Shorouk Express
The British government said the European leaders plan to meet in Berlin on Monday, not over the weekend. POLITICO reported earlier that the U.K.’s national security adviser, Jonathan Powell, was expected to hold talks this weekend with German and French counterparts, the U.S.’s Witkoff and Ukrainian representatives.
Merz on Thursday said Germany is inviting Washington to join a meeting in Berlin early next week to discuss Ukraine. Merz said the U.S. had been asked to participate, but whether it joins will “very much depend” on progress in negotiations “over the weekend” on the underlying documents.
The talks in Berlin are to discuss the latest version of a 20-point peace plan brokered by the U.S. just days after Ukraine handed over its revised version to Washington, according to the reports. The plan proposes a demilitarized “free economic zone” in the Donbas region where American business interests could operate.
A major sticking point in the negotiations is the fate of territory in eastern Ukraine, which Kyiv refuses to cede after Moscow’s occupation. European leaders are racing to assert their relevance in the process amid concerns that Washington’s proposals lean toward Russia and put demands on Ukraine that Zelenskyy will not be able to accept.
“For all our diplomatic efforts to yield results, pressure must be applied to the aggressor so that they end the war they started,” the Ukrainian leader said in a statement Saturday.
Russia, meanwhile, launched drone and missile strikes on five Ukrainian regions, targeting energy and port infrastructure. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia had sent more than 450 drones and 30 missiles into Ukraine overnight.
“Thousands of families are now left without electricity after strikes last night in Kirovohrad, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Sumy, Kharkiv, Kherson and Chernihiv regions,” he wrote in a post on X. “The main strike targeted our energy sector, the south of the country, and the Odesa region,” he said.
Also overnight, a drone attack in Russia’s southwestern Saratov region killed two people, damaging a residential building and blowing out several windows at a kindergarten and clinic, according to Saratov regional Gov. Roman Busargin.
