Ukraine updates: Zelenskyy in Cyprus as EU presidency begins

Ukrainian officials said Russia attacked two seaports in the southern Odesa region on Wednesday, killing one person and injuring eight others. 

The country's seaport administration said that Chornomorsk and Pivdennyi, two key export hubs, were targeted. 

"This is yet another attack by a terrorist country on port infrastructure that is involved in ensuring global food security," Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba said. 

Kuleba said port facilities, administrative buildings and tanks containing vegetable oil were damaged in the attacks, but that the ports were continuing to operate. 

Russia has increased attacks on Ukrainian ports and foreign-flagged vessels sailing from them in recent weeks, saying it's retaliation for Kyiv's strikes on unregulated oil tankers sailing to Russia. 

Ukraine's seaport authority on Wednesday told the Reuters news agency that in total, Russia had struck ports in the Odesa coastal region 96 times in 2025.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Kyiv was intensely working on implementing the necessary reforms to join the European Union.

Zelenskyy made the remarks during a visit to Cyprus on Wednesday, days after the island country took over the bloc's rotating presidency.

“We are working to make as much progress as possible during this period on opening negotiating clusters and on Ukraine’s accession to the European Union," Zelenskyy said in a post on X, referring to Cyprus' six-month presidency.

The Ukrainian president said that he was "counting on productive cooperation" from Nicosia.

Ukraine applied to join the EU months after Russia launched its invasion of the country in February 2022 and was swiftly given candidate status by the bloc.

Ukraine's government has made joining the EU a major priority, despite challenges due to the war with Russia and EU member Hungary's opposition to Kyiv's accession bid.

On Wednesday, Zelenskyy said he also discussed strengthening sanctions on Moscow and enhancing Ukraine's air defense and drone production with Cyprus' president, Nicos Christodoulides.

Finnish Minister for Foreign Affairs Elina Valtonen tells DW that "hybrid" threats will continue to come from Russia "for the foreseeable future."

"It must be said that it's now becoming clearer than ever that the Russian threat will unfortunately remain for the foreseeable future," she said, adding that Moscow would continue "targeting Europe" and "not just Ukraine."

She said that the threats would come "in a hybrid form."

"That is why we must stand together much more strongly than we have done up until now," she stressed.

Valtonen called for unity among European countries, saying: "Part of that, of course, is speaking with one voice about the level of threat."

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told parliament on Wednesday that if UK troops were deployed to Ukraine to monitor a potential ceasefire with Russia, the matter would be put to a debate and a vote in the House of Commons. 

The UK and France on Tuesday signed a declaration of intent saying that both countries would deploy troops to Ukrainian territory, alongside other European forces, in the event of a ceasefire. 

"Were troops to be deployed under the declaration signed, I would put that matter to the House for a vote," Starmer told the House of Commons during his weekly Prime Minister's Questions session. 

He said that the number of troops would be "determined in accordance with our military plans" and would also be put before parliament. 

Opposition Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch said that given the developments concerning Ukraine, the US operation in Venezuela, and the European joint statement on Greenland of the past few days, it was "frankly astonishing" that Starmer was not giving a full statement on recent geopolitical developments to parliament, instead of simply attending the standard Q+A session. 

"No prime minister, Labour or Conservative, has failed to make a statement to the House, in person, after committing to the deployment of British troops," she said. 

Starmer responded by suggesting this was not an entirely fair comparison with past decisions to send troops to active conflict zones. He said that Tuesday's decision on Ukraine was more of a "political declaration" seeking to provide a "legal instrument" for any future deployment to monitor a ceasefire not yet agreed.

Starmer argued that he had already briefed parliament a few months ago on potential plans for what British troops could do in Ukraine to monitor or enforce a possible truce.

US and Ukrainian officials are holding discussions in Paris, a day after assembled world leaders pledged "robust" security guarantees for Ukraine in the event of Russia breaching a potential future ceasefire or peace deal. 

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on social media that the talks would concern some of the obstacles to a potential truce with Russia, in a conflict that US President Donald Trump once boasted he would stop within a day of returning to the White House. 

"The most difficult issues from the basic framework for ending the war will be discussed — namely, issues related to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant and territories," Zelenskyy wrote. 

Meanwhile, Zelenskyy's newly-appointed top adviser, Kyrylo Budanov, said that progress was being made in the French capital. 

"Not all information can be public, but there are already concrete results, [and] our work continues," Budanov wrote on Telegram. "Ukrainian national interests will be defended." 

Representatives of European NATO members like the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Turkey are also thought to be involved in the discussions. 

Regional governor of the Kherson oblast Olexander Prokudin said on Telegram on Wednesday that the city center of the state capital, also called Kherson, had been under fire since early morning. 

He said that one person had been killed in the bombardment. 

Meanwhile, the mayor of Dnipro, Borys Filatov, reported that more than 2,000 windows had been shattered as a result of overnight strikes on the city. He shared a series of images of rescue workers dealing with the damage. 

He said that more than 20 tons of debris and glass had already been removed from the streets. 

Filatov said in an earlier update online that seven people had been injured, most with stress or trauma-related conditions as a result of the attacks and some with shrapnel wounds. 

Russia's Vesti state TV channel cited Belgorod's regional governor as saying on Wednesday that a fire caused by an overnight drone strike had been extinguished at an oil depot in the Russian region near the border of Ukraine. 

Ukraine had also reported an overnight strike on an oil depot in the area, without providing further details. 

Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said late on Tuesday that several oil storage tanks were on fire at the oil fire in the Starooskolsky district, about 70 kilometers (roughly 45 miles) from the border with Ukraine. 

He reported no casualties at this site, but said that two people had died in other drone strikes near the border. 

Volodymyr Zelenskyy traveled to Nicosia on Wednesday as Cyprus began its six-month presidency of the European Union. President Nicos Christodoulides welcomed Zelenskyy to the presidential palace. 

"We hope that during your presidency a lot of steps [can be taken] forward, closer to membership in the EU," Zelenskyy told Christodoulides in televised remarks. 

He said the meeting would provide an opportunity to discuss details of a meeting in Paris on Tuesday, where Ukrainian allies and the US backed plans to provide security guarantees to Ukraine that would come into effect if a ceasefire agreement were reached with Russia, only to later be breached again. 

Although Cyprus has had traditionally close political and cultural ties to Moscow, it has also supported sanctions on Moscow in light of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Some in Cyprus have likened the invasion and attempted annexation of parts of the country to Turkey's invasion and annexation of the north of the still-divided island in 1974. 

"Cyprus reaffirms its steadfast commitment to Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity," Christodoulides wrote on social media after his meeting with Zelenskyy.

"As a country that still lives with the consequences of illegal invasion and ongoing military occupation, we fully understand what is at stake." 

He said that Ukraine would constitute "a central priority of our Presidency," and that Nicosia would make "every possible effort" to ensure continued EU support "at all levels." 

Hello and welcome to our coverage of news from and related to Russia's invasion of Ukraine on Wednesday, January 7. 

This follows Tuesday's "Coalition of the Willing" meeting in Paris where predominantly European participants and the US hailed agreement on "robust" security guarantees. These are meant to reassure Ukraine of support in the event that a ceasefire or peace deal with Russia can be brokered, and if that deal is subsequently broken again by Moscow. 

Negotiators from the US and Ukraine remain in Paris seeking to put more meat on the bones of Tuesday's broader agreement. 

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy moved on to Nicosia, for a ceremony marking Cyprus taking up the rotating presidency of the European Union. 

Meanwhile, authorities in border areas in both Ukraine and Russia reported overnight attacks, particularly drone strikes, and injuries.