Real estate developer Steve Witkoff (C) and Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner (R) with a translator in their Kremlin meeting with Vladimir Putin, Moscow, Russia, December 2, 2025

EA VideoCasts with Times Radio and War and Politics 24: Why The Defense of Ukraine Matters

Saturday’s Coverage: Kyiv-Europe — US Security Guarantees Before Any Negotiations Over Territory

UPDATE 1602 GMT:

An image from the Ukraine-Europe-US meeting in Berlin:

UPDATE 1336 GMT:

President Volodymyr Zelensky says Ukraine will suspend its ambition of joining NATO in return for Western security guarantees to end Russia’s invasion.

Zelensky replied to reporters in a WhatsApp chat:

From the very beginning, Ukraine’s desire was to join NATO, these are real security guarantees. Some partners from the US and Europe did not support this direction.

Thus today, bilateral security guarantees between Ukraine and the US, Article 5-like guarantees for us from the US, and security guarantees from European colleagues, as well as other countries — Canada, Japan — are an opportunity to prevent another Russian invasion.

And it is already a compromise on our part.

The President noted hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians are still without power after Russian strikes on energy, heating and water supplies.

“Russia is dragging out the war and seeks to inflict as much harm as possible on our people,” he said.

UPDATE 1247 GMT:

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky is in Berlin for the meeting with European partners and Donald Trump’s envoy, real estate developer Steve Witkoff.

UPDATE 1230 GMT:

Two civilians have been murdered and at least 11 injured by Russian attacks across Ukraine over the past day.

Air defenses downed 110 of 138 drones. Ten drones and an Iskander-M ballistic missile struck six locations.

The Odesa region in southern Ukraine bore the brunt of attacks for the second night in a row, damaging energy, transport, industrial, and civilian infrastructure. A fourth Turkish ship, carrying sunflower oil to Egypt, was struck.

In the Sumy region in northern Ukraine, an 80-year-old woman was killed.

One civilian was murdered and four wounded across the Donetsk region in the east.

Casualties were reported in the Chernihiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Kherson, and Kharkiv regions.

This morning, at least 11 civilians have been injured by a Russian strike on a supermarket in Zaporizhzhia city in southern Ukraine.

A child, two first responders, and a policeman are among the wounded.

President Volodymyr Zelensky posted that Russia has launched more than 1,500 drones, nearly 900 guided bombs, and 46 missiles in a week:

Ukraine needs peace on dignified terms, and we are ready to work as constructively as possible. The coming days will be filled with diplomacy. It is critically important that it delivers results.

UPDATE 0853 GMT:

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, a diehard supporter of the Trans-Atlantic relationship, speaks about the Trump Administration’s breaking of the US-Europe alliance.

The decades of Pax Americana are largely over for us in Europe, and for us in Germany as well. It no longer exists as we knew it.

That’s the way it is. The Americans are now very, very aggressively pursuing their own interests. And that can only mean one thing: that we, too, must now pursue our own interests.

And, dear friends, we’re not so weak after all. We’re not so small after all.

UPDATE 0810 GMT:

Russia’s oil and gas revenue in December is projected to be down almost 50% compared to the same month in 2024, sinking to its lowest level since 2020.

The decline to 410 billion rubles ($5.17 billion) in December is due to lower global oil prices and a stronger ruble, as well as US and international sanctions.

The fall is increasing the deficit of the Kremlin’s budget, which relies on oil and gas for around 25% of revenues, even as Russia feels the strain of rising expenditure for its invasion of Ukraine.

Annual oil and gas revenues are projected to total 8.44 trillion rubles ($105 billion), nearly 25% lower than last year and below the Finance Ministry’s oil-and-gas earnings forecast. The Kremlin plans to cover the December budget deficit by borrowing through government bonds.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Seeking a ceasefire in Russia’s 46 1/2-month full-scale invasion, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky and his European partners will meet Donald Trump’s envoy and Kremlin collaborator Steve Witkoff in Berlin on Sunday.

Zelensky confirmed the session, before he and the European leaders — German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, French President Emmanuel Macron, and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer — confer on Monday. In his nightly address to the nation, he said:

Most importantly, I will be meeting with envoys of President Trump, and there will also be meetings with our European partners, with many leaders, concerning the foundation of peace – a political agreement to end the war. The chance is considerable at this moment, and it matters for our every city, for our every Ukrainian community.

We are working to ensure that peace for Ukraine is dignified, and to secure a guarantee – a guarantee, above all, that Russia will not return to Ukraine for a third invasion.

Witkoff and the Kremlin

In mid-October, Witkoff spoke with Vladimir Putin’s top advisor Yuri Ushakov, trying to hold back further pressure on the Kremlin. The Trump Administration had imposed sanctions on Russia’s largest oil companies Lukoil and Rosneft, and was considering the provision of Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine.

Witkoff arranged a phone call from Vladimir Putin to Trump and, in a White House meeting with Zelensky the next day, pressed for the withholding of the Tomahawks. Trump did so but continued to advocate a ceasefire based on the current frontlines.

The Kremlin responded with the despatch of Putin’s top economic advisor Kirill Dmitriev, who had cultivated Witkoff’s support throughout the year, for meetings with the real estate developer and Kushner in Florida in late October. The outcome was an ultimatum to Kyiv which included Russia’s seizure of the rest of the strategic Donetsk region, and remainder of Ukraine kept militarily and politically weak.

The Europeans and Zelensky countered with a proposal, supported by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, beginning with a ceasefire on the frontlines and no handover of Ukrainian territory. Financial amd military support would also continue in security guarantees to Kyiv.

Trump officials are now proposing Ukraine’s withdrawal from Donetsk and the establishment of a 30-km demilitarized zone. They are not asking Russia for a pullback in currently-occupied territory.

Zelensky has said the proposal is unacceptable as it stands. “Two senior European officials and a former American official” confirmed to the New York Times that Kyiv has rejected any withdrawal, and demanded the removal of the provision from any proposal.

On Friday, Putin’s advisor Ushakov reiterated that Russia will not halt its invasion until Ukraine has left all of Donetsk. He added that Russian police and national guard troops will remain in the Donbas — the Donetsk and Luhansk region — under a demilitarized zone.