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Tag: Russia-Ukraine war

  • Trump’s State of the Union seeks to calm economic jitters

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    WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump declared during the State of the Union on Tuesday that “we’re winning so much,” saying he sparked a jobs and manufacturing boom at home while imposing a new world order abroad — hoping that offering a long list of his accomplishments can counter approval ratings that have been falling.

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    Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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    By WILL WEISSERT and MICHELLE L. PRICE – Associated Press

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  • In war-weary Kyiv, wounded Ukrainian veterans turn epic poetry into living testimony

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    KYIV, Ukraine — Sitting in a circle the day before opening night, Ukrainian war veterans and drama students took turns reading their lines from a script that traveled centuries to reach them.

    At the center was Olha Semioshkina, directing the group through her adaptation of “Eneida” by Ivan Kotliarevskyi — an 18th-century Ukrainian reimagining of Virgil’s “Aeneid.” This production, though, had a modern-day message about resilience in the face of the war that’s nearing its fourth year since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

    The actors — men and women in their 20s to 60s — included Ukrainian military veterans who had returned from the front with amputations, severe burns and sight loss. Others had endured war on the homefront. Many had never set foot on a stage before this play.

    It took more than a year to prepare for Thursday’s premiere at Kyiv’s National Academic Molodyy Theatre.

    “We knew the guys had just come back from rehabilitation, and we had to start from the very beginning,” Semioshkina said.

    “We spent about four months simply learning to communicate, to fall, to group, to roll, to get together,” she said. “Then we began developing the body, taking off prosthetics and learning to exist without them.”

    The 51-year-old director’s concept was simple: “Every man on stage is Aeneas. Every woman on stage is Dido.”

    In Virgil’s epic, Aeneas wanders after the fall of Troy, searching for a new homeland. In Kotliarevskyi’s satirical adaptation, the Trojan hero becomes a Cossack, rowdy and earthy.

    On Kyiv’s stage, Aeneas wears prosthetic limbs and bears scars from the war that began with Russia’s Feb. 24, 2022, invasion of Ukraine.

    “Aeneas is a hero who goes through a lot in search for his land,” Semioshkina said. “He preserves humor, passion, he falls, he goes through horrors, drinks and parties. But he is a human, and he has a goal — to find his place and preserve his family.”

    She draws parallels between the veterans who endured combat and the character they play on stage. “Aeneas is the one who went to war. Yes, he returned mutilated, broken,” she said, but the actors bringing this adaptation to life “are learning to live” again.

    During rehearsal, Yehor Babenko, a veteran of Ukraine’s Border Service who suffered severe burns early in the Russian invasion, delivered a line with a grin: “Feeling burned out at work? We have a lot in common.”

    Later in the play, his monologue also hit close to home as he spoke about fire taking his hands, ears and nose. “I won’t be able to show children a trick with a missing finger,” he says. “Maybe the one when all 10 fingers disappear.”

    The opportunity to perform onstage, Babenko said, has been a healing journey.

    “For me, theater is both psychological and physical rehabilitation. I’ve noticed I feel my body better, feel more confident in public, express my thoughts better.”

    For Babenko, the story of Aeneas resonates beyond the stage. “It’s about searching for your land,” he said. “And for our country, that’s very relevant now.”

    The play’s final act departed from epic poetry altogether as the actors stepped forward to tell their own stories — about combat injuries, lost brothers in arms, displacement and life under occupation.

    One veteran described losing his leg in a drone strike and using a machine gun as a crutch to reach cover. A female actor recounted living under Russian occupation with her two daughters.

    Another, who volunteered as a medic, first in 2014 when Russia illegally annexed Crimea and pro-Russian forces captured parts of Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk regions, and again after the 2022 Russian invasion, spoke of returning to war in her 60s.

    Andrii Onopriienko, who lost his sight in a Russian artillery strike near Avdiivka, in the Donetsk region, in 2023, narrated much of the performance in a deep, resonant voice. At one point he sang: “Let our enemies dig up holes, install crosses, and lie down on their own,” as the rest of the cast joined in.

    Onopriienko initially refused to join the project. “I didn’t understand what I would do on stage blind,” he said. He later was persuaded that there would be a role for him.

    “It’s positivity, laughter, support,” he said of rehearsals. “No matter what mood you come in, you leave with a big smile; Here you distract yourself from the present. You enter another world.”

    Onstage, prosthetic legs and arms were removed and put back on as part of the play’s visual language. Long metal rods doubled as swords, oars and crutches — used as both an artistic instrument and a tool to help actors with amputations keep balance.

    The war intruded even before the curtain rose on Thursday. An announcement asked the audience to follow the usual theater protocol and silence their phones — then warned that in case of an air raid, they should head to the basement shelter. If a blackout occurred, it added, the show would pause for the backup power generators to be turned on.

    As Babenko delivered his monologue minutes before the performance ended, the power did go out.

    Semioshkina stepped onto the stage with a flashlight, followed by others holding flashlights. Babenko delivered his lines in the beam of the improvised spotlight. The audience, some quietly weeping, some laughing through tears, stayed.

    When the last monologue ended and the curtain fell and rose again, the cast was met with a standing ovation. As they bowed a second time, the electricity returned, and the applause swelled.

    For Semioshkina, the message of veterans on stage extends beyond epic poetry and the theater walls.

    “I would like to send a message to all veterans who are sitting at home: Come out,” she said. “Come out. You can do something. Live. Don’t close yourself off. Live every single minute.”

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  • Life is harsh and dangerous in Russian-run parts of Ukraine, activists and former residents say

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    By YURAS KARMANAU

    TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Even now, safely in her new home of Estonia, Inna Vnukova says she can’t purge the terrifying memory of living under Russian occupation in eastern Ukraine early in the war and her family’s harrowing escape.

    They hid in a damp basement for days in their village of Kudriashivka after Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. In the streets, soldiers waving machine guns bullied residents, set up checkpoints and looted homes. There was constant shelling.

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    Associated Press

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  • Russia and Ukraine envoys meet in Abu Dhabi for US-brokered talks

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    By KAMILA HRABCHUK, Associated Press

    KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Envoys from Russia and Ukraine met in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday for another round of U.S.-brokered talks on ending the almost four-year war, a Ukrainian negotiator said.

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    Associated Press

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  • Even small EU nations go big on arms production

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    NICOSIA, Cyprus — There’s a chance the dreaded buzz of propellers heard on Ukrainian battlefields is coming from drones built in a country with a population of just over a million on Europe’s southeastern fringe: Cyprus.

    Manufacturer Swarmly says there are more than 200 of its H-10 Poseidon drones helping Ukrainian artillery batteries pinpoint enemy targets on the ground in all kinds of weather, racking up more than 100,000 hours in the air over the last three years.

    Its 5,000-square-meter (54,000-square-foot) factory, where the whir of grinders shaping composite plastics reverberates off the walls, has become a major source of uncrewed vehicles shipped to countries such as Indonesia, Benin, Nigeria, India and Saudi Arabia, according to company officials. Most of the factory floor is reserved for uncrewed aerial vehicle manufacture. But tucked in a secure storage area is a selection of Swarmly’s super-fast marine drones replete with high-definition cameras and .50-caliber machine guns.

    Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has driven even the smallest European Union member countries to develop their home-grown, high-tech defense industries, just as necessity has made Kyiv a world leader in cutting-edge UAV technology. Many EU countries have partnered with Kyiv to develop that technology, and Ukraine’s front lines are usually their testing grounds.

    Like Cyprus, the Baltic countries and Denmark have revved up their domestic drone and counter-drone technology. In Greece, drones are part of a 25-billion euro ($29-billion) overhaul of its armed forces.

    “The example of Swarmy, as well as other important companies based in small EU countries, is a testament to the serious effort made by the private sector in Europe to innovate and build mass production capacity of defense items, including uncrewed systems,” said Federico Borsari, an expert with the Washington-based Center for European Policy Analysis.

    UAVs are reshaping warfare by offering less militarily capable countries some leverage over superior adversaries. Drones aren’t going to completely replace big-ticket weaponry like tanks, artillery and warplanes, said Borsari. But they offer flexibility and bang for the buck, making them a formidable force multiplier.

    Take Swarmly’s explosives-packed, satellite-guided Hydra marine drone. Each one costs 80,000 euros ($94,500), which means deploying a group of them to neutralize a billion-euro warship can be a bargain, said company director Gary Rafalovsky.

    This sort of naval weapon taking out a much larger warship is already evidenced by Houthi attacks from Yemen, according to Fabian Hinz, a research fellow for missile technologies and UAVs at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, Europe.

    Barriers to entry for undercapitalized companies are low, he added, because UAVs are often designed and assembled from components cheaply and readily available on the global market.

    “And that, of course, means that basically you don’t have to have a great industrial investment at first that you need with other military capabilities. You don’t need decades of experience in certain material sciences or these kinds of things,” Hinz said.

    In Denmark, a pair of companies focusing on anti-drone devices have reported a surge in new clients, and some of the devices were to be shipped to Ukraine to assist in jamming Russian technology on the battlefield. Ukraine in September said it was partnering with Danish companies to build missile and drone components at a factory in Denmark.

    In the Baltic country of Lithuania, scientists and business partners have joined forces under the name VILNIUS TECH to develop UAVs, automated mine detection and other military technologies. The state-run ammunition factory Giraite says it has increased production capacity by 50% since 2022.

    Greece for the first time showcased its homemade drones and counter-drone technology during a full tactical exercise in November as NATO urged Europe’s defense sector to pick up the pace.

    “We need capabilities, equipment, real firepower and the most advanced technology,” NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte warned during a visit to Romania earlier that month. “Bring your ideas, test your ingenuity and use NATO as your test bed.”

    Even as drone development accelerates, Borsari cautioned that the advantages of UAVs are often tempered by numerous variables like the harsh conditions in which they sometimes fly, operators’ training and skill levels, as well as the depth of logistical support to keep them functional.

    Russia’s war in Ukraine and the Trump administration’s mixed messages that have strained relations with NATO allies have forced European leaders to reckon with the need to become more self-reliant on defense. So the EU has made billions of euros available to encourage investment and bolster its collective deterrent capability.

    That’s been a boost to nations like Cyprus, which assumed the six-month EU presidency on Jan. 1. Last week, the EU’s executive arm approved financial assistance for eight members including Spain, Croatia, Portugal, Bulgaria, Belgium, Romania and Cyprus.

    Cyprus is set to receive final approval from EU leaders for some 1.2 billion euros ($1.4 billion) in low-cost, long-term loans under the EU’s 150-billion-euro joint ($177-billion) procurement program called Security Action for Europe (SAFE).

    Its nascent defense industry is already made up of around 30 companies and research centers that produce technology for both civilian and military sectors, including robotics, communications networks, anti-drone systems and even satellite communications and surveillance, said Panayiotis Hadjipavlis, chief of the armaments and defense capabilities development directorate within Cyprus’ Defense Ministry.

    “We have niche capabilities on very high-tech products and this has to be taken seriously into account,” Hadjipavlis told The Associated Press in his office, where the helmet from his fighter pilot days hung on a nearby coat rack.

    Major defense industry players, he added, are among those who should take note.

    ____

    Associated Press writer Liudas Dapkus in Vilnius, Lithuania contributed.

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  • A Kremlin official confirms that U.S.-brokered Russia-Ukraine talks are resuming this week

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    By ILLIA NOVIKOV and DASHA LITVINOVA, Associated Press

    KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A new round of U.S.-brokered talks on ending Russia’s war on Ukraine is set to go ahead this week after a brief postponement, a senior Kremlin official said Monday, with negotiations taking place against a backdrop of continued front-line fighting and deadly long-range attacks on rear areas.

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  • Trump says that Ukraine didn’t target Putin residence in a drone strike as Kremlin claims

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    ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE — President Donald Trump on Sunday told reporters that U.S. officials have determined that Ukraine did not target a residence belonging to Russian President Vladimir Putin in a drone attack last week, disputing Kremlin claims that Trump had initially greeted with deep concern.

    Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov last week said Ukraine launched a wave of drones at Putin’s state residence in the northwestern Novgorod region that the Russian defense systems were able to defeat. Lavrov also criticized Kyiv for launching the attack at a moment of intensive negotiations to end the war.

    The allegation came just a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had traveled to Florida for talks with Trump on the U.S. administration’s still-evolving 20-point plan aimed at ending the war. Zelenskyy quickly denied the Kremlin allegation.

    Trump said that “something happened nearby” Putin’s residence but that Americans officials didn’t find the Russian president’s residence was targeted.

    “I don’t believe that strike happened,” Trump told reporters as he traveled back to Washington on Sunday after spending two weeks at his home in Florida. “We don’t believe that happened, now that we’ve been able to check.”

    Trump addressed the U.S. determination after European officials argued that the Russian claim was nothing more than an effort by Moscow to undermine the peace effort.

    But Trump, at least initially, had appeared to take the Russian allegations at face value. He told reporters last Monday that Putin had also raised the matter during a phone he had with the Russian leader earlier that day. And Trump said he was “very angry” about the accusation.

    By Wednesday, Trump appeared to be downplaying the Russian claim. He posted a link to a New York Post editorial on his social media platform that raised doubt about the Russian allegation. The editorial lambasted Putin for choosing “lies, hatred, and death” at a moment that Trump has claimed is “closer than ever before” to moving the two sides to a deal to end the war.

    The U.S. president has struggled to fulfill a pledge to quickly end the war in Ukraine and has shown irritation with both Zelenskyy and Putin as he tried to mediate an end to a conflict he boasted on the campaign trail that he could end in one day.

    Both Trump and Zelenskyy said last week they made progress in their talks at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.

    But Putin has shown little interest in ending the war until all of Russia’s objectives are met, including winning control of all Ukrainian territory in the key industrial Donbas region and imposing severe restrictions on the size of Ukraine’s post-war military and the type of weaponry it can possess.

    ___

    Madhani reported from Washington.

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  • Russia: Ukrainian drone strike kills 24 in occupied Ukraine

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    KYIV, Ukraine — A Ukrainian drone strike killed 24 people and wounded at least 50 more as they celebrated New Year’s in a Russian-occupied village in Ukraine’s Kherson region, Russian officials said Thursday, as tensions between the two nations continue to spike despite diplomats hailing productive peace talks.

    Three drones struck a cafe and hotel in the resort town of Khorly on the Black Sea coast, the region’s Moscow-installed leader Vladimir Saldo said in a statement on Telegram. He said one of the drones carried an incendiary mixture, sparking a blaze.

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    By ILLIA NOVIKOV – Associated Press

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  • Trump: Ukraine, Russia ‘closer than ever’ to peace

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    PALM BEACH, Fla. — President Donald Trump on Sunday insisted Ukraine and Russia are “closer than ever before” to a peace deal as he hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at his Florida resort, but he acknowledged the negotiations are complex and could still break down, leaving the war dragging on for years.

    The president’s statements came after the leaders met for talks following what Trump said was an “excellent,” two-and-a-half-hour phone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose invasion of Ukraine launched the war nearly four years ago. Trump insisted he believed Putin still wants peace, even as Russia launched another round of attacks on Ukraine while Zelenskyy flew to the United States for the latest round of negotiations.

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    By WILL WEISSERT, SEUNG MIN KIM and ELISE MORTON – Associated Press

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  • Zelenskyy to meet with Trump as efforts to end Russia-Ukraine war remain elusive

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    WEST PALM BEACH, Florida — President Donald Trump will host his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, on Sunday to try to close out a peace agreement that would end nearly four years of war that began with Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

    The two will meet at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s private club in Palm Beach, Florida, where the U.S. president is spending the holidays and has an agenda mostly filled with daily rounds of golf. Zelenskyy said the two planned to discuss security and economic agreements and he will raise “territorial issues” as Moscow and Kyiv remain fiercely at odds over the fate of the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine.

    In the days before the meeting, Russia has intensified its attacks on Ukraine’s capital, using missiles and drones to attack Kyiv and try to increase the pressure on Zelenskyy.

    “Ukraine is willing to do whatever it takes to stop this war,” Zelenskyy posted Saturday on X. “We need to be strong at the negotiating table.”

    In response to the attacks, he wrote: “We want peace, and Russia demonstrates a desire to continue the war. If the whole world — Europe and America — is on our side, together we will stop” Russian President Vladimir Putin.

    In a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on Saturday, Zelenskyy said the key to peace is “pressure on Russia and sufficient, strong support for Ukraine.” To that end, Carney announced $2.5 billion Canadian (US$1.8 billion) more in economic assistance from his government to help Ukraine rebuild.

    Denouncing the “barbarism” of Russia’s latest attacks on Kyiv, Carney credited both Zelenskyy and Trump with creating the conditions for a “just and lasting peace” at a crucial moment.

    Trump and Zelenskyy sitting down face-to-face also underscored the apparent progress made by Trump’s top negotiators in recent weeks as the sides traded draft peace plans and continued to shape a proposal to end the fighting. Zelenskyy told reporters Friday that the 20-point draft proposal negotiators have discussed is “about 90% ready” — echoing a figure, and the optimism, that U.S. officials conveyed when Trump’s chief negotiators met with Zelenskyy in Berlin earlier this month.

    During the recent talks, the U.S. agreed to offer certain security guarantees to Ukraine similar to those offered to other members of NATO. The proposal came as Zelenskyy said he was prepared to drop his country’s bid to join the security alliance if Ukraine received NATO-like protection that would be designed to safeguard it against future Russian attacks.

    Zelenskyy also spoke on Christmas Day with U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law. The Ukrainian leader said in a post on X that they discussed “certain substantive details of the ongoing work” and cautioned in a subsequent post that “there is still work to be done on sensitive issues” and “the weeks ahead may also be intensive.”

    The U.S. president has been working to end the war in Ukraine for much of his first year back in office, showing irritation with both Zelenskyy and Putin while publicly acknowledging the difficulty of ending the conflict. Long gone are the days when, as a candidate in 2024, he boasted that he could resolve the fighting in a day.

    After hosting Zelenskyy at the White House in October, Trump demanded that both Russia and Ukraine halt fighting and “stop at the battle line,” implying that Moscow should be able to keep the territory it has seized from Ukraine.

    Before Sunday’s meeting, Zelenskyy said the key issues that remain unresolved between Ukraine and the U.S. include questions surrounding territory, the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and funding for Ukraine’s postwar recovery. He said there also are outstanding technical matters related to security guarantees and monitoring mechanisms.

    Ukraine has conveyed its position to the U.S., Zelenskyy said, adding that Trump administration officials would relay that to Russia.

    Zelenskyy also said last week that he would be willing to withdraw troops from Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland as part of a plan to end the war, if Russia also pulls back and the area becomes a demilitarized zone monitored by international forces.

    Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Friday that the Kremlin had already been in contact with U.S.

    “It was agreed upon to continue the dialogue,” he said.

    Putin has publicly said he wants all the areas in four key regions that have been captured by his forces, as well as the Crimean Peninsula, illegally annexed in 2014, to be recognized as Russian territory. He also has insisted that Ukraine withdraw from some areas in eastern Ukraine that Moscow’s forces haven’t captured. Kyiv has publicly rejected all those demands.

    The Kremlin also wants Ukraine to abandon its bid to join NATO. It warned that it wouldn’t accept the deployment of any troops from members of the military alliance and would view them as a “legitimate target.”

    Putin also has said Ukraine must limit the size of its army and give official status to the Russian language, demands he has made from the outset of the conflict.

    Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov, told the business daily Kommersant this month that Russian police and national guard would stay in parts of Donetsk -– one of the two major areas, along with Luhansk, that make up the Donbas region — even if they become a demilitarized zone under a prospective peace plan.

    Ushakov cautioned that trying to reach a compromise could take a long time. He said U.S. proposals that took into account Russian demands had been “worsened” by alterations proposed by Ukraine and its European allies.

    Trump has been somewhat receptive to Putin’s demands, making the case that the Russian president can be persuaded to end the war if Kyiv agrees to cede Ukrainian land in the Donbas region and if Western powers offer economic incentives to bring Russia back into the global economy.

    ___

    Kim reported from Washington and Morton from London. Associated Press writers Illia Novikov in Kyiv and Rob Gillies in Toronto contributed to this report.

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  • Pro-Russian hackers claim cyberattack on French postal service

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    PARIS — A pro-Russian hacking group claimed responsibility for a major cyberattack that halted package deliveries by France’s national postal service just days before Christmas, prosecutors said Wednesday.

    After the claim by the cybercrime group known as Noname057, French intelligence agency DGSI took over the investigation into the hacking attack, the Paris prosecutor’s office said in a statement to The Associated Press.

    The group has been accused of other cyberattacks in Europe, including around a NATO summit in the Netherlands and French government sites. It was the target of a big European police operation earlier this year.

    Central computer systems at French national postal service La Poste were knocked offline Monday in a distributed denial of service, or DDoS, cyberattack that still wasn’t fully resolved by Wednesday morning, the company said.

    Postal workers couldn’t track package deliveries, and online payments at the company’s banking arm were also disrupted. It was a major blow to La Poste, which delivered 2.6 billion packages last year and employs more than 200,000 people, during the busiest season of the year.

    France and other European allies of Ukraine allege that Russia is waging a campaign of “hybrid warfare” to sow division in Western societies and undermine their support for Ukraine. The AP has tracked more than 145 incidents including sabotage, assassinations, cyberattacks, disinformation and other hostile acts that are increasingly draining police resources.

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  • EU set to lock up Russia’s frozen assets so Hungary and Slovakia can’t veto their use

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    BRUSSELS — The European Union is expected on Friday to lock up Russia’s assets held in Europe until it gives up its war in Ukraine and compensates its neighbor for the heavy damage that it has inflicted for almost four years.

    The move is an important step that would allow EU leaders to work out at a summit next week how to use the tens of billions of euros in Russian Central Bank assets to underwrite a huge loan to help Ukraine meet its financial and military needs over the next two years.

    Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán – Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest ally in Europe – accused the European Commission, which prepared the decision, “of systematically raping European law.”

    A total of 210 billion euros ($247 billion) in Russian assets are frozen in Europe. The vast majority of the funds — around 193 billion euros ($225 billion) at the end of September — are held in Euroclear, a Belgian financial clearing house.

    The money was frozen under sanctions that the EU imposed on Russia over the war it launched on Feb. 24, 2022, but these sanctions must be renewed every six months, and all 27 member countries must approve them for that to happen.

    Hungary and Slovakia oppose providing more support to Ukraine.

    Friday’s expected decision, which is based on EU treaty rules allowing the bloc to protect its economic interests in certain emergency situations, would prevent them from blocking the sanctions rollover and make it easier to use the assets.

    Orbán said on social media that it means that “the rule of law in the European Union comes to an end, and Europe’s leaders are placing themselves above the rules.”

    “The European Commission is systematically raping European law. It is doing this in order to continue the war in Ukraine, a war that clearly isn’t winnable,” he wrote. He said that Hungary “will do everything in its power to restore a lawful order.”

    In a letter to European Council President António Costa, who will chair the summit starting on Dec. 18, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said that he would refuse to back any move that “would include covering Ukraine’s military expenses for the coming years.”

    He warned “that the use of frozen Russian assets could directly jeopardize U.S. peace efforts, which directly count on the use of these resources for the reconstruction of Ukraine.”

    But the commission argues that the war has imposed heavy costs by hiking energy prices and stunting economic growth in the EU, which has already provided nearly 200 billion euros ($235 billion) in support to Ukraine.

    ___

    Karel Janicek contributed to this report from Prague.

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  • Zelensky announces major Ukraine defense plan update 

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    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday that Kyiv must update its defense plan following a meeting with his defense minister and spy chief amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.

    The Ukrainian president did not reveal much detail about an updated plan, although he did say there needed to be more investment for drones for Kyiv’s military brigades.  

    Newsweek has contacted the Ukrainian defense ministry for comment on Saturday. 

    Why It Matters 

    Even though he revealed little, Zelensky’s comments could show how he wants to emphasize that it is business as usual in fighting Russia, despite growing pressure due to a corruption scandal involving the country’s energy sector in which Andrii Yermak, the former Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, resigned from his post. 

    It also suggests that Zelensky might be looking at a new approach in the fight against Russian aggression both on the battlefield and in Moscow’s targeting of civilian and energy infrastructure. 

    What To Know 

    On Saturday, Zelensky posted on Facebook that he had met with his defense minister Denys Shmyhal and Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukrainian Defense Intelligence (DIU). 

    Next to an image of the meeting with Shmyhal, Zelensky wrote that the course of combat in the war meant that there needed to be a change to Ukraine’s defense plan. As such, Shmyhal would be tasked with updating it and proposing the changes to put before the government. No timeline was given. 

    “Minister of Defense of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal delivered a report. Several key points. It is time to update the fundamental defense documents of Ukraine, including the national defense plan,” Zelensky wrote on Saturday. “The course of hostilities has shown what must become the renewed priorities. We agreed that Denys will prepare detailed proposals for these changes and present them to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine for approval.”

    Shmyhal also told the Ukrainian president about his trips to the Mykolaiv and Kherson regions and on the protective measures being implemented.

    “Separately, we discussed the protection of critical infrastructure and the allocation of the relevant resources,” Zelensky wrote. “It is important that the Government and the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine are fully ensuring the necessary funding–in particular for the purchase of drones for combat brigades–and that yesterday another monthly subvention tranche for combat brigades was financed in the amount of 4.3 billion hryvnias. An additional 8 billion hryvnias was also allocated for the financing of the Drone Line.”

    The president also held a separate meeting with Budanov ahead of negotiations with the U.S. to secure a peace deal with Moscow where Zelensky said they discussed “the security situation, the political situation around Ukraine, and the current prospects.”

    “We identified several key points that are important in the negotiation process,” he added.

    What People Are Saying 

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on Facebook on Saturday: “Tonight– US time–the Ukrainian delegation should already be in the United States of America, and the dialogue will continue on the basis of points from Geneva. Diplomacy remains active. The American side is constructive, and it is quite possible to finalize the steps in the coming days to determine how to end the war with dignity. The Ukrainian delegation has the necessary directives, and I expect the guys to work according to clear Ukrainian priorities.

    What Happens Next? 

    Shmyhal will prepare proposals and submit them to Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers for approval although no timeframe has yet been given. 

    Meanwhile, Budanov will meet senior U.S. officials in the coming days as part of a delegation led by National Security and Defense Council Secretary Rustem Umerov. 

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  • Trump says he’s sending his envoys to see Putin and Ukrainians after fine-tuning plan to end war

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    President Donald Trump says his plan to end the war in Ukraine has been “fine-tuned.” He said Tuesday that he is sending envoy Steve Witkoff to meet with the Russian president and Army Secretary Dan Driscoll to meet with Ukrainian officials. (AP Production: Marissa Duhaney)

    President Donald Trump says his plan to end the war in Ukraine has been “fine-tuned.” He said Tuesday that he is sending envoy Steve Witkoff to meet with the Russian president and Army Secretary Dan Driscoll to meet with Ukrainian officials. (AP Production: Marissa Duhaney)



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  • How Russian drones targeting civilians are turning one Ukrainian city into a ‘human safari’

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    KHERSON, Ukraine — When Olena Horlova leaves home or drives through town outside the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, she fears that she’s a target. She believes that Russian drones could be waiting on a rooftop, along the road or aiming for her car.

    To protect herself and her two daughters, the girls stay indoors, and she stays alert — sometimes returning home at night along dark roads without headlights so as not to be seen.

    After living through the occupation, refusing to cooperate with Russian forces and hiding from them, Horlova, like so many other residents, found that even after her town was liberated in 2022, the ordeal didn’t end.

    Kherson was among the first places where Russian forces began using short-range, first-person view, or FPV, drones against civilians. The drones are equipped with livestreaming cameras that let operators see and select their targets in real time. The tactic later spread more than 300 kilometers (185 miles) along the right bank of the Dnipro River, across the Dnipropetrovsk, Kherson and Mykolaiv regions.

    The United Nations’ Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine says the attacks leave little doubt about their intent. In an October report, the commission said that the attacks have repeatedly killed and wounded civilians, destroyed homes and forced thousands to flee, concluding that they amount to the crimes against humanity of murder and forcible transfer.

    “We live with the hope that one day this will finally end,” Horlova said, her voice trembling. “What matters for us is a cease-fire, or for the front line to be pushed further away. Then it would be easier for us.”

    Horlova lives in Komyshany, a village just outside Kherson and only 4 kilometers (2½ miles) from the Dnipro River, where the level of intense attacks has remained the same, despite Ukrainian forces retaking the city from Russian occupation in November 2022 — about nine months after Russia launched its full-scale invasion on Feb. 24 of that year.

    But the war didn’t end there. Instead, it shifted into a phase in which the area has effectively become what locals and the military term a “human safari,” describing it as a testing ground where people are often the target of drone attacks.

    Horlova says that FPVs often land on rooftops when their batteries run low and then wait out.

    “When people, cars or even a cyclist appear, the drone suddenly lifts off and drops the explosive,” she said. “It’s gotten to the point where they even drop them on animals — cows, goats.”

    She believes that civilians are hunted as “revenge” for the celebrations that broke out when Kherson was liberated.

    The report from the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine says the attacks have spread terror among civilians and violated their right to life and other fundamental human rights. Investigators found that Russian units on the occupied left bank of the Dnipro carried out the strikes and identified specific drone units, operators and commanders involved. They also noted that Russian Telegram channels routinely share videos of the attacks, often with mocking captions and threats of more.

    The U.N. commission said that it examined Russian claims that Ukrainian forces had launched drone attacks on civilians in occupied areas, unable to conclude its investigation because it lacked access to the territory, couldn’t ensure witness safety and didn’t receive answers from Russian authorities.

    Interceptions obtained by The Associated Press from the 310th Separate Marine Electronic Warfare Battalion show Russian FPV drones that appear to be hunting for vehicles. The videos capture drones flying low over roads and locking onto moving or parked cars — often pickups, supply vehicles, sedans and even clearly marked ambulances — before diving for a strike.

    The commander of the 310th Battalion, which protects the skies over 470 kilometers (nearly 300 miles) of southern Ukraine, including Kherson, says at least 300 drones fly toward the city every day. In October alone, the number of drones that flew over Kherson was 9,000.

    “This area is like a training ground,” said the battalion’s commander, Dmytro Liashok, a 16-year military veteran and one of Ukraine’s early pioneers in electronic warfare. “They bring new Russian crews here to gain experience before sending them elsewhere.” The AP couldn’t independently verify the claim.

    Despite the sheer volume of drones — a figure that excludes other types of weapons like artillery and glide bombs — his forces manage to neutralize more than 90%, he said.

    According to the U.N. human rights office, short-range drone attacks have become the leading cause of civilian casualties near the front line. Local authorities say that since July 2024, more than 200 civilians have been killed and more than 2,000 wounded in three southern regions, with most victims being men. Nearly 3,000 homes have been damaged or destroyed.

    During a surprise visit to Kherson in November, Angelina Jolie described the constant overhead threat as “a heavy presence.”

    “There was a moment when we had to pause and wait while a drone flew overhead,” she wrote on Instagram. “I was in protective gear, and for me it was just a couple of days. The families here live with this every single day.”

    At one of Kherson’s main hospitals treating drone victims, 70-year-old Nataliia Naumova is recovering after a strike by a Shahed drone, which carries a heavier explosive than FPV drones, left her with a blast injury to her left leg on Oct. 20.

    She says the strike hit during the night as she waited at a school in the village of Inzhenerne, where she had been temporarily sheltered, for an evacuation bus that was due to arrive the next morning.

    “There were so many drones flying over us,” she said, adding that she rarely left home even after its windows were shattered and boarded up. “People there survive, not live. I never thought such a tragedy would happen to me.”

    Dr. Yevhen Haran, the hospital’s deputy medical chief, says the injuries from drone strikes range from amputations to fatal wounds.

    “It’s simply hunting for people. There’s no other name for it,” he said.

    He says patients wounded in Russian attacks, including drone strikes, arrive at the hospital every day. Last month alone, it treated 85 inpatients and 105 outpatients with blast injuries, all from shelling and drone strikes. It’s also the only hospital in the area equipped to handle the most serious cases.

    Haran himself came under FPV drone fire on Aug. 26 while driving from nearby Mykolaiv with his wife. Rescuers stopped their car on the highway, warning that a drone was overhead.

    “I pulled in behind them. The drone circled and, on the next pass, flew straight into their vehicle — the driver’s door,” he recalled. Shrapnel tore through the front car, while his, parked behind, shielded him.

    He reached the hospital with a hypertensive crisis and was later treated for a concussion. “Sometimes I still lose words and feel unsteady,” he said. “It all happened in less than 10 minutes.”

    For people in Kherson, the experience of occupation, and the moment the city was freed, still shapes how they endure the constant drone attacks.

    “We held out until liberation — we’ll hold out until peace as well,” he said.

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  • Trump’s Ukraine peace plan ignites diplomatic flurry but major hurdles lie ahead

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    By JILL LAWLESS and SAM McNEIL, Associated Press

    LONDON (AP) — The Russia-Ukraine war has seen almost four years of failed peace plans, blueprints and high-level summits. A new U.S. push to end the fighting has set off the latest flurry of diplomacy, with American, European, Russian and Ukrainian officials all trying to shape the outcome of Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II.

    Tilted heavily toward Russia’s aims, the U.S.-backed proposal presented to Ukraine last week set off alarm bells in Kyiv and other European capitals. Ukraine and its allies offered a set of counterproposals that revamped the plan’s points. Ukrainian and European leaders expressed optimism about the talks’ momentum, but awaited responses from Washington and Moscow that are crucial.

    “I think we’re getting very close to a deal,” U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday. He said the proposals had been “fine-tuned” and announced he was sending his envoy Steve Witkoff to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin next week.

    A contentious peace plan

    Based on talks between Washington and Moscow, the 28-point plan presented to Ukraine calls on it to cede its entire eastern region of the Donbas to Russia, which invaded its smaller neighbor in February 2022. The plan would put a 600,000-person limit on Ukraine’s military and bar Ukraine or any other new member from NATO. It also would rule out NATO troops in Ukraine and does not commit the U.S. or European nations to Ukraine’s defense if Russia attacks again.

    Russia would commit to no more attacks on Ukraine, facing sanctions if it violates that pledge.

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  • According to Trump, Biden and Zelenskyy are to blame for the war, and Ukraine owes him a thank-you note | The Mary Sue

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    President Donald Trump presented Ukraine with a “peace deal” on Nov. 21, 2025, which frankly reads more like a surrender plan. But when President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressed concerns about the terms, he decided to bully him online.

    Trump’s 28-point peace plan has put Ukraine in a sensitive position. Accepting the plan would mean ceding its eastern territories to Russia, capsizing its postwar troops, and abandoning its NATO dreams. On top of it, Trump has threatened that if they refuse the plan, they’re practically on their own. He also wants the Ukrainian leadership to accept the plan by Thanksgiving, i.e., Nov. 27. Failing to do so also invites threats from Russia to continue their offense.

    So, it’s Trump’s bullying on the one hand, and Russia’s threat to push on with its offensive on the other. In a speech on Friday, Nov. 21, Zelenskyy called it “one of the most difficult moments in our history.” He explained that the nation is being forced to choose between “loss of dignity” or “losing a key partner.” He also feared that if the war didn’t end now, Ukraine would have to face “an extremely difficult winter.” (via NY Times)

    Zelenskyy decided to “offer alternatives” to Trump’s peace plan

    For the sake of his country’s sovereignty, Zelenskyy announced that he would “offer alternatives” to Trump’s 28-point plan. But Trump isn’t having any of it. On Saturday, he asserted that Zelenskyy will “have to like” his proposed plan. If that doesn’t sound like a threat in itself, he continued, “If he doesn’t like it, then you know, they should just keep fighting.”

    The words don’t echo like something out of an empathetic leader’s mouth. Trump added that “at some point he’s going to have to accept something.” However, he offered some relief to Kyiv, saying it’s not his final offer, and there’s some room for negotiation. Trump keeps giving mixed signals to Ukraine, but the nation doesn’t have enough time to play around with it.

    Trump calls Ukraine ungrateful for his help

    Then, on Nov. 23, Trump took to his Truth Social to badmouth the Ukrainian leadership and the former U.S. government under Joe Biden. “The War between Russia and Ukraine is a violent and terrible one that, with strong and proper U.S. and Ukrainian LEADERSHIP, would have NEVER HAPPENED,” he wrote. He went on to claim that if he had won the 2020 elections, “there would be no Ukraine/Russia War.”

    Patting his own back, he said that “Putin would never have attacked” during his term. He substantiated this claim by asserting that there was “not even a mention” of the war during his first term. “It was only when he saw Sleepy Joe in action that he said, Now is my chance,”” the president wrote. He then diverted his attack to Ukraine, claiming that “UKRAINE ‘LEADERSHIP’ HAS EXPRESSED ZERO GRATITUDE FOR OUR EFFORTS.”

    Naturally, no part of Trump’s long rant is true. The conflict between Russia and Ukraine began way before even Trump’s first term. In Feb. 2014, Moscow first launched military operations leading to the annexation of Crimea, followed by a seizure of Donetsk and Luhansk. (via Britannica) So, Russia’s intent to attack Ukraine has been clear before Trump took office in 2017.

    Ukraine thanks Trump, presents a counter-plan to his proposal

    President Zelenskyy has time and again expressed his thanks to the U.S. for its military and intelligence aid. Yet, after the Sunday attack, the president again reiterated his gratitude. On X, he wrote:

    “Ukraine is grateful to the United States, to every American heart, and personally to President Trump for the assistance that – starting with the Javelins – has been saving Ukrainian lives. We thank everyone in Europe, in the G7, and in the G20, who is helping us defend life. It is important to preserve the support.”

    Then on Sunday, during talks in Geneva, the U.S. and Ukraine reportedly discussed a new version of the 28-point deal. In the counter-plan suggested by Ukrainian officials, they refused to cede the Donbas region to Russia. Instead, Ukraine insists that “negotiations on territorial swaps will start from the Line of Contact” after the war ends.

    For now, a joint statement from the U.S. and Ukraine claimed that the talks were “constructive, focused, and respectful.” But Russia is yet to respond to the counter-plan.

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    Kopal primarily covers politics for The Mary Sue. Off the clock, she switches to DND mode and escapes to the mountains.

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  • Trump officials express optimism after meeting with Ukraine to end Russia’s war

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    President Trump originally gave Ukraine until Thursday to accept their peace proposal, but overnight Rubio downplayed that deadline after meeting with Ukrainian officials over the weekend, noting he is optimistic with the progress made. It is probably the most productive day we have had on this issue. Maybe in the entirety of our engagement, but certainly in *** very long time. Rubio did not go into detail there. The peace proposal drafted by the US to end the Russia-Ukraine war has sparked concern for both Democrats and some Republicans and also for Kiev. The original plan gives in to many Russian demands that Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelinsky has rejected on multiple occasions, including giving up large pieces of territory. On Sunday night, the White House. Put out *** statement noting the Ukrainian delegation affirmed that all of their principal concerns like security guarantees, long-term economic development, political sovereignty were addressed during the meeting. In *** video statement, Zelinsky said diplomacy has been activated. Rubio called this peace proposal *** living breathing document that could change and made it clear that any final product will have to be presented to Moscow. In Washington, I’m Rachel Herzheimer.

    Trump officials express optimism after meeting with Ukraine to end Russia’s war

    Secretary of State Marco Rubio expressed optimism after meeting with Ukrainian leaders to discuss the Trump administration’s peace plan, despite concerns over the proposal’s concessions to Russia.

    Updated: 4:08 AM PST Nov 24, 2025

    Editorial Standards ⓘ

    Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Ukrainian leaders in Europe to address concerns in the Trump administration’s peace plan to end the nearly four-year war between Russia and Ukraine, which has drawn criticism from both Democrats and some Republicans, as well as Kyiv.President Donald Trump initially set a deadline for Ukraine to accept his peace proposal by Thursday, but Rubio downplayed this deadline after meeting with Ukrainian officials over the weekend.”It is probably the most productive day we have had on this issue, maybe in the entirety of our engagement, but certainly in a very long time,” Rubio said.The peace proposal drafted by the U.S. has sparked concern due to its concessions to Russian demands, which Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has rejected multiple times, including the surrender of large pieces of territory. On Sunday night, the White House released a statement that says in part, “The Ukrainian delegation affirmed that all of their principal concerns—security guarantees, long-term economic development, infrastructure protection, freedom of navigation, and political sovereignty—were thoroughly addressed during the meeting.”In a video statement, Zelenskyy said, “Diplomacy has been reinvigorated.”Over the weekend, a group of bipartisan U.S. Senators said Rubio told them on Saturday that the plan had originated with Russia and that it was actually a “wish list” for Moscow rather than a serious push for peace.A State Department spokesperson said that was “blatantly false.” Rubio suggested online that the senators were mistaken, even though they said he was their source of information.”It rewards aggression. This is pure and simple. There’s no ethical, legal, moral, political justification for Russia claiming eastern Ukraine,” Independent Maine Sen. Angus King said of Trump’s proposal.”We should not do anything that makes (Putin) feel like he has a win here,” said Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina. Rubio described the peace proposal as a “living, breathing document” that would continue to evolve and emphasized that any final agreement would need to be presented to Moscow.Keep watching for the latest from the Washington News Bureau:

    WASHINGTON —

    Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Ukrainian leaders in Europe to address concerns in the Trump administration’s peace plan to end the nearly four-year war between Russia and Ukraine, which has drawn criticism from both Democrats and some Republicans, as well as Kyiv.

    President Donald Trump initially set a deadline for Ukraine to accept his peace proposal by Thursday, but Rubio downplayed this deadline after meeting with Ukrainian officials over the weekend.

    “It is probably the most productive day we have had on this issue, maybe in the entirety of our engagement, but certainly in a very long time,” Rubio said.

    U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio holds a press conference following closed-door talks on a U.S. plan to end the war in Ukraine at the US Mission in Geneva, on Nov. 23, 2025.

    Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP via Getty Images

    U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio holds a press conference following closed-door talks on a U.S. plan to end the war in Ukraine at the US Mission in Geneva, on Nov. 23, 2025.

    The peace proposal drafted by the U.S. has sparked concern due to its concessions to Russian demands, which Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has rejected multiple times, including the surrender of large pieces of territory.

    On Sunday night, the White House released a statement that says in part, “The Ukrainian delegation affirmed that all of their principal concerns—security guarantees, long-term economic development, infrastructure protection, freedom of navigation, and political sovereignty—were thoroughly addressed during the meeting.”

    In a video statement, Zelenskyy said, “Diplomacy has been reinvigorated.”

    Over the weekend, a group of bipartisan U.S. Senators said Rubio told them on Saturday that the plan had originated with Russia and that it was actually a “wish list” for Moscow rather than a serious push for peace.

    A State Department spokesperson said that was “blatantly false.”

    Rubio suggested online that the senators were mistaken, even though they said he was their source of information.

    “It rewards aggression. This is pure and simple. There’s no ethical, legal, moral, political justification for Russia claiming eastern Ukraine,” Independent Maine Sen. Angus King said of Trump’s proposal.

    “We should not do anything that makes (Putin) feel like he has a win here,” said Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina.

    Rubio described the peace proposal as a “living, breathing document” that would continue to evolve and emphasized that any final agreement would need to be presented to Moscow.

    Keep watching for the latest from the Washington News Bureau:


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  • Trump paints Zelenskyy into a corner with his new plan to end Russia’s war on Ukraine

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    WASHINGTON — With his new 28-point plan to end Russia’s war in Ukraine, President Donald Trump is resurfacing his argument that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy doesn’t “have the cards” to continue on the battlefield and must come to a settlement that heavily tilts in Moscow’s favor.

    Trump, who has demonstrated low regard for Zelenskyy dating back to his first term, said Friday he expects the Ukrainian leader to respond to his administration’s new plan to end the war by next Thursday.

    “We think we have a way of getting peace,” Trump told reporters in an Oval Office appearance. “He’s going to have to approve it.”

    Buffeted by a corruption scandal in his government, battlefield setbacks and another difficult winter looming as Russia continues to bombard Ukraine’s energy grid, Zelenskyy says Ukraine is now facing perhaps the most difficult choice in its history.

    Zelenskyy has not spoken with Trump since the plan became public this week, but has said he expects to talk to the Republican president in coming days. It’s likely to be another in a series of tough conversations the two leaders have had over the years.

    The first time they spoke, in 2019, Trump tried to pressure the then newly minted Ukrainian leader to dig up dirt on Joe Biden ahead of the 2020 election. That phone call sparked Trump’s first impeachment.

    Trump made Biden’s support for Ukraine a central issue in his successful 2024 campaign, saying the conflict had cost U.S. taxpayers too much money and vowing he would quickly bring the war to an end.

    Then early this year in a disastrous Oval Office meeting, Trump and Vice President JD Vance tore into Zelenskyy for what they said was insufficient gratitude for the more than $180 billion the U.S. had appropriated for military aid and other assistance to Kyiv since the start of the war. That episode led to a temporary suspension of U.S. assistance to Ukraine.

    And now with the new proposal, Trump is pressing Zelenskyy to agree to concessions of land to Moscow, a massive reduction in the size of Ukraine’s army, and agreement from Europe to assert that Ukraine will never be admitted into the NATO military alliance.

    “Now Ukraine may find itself facing a very difficult choice: either loss of dignity, or the risk of losing a key partner,” Zelenskyy said in a video address Friday.

    At the center of Trump’s plan is the call on Ukraine to concede the entirety of its eastern Donbas region, even though a vast swath of that land remains in Ukrainian control. Analysts at the independent Institute for the Study of War have estimated it would take several years for the Russian military to completely seize the territory, based on its current rate of advances.

    Trump, nevertheless, insists that the loss of the region — which includes cities that are vital defense, industrial and logistics hubs for Ukrainian forces — is a fait accompli.

    “They will lose in a short period of time. You know so,” Trump said Friday when asked during a Fox News Radio interview about his push on Ukraine to give up the territory. “They’re losing land. They’re losing land.”

    The Trump proposal was formally presented to Zelenskyy in Kyiv on Thursday by Dan Driscoll, the U.S. Army secretary. The plan itself was a surprise to Driscoll’s staffers, who were not aware as late as Wednesday that their boss would be going to Ukraine as part of a team to present the plan to the Ukrainians.

    Army officials walked away from that meeting with the impression that the Ukrainians were viewing the proposal as a starting point that would evolve as negotiations progressed, according to a U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive talks.

    It’s unclear how much patience Trump has for further negotiation. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday that Trump’s new plan reflects “the realities of the situation” and offers the “best win-win scenario, where both parties gain more than they must give.”

    Asked about Zelenskyy’s initial hesitant response to the proposal, Trump recalled the February Oval Office blow-up with Zelenskyy: “You remember, right in the Oval Office, not so long ago, I said, ‘You don’t have the cards.’”

    The mounting pressure from Trump comes as Zelenskyy is dealing with fallout over $100 million in kickbacks for contracts with the state-owned nuclear energy company. The scandal led to resignations of top Cabinet ministers and implicated other Zelenskyy associates.

    Konstantin Sonin, a political economist and Russia expert at the University of Chicago, said “what Donald Trump is certainly extremely good at is spotting weak spots of people.”

    One of the 28 elements of Trump’s proposal calls for elections to be held within 100 days of enactment of the agreement.

    “I think it’s a rationalistic assessment that there is more leverage over Zelenskyy than over Putin,” Sonin said. He added, “Zelenskyy’s back is against the wall” and “his government could collapse if he agrees” to the U.S. proposal.

    All the while, Ukraine is increasingly showing signs of strain on the battlefield after years of war against a vastly larger and better equipped Russian military. Ukraine is desperately trying to fend off relentless Russian aerial attacks that have brought rolling blackouts across the country on the brink of winter.

    Kyiv is also grappling with doubts about the way ahead. A European plan to finance next year’s budget for Ukraine through loans linked to frozen Russian funds is now in question.

    The Trump proposal in its current form also includes several elements that would cut deeply into Ukrainian pride, said David Silbey, a military historian at Cornell University.

    One provision calls on Russia and Ukraine to abolish “all discriminatory measures and guarantee the rights of Ukrainian and Russian media and education,” and “all Nazi ideology and activities must be rejected and prohibited.” That element could be seen by the Ukrainian side as giving credence to Putin’s airing of distorted historical narratives to legitimize the 2022 invasion.

    Putin has said the war is in part an effort to “denazify” Ukraine and complained of the country’s “neo-Nazi regime” as a justification for Russia’s invasion. In fact, in Ukraine’s last parliamentary election in 2019, support for far-right candidates was 2%, significantly lower than in many other European countries.

    The plan’s provision is “very clearly an attempt to build up Putin’s claim to Russian cultural identity within Ukraine,” Silbey said. He added, “From territory loss to the substantial reduction of the Ukrainian military to cultural concessions that have been demanded, I just don’t think Zelenskyy could do this deal and look his public in the eye again.”

    ————

    AP writers Michelle L. Price and Konstantin Toropin contributed reporting.

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  • Melania Trump and Usha Vance are making an early holiday visit with North Carolina military families

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    WASHINGTON — WASHINGTON (AP) — Melania Trump and Usha Vance were headed out on their first trip together Wednesday to spend time with North Carolina service members and their families in a show of appreciation for their service and sacrifice as the holidays approach.

    The wives of President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance, a former Marine, were scheduled to visit with military personnel at Camp Lejeune, the largest Marine Corps base on the East Coast, and Marine Corps Air Station New River.

    The day includes joint appearances with military-connected students and remarks from both women to a gathering of service members and their families, according to Trump’s office.

    The first lady was expected in her remarks to recognize the Marine Corps’ 250 years of service, express gratitude to Marines and military families, especially during the holiday season, and highlight the importance of families in supporting the U.S. military.

    She also was expected to highlight another issue she has been focusing on lately: the rapid evolution of technology, including artificial intelligence.

    Both women were hitting the road the morning after they attended the first formal White House dinner of Trump’s second administration, a black-tie affair planned by the first lady to honor Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia.

    They have appeared together at other public events, most notably at the inauguration of their husbands at the Capitol in January. Other joint appearances came at a White House event celebrating military mothers and a luncheon for Senate spouses, both in May; opening night of “Les Misérables” at the Kennedy Center in June; and the president’s signing last week of an executive order to help foster children. The order was in support of the first lady’s Fostering the Future program, which is part of her child-focused Be Best initiative.

    Melania Trump has centered her work around children, starting with the launch of Be Best during her husband’s first term to focus on their welfare, online safety and opioid abuse.

    Last month, she announced that eight children displaced by the Russia-Ukraine war had been reunited with their families following talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

    Earlier this year, the first lady helped lobby Congress to pass legislation imposing federal penalties for online sexual exploitation, often targeting young girls. Her husband signed the bill into law in May.

    Usha Vance, a former lawyer, launched a “Summer Reading Challenge” to encourage students in kindergarten through eighth grade to read 12 books during the school break. Certificates and prizes were promised to those who completed the challenge.

    The second lady often accompanies the vice president on his trips and sometimes brings along their three young children.

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