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Ukrainian \u200dPresident \u200dVolodymyr Zelenskyy\u2019s new chief of staff has reported \u201cconcrete \u200bresults\u201d have already been reached in ongoing talks over an end to the war and post-conflict security guarantees with Western allies.<\/p>\n
Kyrylo Budanov offered the update on Telegram on Wednesday, as talks continued in Paris at the largest-ever summit of the \u201ccoalition of the willing\u201d \u2013 a group of 35 countries that have pledged to support Kyiv against Russian aggression.<\/p>\n list of 4 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n \u201cUkrainian \u200bnational \u200cinterests will be defended,\u201d Budanov insisted, although he gave no details about the progress made.<\/p>\n In a subsequent social media post, Zelenskyy said that the talks on Wednesday, which will again include United States envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared \u2060Kushner, would address \u201cthe most difficult issues\u201d in the discussions to end the nearly four-year war.<\/p>\n In light of Russia\u2019s demands that Ukraine cede four of its eastern regions, territorial questions are the toughest for Kyiv. Within that topic is the status of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.<\/p>\n \u201cUkraine does not shy away from the most difficult issues and will never be an obstacle to peace,\u201d Zelenskyy insisted, repeating a mantra designed to ward off accusations from Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump that Ukraine is not serious about ending the conflict.<\/p>\n \u201cPeace must be dignified,\u201d he added. \u201cAnd this depends on the partners \u2013 on whether they ensure Russia\u2019s real readiness to end the war.\u201d<\/p>\n The updates come a day after the United States pledged to back security guarantees for Ukraine, including leading a truce monitoring mechanism, while France and the United Kingdom said they would deploy forces to Ukrainian territory if a ceasefire was agreed.<\/p>\n The progress, hailed by both European leaders and US envoys, came amid days of high tension due to Trump\u2019s aggressive foreign policy lunge in Venezuela and subsequent threats regarding his desire to take Greenland from NATO ally Denmark.<\/p>\n Russia, which occupies about a fifth of Ukrainian territory and has not signalled any willingness to compromise on its fundamentalist demands, has given no indication that it would accept a settlement backed by foreign troops inside Ukraine.<\/p>\n As talks continued in Paris, Ukraine and Russia continued to trade attacks on the ground.<\/p>\n \u200dUkrainian drones \u2060hit \u200ban \u200doil depot in \u200dRussia\u2019s Belgorod \u2060region overnight, the \u200bcommander \u200cof the drone \u200cforces \u200csaid.<\/p>\n The strike ignited a fire at the depot that was eventually extinguished,\u00a0 the Vesti state television \u200bchannel \u200creported, citing the regional Russian governor.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, \u200dRussia\u2019s Defence Ministry said \u2060it had launched \u200bair, drone, \u200dartillery and missile \u200dstrikes on \u2060Ukrainian long-range drone launch sites, ammunition depots, \u200bmilitary equipment \u200cand troops.<\/p>\n Amid the ongoing fighting, President Vladimir Putin attended a Russian Orthodox Christmas service where he hailed his \u200dtroops\u2019 \u201choly mission\u201d to \u200ddefend the country.<\/p>\n He has increasingly leaned on \u200dpatriotic and religious symbolism as the conflict grinds on.<\/p>\n \u201cRussia\u2019s warriors have always, as if at the Lord\u2019s behest, carried out this mission of defending the fatherland and its people, saving the motherland and its people,\u201d \u200bPutin said at the St George Victory Bearer church, near Moscow, after the service.<\/p>\n \u201cAt \u200call times in Russia, this is how people have regarded their warriors, as those who, as if at the Lord\u2019s behest, carry out this holy mission.\u201d<\/p>\n Video footage \u200dshowed Putin \u2060in a dark suit without a tie among uniformed servicemen, alongside wives and children, as clerics conducted the service.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Ukrainian \u200dPresident \u200dVolodymyr Zelenskyy\u2019s new chief of staff has reported \u201cconcrete \u200bresults\u201d have already been reached in ongoing talks over an end to the war and post-conflict security guarantees with Western allies. Kyrylo Budanov offered the update on Telegram on Wednesday, as talks continued in Paris at the largest-ever summit of the \u201ccoalition of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7827,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7826\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n
High tension<\/h2>\n
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Putin\u2019s \u2018holy mission\u2019<\/h2>\n
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