Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday that the current state of play on the battlefield had created an opportunity for steps to end Russia’s more than 2½-year-old invasion no later than next year.
EU envoys agreed on Wednesday to give Ukraine up to €35-billion as part of the bloc’s share in a larger planned loan from the Group of Seven nations (G7) backed by frozen Russian central bank assets, said a statement from the council of the EU.
President Volodymyr Zelensky will meet Nato General Secretary Mark Rutte and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in London on Thursday, a boost for Ukraine after a summit of its main backers was cancelled at a difficult moment in its fight against Russia.
Zelensky sees ‘opportunity’ to end war in Ukraine by 2025
President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday that the current state of play on the battlefield had created an opportunity for steps to end Russia’s more than 2½-year-old invasion no later than next year.
Addressing the third Ukraine-South East Europe summit in the Croatian city of Dubrovnik, the Ukrainian leader said Kyiv was counting on the support of its important allies including the US.
“In October, November and December, we have a real chance to move the situation towards peace and long-term stability,” he said. “The situation on the battlefield creates an opportunity to make this choice — a choice in favour of decisive action to end the war no later than 2025.”
Zelensky did not spell out how and why he perceived such an opportunity. Russian forces now hold just under 20% of Ukraine, in its east and south.
Moscow’s troops continue to steadily gain ground in Ukraine’s east while Kyiv’s troops control a small chunk of Russian territory across the border, two months after launching an incursion into the Kursk region.
Kyiv has been intensively lobbying allies to allow strikes with Western weapons on military targets deeper inside Russia.
Zelensky’s comments come amid great uncertainty for Kyiv ahead of the 5 November US election that could return Donald Trump to the White House. Trump has said he would seek a quick end to the war, which Kyiv’s supporters fear could entail crushing concessions being foisted on Ukraine.
Zelensky appealed to the political will of Kyiv’s allies to approve his “victory plan”, which he said envisaged Ukraine’s invitation to Nato.
He has pitched the plan as a way to put Ukraine on a strong footing for potential negotiations with Russia, though none are known to be currently planned.
“As I said, the plan is designed to strengthen Ukraine. There can be no scepticism from partners, in my opinion, if they are just not afraid of the Russian Federation. Because we want to get the first step — an invitation” to join Nato, he told reporters after the summit.
Zelensky also called on senior politicians from 12 southeast European nations at the summit to invest in Ukrainian weapons production, which Kyiv has ramped up while at war.
“This will help us now, but after this war it will guarantee the strength of your own arsenals,” he said.
Zelensky met Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic to sign a 10-year bilateral agreement on cooperation and Croatian support for Ukraine.
EU envoys approve up to €35bn contribution to G7 loan for Kyiv
EU envoys agreed on Wednesday to give Ukraine up to €35-billion as part of the bloc’s share in a larger planned loan from the Group of Seven nations (G7) backed by frozen Russian central bank assets, said a statement from the council of the EU.
The G7 and European Union announced in June they would provide a $50-billion loan to help Ukraine, serviced by profits generated by Russian assets immobilised in the West. These assets were frozen shortly after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
More than two-thirds of the assets, some €210-billion, are stuck in the 27-nation EU and of those, most are held by Belgium’s depository Euroclear.
With Wednesday’s accord, the EU can rely on headroom in its budget as a guarantee in case the restrictions on the assets are lifted. All of the EU’s sanctions on Moscow must be renewed every six months via a unanimous EU vote. But Hungary, with its Russia-friendly stance, has repeatedly tried to block sanctions and measures to help Ukraine and could halt a renewal.
Hungary — which holds the six-month rotating EU presidency — does not want to discuss any possible extension for the regime holding the assets until after the US election.
The European Commission proposed extending the renewal period from six to 36 months but Hungary did not table the proposal during envoy discussions, said EU diplomats.
The commission’s loan proposal also needs to be approved by the European Parliament as it involves the bloc’s budget. EU legislators were expected to vote on the package on 22 October, diplomats said.
Zelensky to meet Nato’s Rutte, UK’s Starmer on Thursday
Zelensky will meet Nato General Secretary Mark Rutte and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in London on Thursday, a boost for Ukraine after a summit of its main backers was cancelled at a difficult moment in its fight against Russia.
Zelensky and Starmer have both described the war with Russia as being at a critical point.
Starmer’s spokesperson said Zelensky’s arrival in London would coincide with a visit by Rutte. Zelensky was in Croatia on Wednesday and will meet Pope Francis on Friday.
“He [Starmer] will reiterate the UK’s iron-clad support for Ukraine in the face of ongoing Russian aggression,” the spokesperson told reporters, adding the British leader had described the war with Russia as being at “a critical point”.
Russian missile attack on Ukraine’s Odesa port region kills six
A Russian ballistic missile attack on Wednesday on the port infrastructure of Ukraine’s southern Odesa region killed six people and injured eight, said Odesa Regional Governor Oleh Kiper.
The injured were all Ukrainian nationals, Kiper wrote on the Telegram messaging app. Four were in serious condition.
Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba said a Panamanian-flagged container ship, the Shui Spirit, sustained damage in the attack.
“An insidious enemy is trying to disrupt the work of the Ukrainian grain corridor, killing civilians and destroying infrastructure,” wrote Kiper in his post.
The attack on the port of Chornomorsk was the third in the region in the past four days.
Ukrainian officials said a Russian missile hit a Palau-flagged vessel in Odesa port on Monday, killing one Ukrainian national and injuring five foreign nationals.
And on Sunday, a Russian missile damaged a civilian Saint Kitts and Nevis-flagged vessel loaded with corn in the port of Pivdennyi.
Ukraine hits base storing drones in southern Russia
Ukraine’s military said on Wednesday its forces had struck a base in southern Russia’s Krasnodar region storing Shahed drones, scoring several hits.
A statement by the General Staff said the attack was carried out jointly by naval forces and the SBU intelligence service near the settlement of Oktyabrsky, north of the city of Krasnodar.
“According to available information, nearly 400 strike drones were stored there,” said the statement. “Based on objective control results, a direct hit was made on the target. Secondary explosions were observed at the site.”
Zelensky awaits new summit date after Biden postpones Germany trip
Zelensky said on Wednesday he expected a new date for a summit of key allies to be agreed upon soon following the postponement of a planned gathering in Ramstein, Germany, because US President Joe Biden was unable to join.
The White House said Biden needed to oversee preparations for Hurricane Milton and relief efforts after another hurricane last month killed more than 200 people.
“We understand that a new schedule may be prepared in the near future,” Zelensky told a briefing in the Croatian city of Dubrovnik.
The Ramstein group of Ukraine’s arms donors had been set to convene for its highest-level meeting ever on the sidelines of Biden’s 10-13 October state visit to Germany, which would have been the first US state visit in nearly 40 years.
The meeting aimed to underscore unwavering support for Kyiv against Russia’s invasion at a time when Ukrainian armed forces are under huge pressure.
Zelensky said on Saturday that Kyiv would present its “victory plan” to its allies in what would have been a test of Kyiv’s vision of ending the war with Russia.
“At Ramstein, the victory plan will be presented to both leaders and defence ministers. Many things depend on the defence ministers, on this infrastructure,” said Zelensky on Wednesday.
A German defence ministry spokesperson said defence ministers aimed to meet within the Ramstein format this month but no decision had been made yet on when.
After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Washington gathered like-minded nations at the US air base in Ramstein, southwestern Germany, establishing a group of some 50 countries whose defence ministers meet regularly to match Kyiv’s arms requests with pledges of donors.
Zelensky to meet Scholz in Berlin on Friday
Zelensky will travel to Berlin to meet German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Friday, two sources told Reuters on Wednesday.
“Zelensky will visit Berlin on Friday, He is meeting Scholz first and then President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. This is part of his European tour,” said one of the sources.
Kremlin says Trump sent Covid tests to Russia, denies report of Putin calls
The Kremlin said on Wednesday that the administration of former US president Donald Trump had sent Covid tests to Russia but it denied reports that Trump had spoken at all to President Vladimir Putin since leaving office.
In his book War, US journalist Bob Woodward quoted an unnamed Trump aide as saying that Trump and Putin may have spoken as many as seven times since Trump left the White House in 2021, according to The Washington Post’s summary of the book.
It details one incident when Trump ordered the aide away from his office at his Florida residence at Mar-a-Lago in early 2024 so he could conduct a private phone call with Putin.
“As for the calls, that’s a lie,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Reuters. “There were no calls, and they did not hold phone calls after Trump ceased to be president.”
Also according to the Woodward book, Trump while still president in 2020 had sent coveted Covid tests to Putin during a crippling shortage in the US and around the world.
“As for the tests, when the pandemic began, countries did not have enough equipment. And many countries then exchanged such gestures of support and sent each other shipments of various equipment they had,” said Peskov.
In April 2020, Trump’s administration accepted 60 tonnes of medical equipment from Russia.
“We sent a batch of artificial respiration devices, and several test devices came from America,” said Peskov. “The first testers worked very poorly. It was a common practice at that time to exchange such support.”
Trump’s campaign dismissed the reports in Woodward’s book saying, “None of these made-up stories by Bob Woodward are true.”
The New York Times reported on Wednesday that 20 current and former Trump and Biden administration officials and career intelligence officials said they did not know about any Trump-Putin talks since the Republican left the White House in January 2021 but that “it was not inconceivable”.
According to summaries of the book by the Post and The New York Times,
Biden was privately scathing about several foreign leaders including Putin.
Biden called Putin the “epitome of evil” and used crude language about him, according to the Post summary.
Russia’ says gas transit deal is up to Ukraine and EU
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Wednesday that there were proposals from European Union partners to continue Russian gas purchases after the end of this year, but that the ball was in the court of Ukraine and the EU.
Despite the war, Russia continues to ship gas by pipeline across Ukraine to other European countries. But Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said this week that Kyiv would not extend the gas transit agreement with Russia after it expires at the end of 2024.
Novak, Russia’s point man for energy, said Russia was willing to continue supplying gas after the contract expires.
“We have repeatedly expressed our position that the ball is on the side of, let’s say, our buying partners and, accordingly, our colleagues from Ukraine, through which transit is carried out,” Novak told reporters.
“We have gas, we will supply it,” he added.
Russian gas shipments to Europe via Ukraine have slowed dramatically since the start of the war, which prompted the EU to cut its dependence on Russian energy. But countries like Slovakia, Austria and the Czech Republic continue to receive Russian gas.
Ukraine eyes peace summit by year-end that includes Russia
Ukraine aimed to organise a new peace summit by the end of this year and wanted Russia to attend this time, its ambassador to Turkey said on Wednesday, but ruled out any direct bilateral talks with Moscow at the meeting.
With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in its third year, the two countries remain far apart on how to end the war. Turkey, China, Brazil and others have offered to mediate in the conflict or discuss peace proposals, but no progress has been made.
Ukraine is pursuing Zelensky’s “victory plan”, while Putin has said peace talks can only begin if Kyiv agrees to abandon large swaths of territory claimed by Moscow and drops its bid to join Nato.
“One of the most important goals of this summit is to reach a fair peace in Ukraine. We are not talking about a format here in which Ukraine and Russia sit across [from] each other and Ukraine listens to Russia’s demands,” Ambassador Vasyl Bodnar told a briefing in Ankara.
“What we see now is this: the international community, along with Ukraine, will sit and create a list of what steps could be taken for a fair peace in Ukraine, and they will discuss what sort of demands to ask Russia based on that list,” he said.
“This will not be a direct bilateral meeting, it will most likely be in a format where third parties are also involved and [talks] are done via third parties. We hope to hold this summit by the end of the year.” DM