Ukraine war latest: Trump envoy set for crunch talks with Zelensky over peace deal

Kremlin adviser Yuri Ushakov said on Friday that Russian police and National Guard will stay on in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas and oversee the industry-rich region, even if a peace settlement ends Russia’s nearly four-year war in Ukraine.

This underscores Moscow’s ambition to maintain its presence in Donbas post-war.

Ukraine is likely to reject such a stance as US-led negotiations drag on.

Moscow will give its blessing to a ceasefire only after Ukraine’s forces have withdrawn from the front line, Ushakov said in comments published in Russian business daily Kommersant.

US envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner will meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders in Berlin this weekend, a US official briefed on the matter said.

Witkoff will also meet with his counterparts from France, Britain and Germany on Sunday and Monday, the official added.

The Wall Street Journal was first to report the meeting.

The choice to send Witkoff, who has led negotiations with Ukraine and Russia regarding a US peace proposal, highlights Washington’s growing urgency to bridge remaining gaps with Kyiv over the plan’s terms.

French President Emmanuel Macron, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz were also expected to attend, the Journal said.

On Thursday, the White House said Trump would only send an official to the meeting if he felt there was enough progress to be made in peace talks.

Parts of the Kherson region in Ukraine, including the regional capital, also called Kherson, were without power on Saturday following Russian strikes on energy infrastructure, regional head Oleksandr Prokudin said.

Kyiv and its Western allies say Russia is trying to cripple the Ukrainian power grid and deny civilians access to heat, light and running water for a fourth consecutive winter, in what Ukrainian officials call “weaponizing” the cold.

More than 40 drones have been downed over Russia, according to officials there.

Russia’s Defence Ministry said it downed 41 drones overnight, 28 of which were over the Saratov region.

Two people were killed overnight in a Ukrainian drone strike on the Russian city of Saratov, regional governor Roman Busargin said on Saturday.

In a statement on Telegram, Busargin said that the two people had been killed, along with an unspecified number of injured, in an attack on a residential building in the city.

Saratov, which is located on the Volga river around 625 km (388 miles) from the Ukrainian border, has come under repeated attack in recent years by drones targeting its local oil refinery and a major nearby airbase.

Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Svyrydenko has praised the decision of European Union’s indefinite freeze on Russian central bank assets held in Europe as a “landmark step toward justice and accountability”.

“This decision strengthens the foundation for the reparations loan mechanism and brings us closer to a future in which Russia pays for its crimes and destruction caused,” she wrote.

EU leaders – the European Council – are to meet on 18 December to finalise details of the reparations loan and resolve remaining problems, which include guarantees from all EU governments for Belgium that it would not be left alone to foot the bill should a potential Moscow lawsuit prove successful.

The European Union has agreed to indefinitely freeze Russian central bank assets held in Europe, removing a big obstacle to using the cash to help Ukraine defend itself against Russia.

A first big step, which EU governments agreed yesterday, is to immobilise €210bn ($246bn) worth of Russian sovereign assets for as long as needed instead of voting every six months on extending the asset freeze.

This removes the risk that Hungary and Slovakia, which have better relations with Moscow than other EU states, could refuse to roll over the freeze at some point, forcing the EU to return the money to Russia.

The EU wants to keep Ukraine financed and fighting as it sees Russia’s invasion as a threat to its own security. To do so, EU states aim to put to work some of the Russian sovereign assets they immobilised after Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Ukrainian drones have struck two Russian oil rigs in the Caspian Sea, according to a Ukrainian Security Service official.

The SBU drones reportedly hit the Filanovsky and Korchagin oil rigs, which both belong to Russia’s Lukoil.

Earlier this week, part of Russia’s largest Caspian oil field, the Filanovsky rig came under attack. This was the first attack during the war as Ukraine escalates its efforts to disrupt Russian oil and gas output.

The drones damaged critical equipment and suspended production, according to preliminary information from the source.