Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, Donald Trump, and their delegations at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, December 28, 2025

EA on RTE: What’s Next for Ukraine After Zelensky-Trump Meeting in Florida

Sunday’s Coverage: Zelensky Holds The Line as Trump Praises Putin

UPDATE 1713 GMT:

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has told reporters that allied intelligence services have established that Russia’s claim of a drone attack on Vladimir Putin’s residence, south of St. Petersburg, is a lie.

“Regarding the attack on Valdai, our negotiating team connected with the American team, they went through the details, and we understand that it’s fake. And, of course, our partners can always verify thanks to their technical capabilities that it was fake,” Zelensky said.

An official close to French President Emmanuel Macron said there is no evidence to corroborate the accusations made by Russian authorities.

The German Government said it shares Kyiv’s concern that the Russian lie could be used as a pretext for escalation of attacks on Ukraine.

Analysts note that Russia has presented no evidence of attacks such as footage of air defense operations or explosions, fires, or smoke plumes near the target.

UPDATE 1709 GMT:

National security advisors from “Coalition of the Willing” partners will meet in Ukraine on Saturday, with leaders then meeting in France on January 6, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has announced.

UPDATE 1705 GMT:

Updating the damage from Russian strikes on the Odesa region in southern Ukraine (see 1454 GMT), the Ukrainian Navy says attack drones hit two civilian vessels entering a Black Sea port to load wheat.

Naming the ships as Emmakris III and Captain Karam, the Navy said the attacks “threaten the lives of civilians and undermine global food security”.

UPDATE 1501 GMT:

Russia has confirmed that it has put nuclear-capable Oreshnik missiles into active service in neighboring Belarus.

“The Oreshnik missile division began performing combat duty tasks in designated areas in the country,” Belarus’s Defense ministry said.

Video released by both Russian and Belarus Defense Ministries showed the missiles being transported into forests and camouflaged with netting.

They did not specify the locations. However, last week US researchers Jeffrey Lewis and Decker Eveleth used satellite imagery to identify the site as a former airbase near Krichev, 307 km (191 miles) east of the Belarus capital Minsk.

UPDATE 1454 GMT:

Russia has hit a Panama-flagged civilian ship in the Odesa region in southern Ukraine, injuring one person.

Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba said the ship, carrying grains, was damaged. Two oil storage tanks were also hit in the strike on the Black Sea ports of Pivdennyi and Chornomorsk.

“This is yet another targeted attack by Russia on civilian port infrastructure. The enemy is trying to disrupt logistics and complicate shipping,” Kuleba said.

UPDATE 1444 GMT:

European and Canadian leaders have been issuing positive statements after a phone call on the defense of Ukraine.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said:

Peace is on the horizon, there is no doubt that things have happened that give grounds for hope that this war can end, and quite quickly, though it is still a hope, far from 100% certain.

When I say peace is on the horizon, I’m talking about the coming weeks, not the coming months or years. By January, we’ll all have to come together…to make decisions about the future of Ukraine, the future of this part of the world.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz posted:

UPDATE 0648 GMT:

The head of Estonia’s foreign intelligence service says Russia has stepped back from its destabilizing operations into other countries, following resistance by those states and NATO.

Kaupo Rosin said, “We’ve seen that, as a result of our responses, Russia has altered its behavior following various incidents that have occurred more broadly in the region. So far, it’s still clear that Russia respects NATO and is currently trying to avoid any open conflict.”

Referring to Russia’s drone and fighter jet incursions into the airspaces of NATO members and its threat to undersea cables, Rosin summarized:

Russia has taken various measures to prevent such incidents from happening again in the future.

If we look at the current situation, including what’s visible to the public, the drone flight paths over Ukrainian territory or airspace have been adjusted to minimize risk. We’re also seeing that Russian aircraft are now very carefully monitoring their flight paths over the Baltic Sea, strictly adhering to their trajectories to avoid triggering incidents.

UPDATE 0624 GMT:

Bridget Brink, the former US Ambassador to Ukraine, has firmly dismissed the Kremlin’s declaration that Kyiv attacked the residence of Vladimir Putin.

Seeking political advantage after Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky’s meeting with Donald Trump, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov proclaimed that Kyiv tried to strike the resident in Novgorod, south of St. Petersburg.

Brink, the US ambassdor in Kyiv from 2022, left the post in April as she criticized the Trump Administration’s approach.

She told CNN:

There’s no evidence that there was a strike. And the fact that the US President is taking the word of a brutal dictator, over that of our democratic ally, is exactly the problem.

And that’s exactly why I had to resign and speak out.

Zelensky explained that the Russian claim is an attempt to undermine progress in negotiations to end Moscow’s invasion, and he noted that the Russians could be preparing the ground to strike government buildings in Kyiv.

But Donald Trump took the Kremlin’s bait: “I don’t like it. It’s not good. I heard about it this morning … President Putin told me about it….He said he was attacked, it’s no good…..I was very angry about it.”

ORIGINAL ENTRY: President Volodymyr Zelensky has emphasized that Ukraine will not withdraw from its territory as part of a deal to end Russia’s 47-month full-scale invasion.

Following his Sunday meeting with Donald Trump in Florida, Zelensky spoke with the Trumpist outlet Fox TV. He responded to Russia’s demands — and a Kremlin ultimatum crafted with Trump envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, pushed back by Ukraine-Europe counter-proposals:

We can’t just withdraw, it’s out of our law.

It’s not only the law. People live there, 300,000 people… We can’t lose those people.

Ukraine and Europe have proposed a demilitarized economic zone in the strategic Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, with Ukrainian and Russian troops both pulling back. Zelensky’s talks with Trump were inconclusive, and the Kremlin has insisted that it will seize all of Donetsk through capitulation or force.

“I’m Thankful to President Trump”

Zelensky noted that Russia’s seizure of less than 1% of Ukrainian territory this year has come at the cost of around 400,000 Russian casualties.

With Ukraine and Europe working with those in a split Trump Administration maintaining support for defense of Kyiv, Zelensky played up to Trump in the Fox interview.

“I’m thankful to President Trump, really, it was a very productive meeting and in Mar-a-Lago maybe another mood here,” the President said. He added that Ukraine cannot defeat the Russian invasion without US involvement: “Sanctions, dialogue, [Trump] has some instruments….Without American support, we can’t defend the sky.”

The US and Ukraine differ on the duration of security guarantees, with Trump accepting 15 years and Kyiv and Europe wanting up to 50. However, Zelensky emphasized the advance of getting Washington to make a commitment.

“Today we spoke with the President and there is a proposition. The first proposition is a security guarantees for 15 years,” he said. “It’s good proposition with possibility of continuation.”