that it needs to be able to buy non-European arms, repair war damage from Russian attacks and compensate victims. With EU leaders to discuss the ‘Reparations Loan’ to Kyiv on Thursday at talks attended by Ukraine’s president, some states suggest the funds be spent mainly on European-made weapons to boost their defence industries as threats from Russia grow.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy will visit Brussels and London later this week after meetings held in Norway and Sweden on Wednesday, a senior Ukrainian official told Agence France-Presse (AFP). The official said multiple meetings would be held in the European capitals, including on energy amid repeated Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy facilities.
The Louvre in Paris reopened on Wednesday, three days after thieves made off with jewellery worth an estimated €88m ($102m) in a spectacular heist that has raised urgent questions over security lapses at the museum. Reuters reports that visitors queued to enter through the Louvre’s glass pyramid for the first time since Sunday’s brazen robbery, in which hooded assailants broke through a second-floor window using a stolen movers’ lift before making off with jewels from the royal collection.
Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy will have two police officers stationed in nearby cells while he is in prison to ensure he comes to no harm, France’s interior minister said on Wednesday. Sarkozy on Tuesday began a five-year sentence after being convicted of conspiring to raise campaign funds from Libya, arriving at La Sante prison in Paris - a stunning downfall for a man who led the country between 2007 and 2012.
Shots were fired outside Serbia’s parliament building in Belgrade and one person was injured, local media reported. Eyewitness footage shared with Reuters showed armed security officers approaching a tent outside parliament, one of several erected this year by supporters of president Aleksandar Vučić during anti-government protests.
The British prime minister Keir Starmer described the western Balkans as Europe’s “crucible” as he opened talks with leaders in London. “The region has been described as the crossroads of Europe, but so often it has also been Europe’s crucible - the place where the security of our continent is put to the test,” he said.
Slovakia has reported an outbreak of bird flu on a poultry farm in the northern part of the country, the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) said on Wednesday, as Europe faces a seasonal upturn in the deadly disease. The H5N1 strain of highly pathogenic avian influenza, commonly called bird flu, killed 27 birds on a farm with chickens, geese and ducks near the border with Poland, the Paris-based WOAH said, citing the Slovakian authorities. The rest of the 197-strong flock was slaughtered.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has voiced support for Donald Trump’s proposal for Ukraine and Russia to freeze the war at the current frontlines, calling it “a good compromise” even as he acknowledged Moscow has made clear it will not accept the arrangement.
“I think that was a good compromise, but I’m not sure that Putin will support it, and I said it to the president,” Zelenskyy said on a visit to Oslo, part of a tour of Scandinavia to seek additional military support.
The US president had earlier this week told reporters on Air Force One “they can negotiate something later on down the line. But I said cut and stop at the battle line”. He was speaking shortly before a planned summit with Vladimir Putin was put on hold after Russia said its goal of seeking the whole of the eastern Donbas region, including areas held by Ukraine, had not changed.
Trump’s latest remarks were seen as a modest win for Zelenskyy. The US leader has repeatedly wavered on key aspects of the war, including whether a ceasefire should come before broader peace talks, and at times appearing to consider Putin’s demands for Ukraine to give up more land.
Most recently, Trump had dashed Ukraine’s hope he would send Tomahawk missiles to Kyiv after a phone call with Putin.
Zelenskyy and his senior officials have previously acknowledged that Ukraine is unlikely to regain all of its occupied territory through military means, and have privately told Washington and European partners they would be open to freezing the frontlines. Still, Zelenskyy’s public endorsement of such a plan marks a notable shift from his earlier stance, when Kyiv vowed to reclaim all land lost to Russia.
Russia, meanwhile, has made clear its maximalist position hasn’t changed, appearing to reject Trump’s fresh proposal to freeze battle lines.
Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s longtime foreign minister, said on Tuesday: “Washington now starts to say that we must stop [the conflict] immediately, that we should no longer discuss anything, that we should stop, and let history judge.”
Moscow has consistently rejected extended ceasefire proposals, arguing they would give Ukraine time to rearm and regroup at a time when Russian forces are making battlefield advances.
“You see, simply stopping would mean forgetting the root causes of this conflict,” Lavrov said.
Those “root causes”, according to Moscow, refer to its sweeping demands that would undermine Ukraine’s sovereignty – including full control over the Donbas region, limits on Kyiv’s armed forces, and a say in its domestic affairs.
