Closing summary
… and on that note, it’s a wrap!
The EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, has said she fears talks between the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, will pile pressure on Ukraine to make concessions with the two men expected to meet on Tuesday (14:47, 14:52).
Her comments came as Emmanuel Macron’s held talks with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Paris (11:05, 16:33, 17:22), with the pair insisting that no decisions about Ukraine can be made without Ukraine and Europe at the table, and calls to put more pressure on Moscow instead (16:41, 16:45, 16:55, 17:07).
The talks were followed by a series of phone calls with European leaders and Witkoff to coordinate before tomorrow’s talks (15:14, 15:16, 15:26).
The Netherlands has announced plans to make an additional contribution of €250m to the Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List, or PURL, programme of Nato purchases of US weapons for Ukraine (18:45).
These developments come as the Russian army made its biggest advance in Ukraine for a year in November, an AFP analysis of data from the US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) showed (14:20).
In other news,
Polish prime minister Donald Tusk and German chancellor Friedrich Merz sought to stress the close relationship between the two countries despite their difficult past (15:24, 15:51), but the unresolved questions around the memory and the compensation for the second world war still dominated their press conference after high-level talks in Berlin (15:55, 16:13, 16:27, 16:36).
Lithuania has complained of “unacceptable” disruptions in it airspace after Vilnius airport once again had to temporarily close down due to smugglers balloons from Belarus, causing widespread travel disruption (10:43), with calls to impose further sanctions on Minsk in retaliation (17:57).
And that’s all from me, Jakub Krupa, for today.
If you have any tips, comments or suggestions, email me at [email protected].
I am also on Bluesky at @jakubkrupa.bsky.social and on X at @jakubkrupa.
The Netherlands to spend further €250m on Ukraine's military needs through PURL scheme
Back to Ukraine, it’s worth noting that the Netherlands has announced plans to make an additional contribution of €250m to the Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List, or PURL, programme of Nato purchases of US weapons for Ukraine.
Announcing the move, defence minister Ruben Brekelmans said it was the Netherlands’ “substantial contribution” to help Ukraine defend itself over the winter as it faces growing pressure from the US to agree to a peace deal.
