Ukraine updates: US delegation expected in Russia next week

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that Ukrainian and US delegations will meet this week to iron out the details of a proposed ceasefire agreement with Russia.

"Our team, together with American representatives, will meet at the end of this week to continue to bring closer the points we have as a result of [talks in] Geneva in a form that will lead us on the path to peace and security guarantees," Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address.

"There will be a meeting of delegations. The Ukrainian delegation will be well prepared and focused on meaningful work," he added. 

A leaked 28-point US peace plan last week alarmed Ukrainian and European officials, who said it conceded to Moscow on NATO, territorial control, and limits on Ukraine's military. 

In response, European powers offered a counter-proposal, and at Geneva talks, the US and Ukraine announced an "updated, refined peace framework" to end the war.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has insisted that Ukraine retain a well-equipped and well-manned army in order to guarantee any ceasefire agreement with Russia.

"Should we one day arrive at the peace deal we are working towards on a European level, Ukraine will continue to require strong armed forces and reliable security guarantees from its partners," Merz said after a meeting with Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal in Berlin on Thursday.

The initial 28-point ceasefire plan drafted by US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Kremlin officials last week stipulated a reduction of the size of the Ukrainian army to no more than 600,000 personnel.

European states have reportedly since managed to increase that to 800,000 soldiers — to be funded by a €140-billion ($162-billion) loan using frozen Russian financial assets, according to Merz and Michal.

"We are also in agreement that there can be no one-sided territorial concessions," added Merz, referring to Russian demands for Ukraine to cede large swathes of territory, particularly in Donetsk, which its forces still control.

"Ukraine must not be forced into making such concessions," he said. "The current front line must be the starting point for possible negotiations."

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said it would be "senseless" to sign any ceasefire deal with what he considers to be an "illegitimate" Ukrainian leadership.

"I hope that we can come to an agreement with Ukraine in the future," he said — but claimed President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his democratically elected government lost legitimacy after their term expired.

Ukraine says its constitution prevents it from holding elections while the country is under martial law and still defending itself against a foreign invasion.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has made the withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from territories claimed by Moscow a precondition for any ceasefire.

"If Ukrainian forces leave the territories they hold, then we will stop combat operations," Putin said during a visit to Kyrgyzstan. "If they don't, then we will achieve it by military means."

After illegally annexing Crimea in 2014, Russia unilaterally claimed the annexation of the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia in September 2022, despite controlling none of them entirely at the time.

On Thursday, Putin said that "Crimea and the Donbas should be the topic of our talks with the United States" — the latter being generally understood to refer to Luhansk and Donetsk regions together.

Ukraine remains unwilling to cede territory which it still controls, especially the string of fortified cities in Donetsk including Sloviansk, Kramatorsk and Pokrovsk, which it continues to defend.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has confirmed that a United States delegation will arrive in Russia next week for talks on Moscow's ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

Speaking at the end of a visit to Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, Putin said the Russian side would be represented by officials from the foreign ministry and presidential office, naming his advisors Vladimir Medinsky and Yuri Ushakov.

According to Kremlin officials, US special envoy Steve Witkoff, who was involved in drawing up a controversial 28-point plan to end the war in Ukraine last week, is also expected in Moscow.

"In general, we agree that this can be the basis for future agreements," Putin said of the plan, adding that the variant of the plan discussed by the United States and Ukraine in Switzerland recently had also been passed to Russia.

A Ukrainian under suspicion of coordinating the attack on the Nord Stream pipeline has been extradited from Italy to Germany on Thursday, judicial sources told the German dpa news agency.

The 2022 attack targeted the pipeline bringing Russian gas directly to Germany through the Baltic Sea. Both Moscow and the West described it as an act of sabotage.

The suspect, identified under German privacy laws only as Serhii K., was arrested in Italy's Rimini in August on a European warrant.

The charges against him include collusion to cause an explosion, anti-constitutional sabotage and destruction of important structures.

His lawyer Nicola Canestrini has said he is confident of an acquittal following a trial in Germany, despite having fought extradition.

Another suspect, identified by German authorities as Volodymyr Z., was arrested in Poland in September. A Polish court ruled last month against his extradition. 

A Russian court has sentenced eight men to life imprisonment for a bomb attack that damaged the bridge linking Russian-occupied Crimea to the Russian mainland.

"The defendants were found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment," Russia's southern military court in the city of Rostov-on-Don said on Telegram.

On October 8, 2022, a truck exploded on the bridge, setting fire to seven oil tankers on a freight train. Five people were killed in the explosion.

Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and later used as a launchpad for the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Ukraine's secret service claimed responsibility for the attack that temporarily shut down the key lifeline for the illegally occupied peninsula.

Kerch bridge has been seen by both sides as a symbol of Russia's illegal annexation, with Russian President Vladimir Putin himself inaugurating the 19-kilometer (12-mile) road and rail bridge in 2018.

Ukraine has targeted the key bridge in several further attacks in the years since.

Euroclear, a Belgian securities depository, has said that an EU plan to make use of frozen Russian assets could spook the market and raise borrowing costs, the Financial Times reported.

Around €185 billion ($215 billion) of Russian assets are being held in the depository, with another €25 billion held in other EU countries, mostly in France and Luxembourg.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday the EU was planning to introduce a legal text that could pave the way for the frozen assets to be used as a loan to fund Ukraine. Such a plan has been discussed since early in the war, but has been blocked by Belgium, fearing reprisals from Russia.

Euroclear reportedly warned that the move could be seen as "confiscation," damaging the EU's investment climate.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is set to host his Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal in Berlin.

Following a ceremony with military honors, the two leaders are set to discuss security along NATO's eastern flank, a topic that has been given increased importance following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Estonia shares a 300-kilometer (186-mile) border with Russia and has reported the presence of Russian drones or military jets in its airspace multiple times in the past week.

Estonia, which like Ukraine declared independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, has been one of Kyiv's most consistent supporters since the Russian invasion.

DW spoke with exiled Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya about how her home country's fate and that of Ukraine are intertwined and how both "post-Soviet-Union states" are vital to European security.

After meeting Ukrainian officials in Kyiv, US Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll held talks with a Russian delegation in Abu Dhabi.

He is fast becoming a key figure in US foreign policy.

Read the full story to find out who exactly is Dan Driscoll.

US President Donald Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff will head to Moscow next week to meet Russian counterparts as European leaders rush to revise the US-backed peace plan.

Watch DW's The Day with Phil Gayle for the full story:

Thank you for following along with us today as we bring you the latest from Russia's war in Ukraine.

The Trump administration has been pushing for a new 28-point peace deal that Ukraine and its European allies have sought to amend, saying it favors Russia.

Now, US delegates are holding talks with both Ukraine and Russia over a new draft that has been "fine-tuned," according to US President Donald Trump.

Nevertheless, the EU has expressed skepticism that Russia is ready to negotiate a peace and has called for increased pressure to bring it to the table.