The Odesa attack involved more than 50 drones, some of them models recently upgraded by Russia to improve their range and strike power, according to Ukrainian authorities.

The drones targeted the power grid, which Russia has repeatedly bombarded during the coldest winter in years, and also hit five apartment blocks, officials said. Emergency crews retrieved the body of a man from the rubble, according to Oleh Kiper, head of the regional military administration.

“The rescue operation will continue until the fate of all people who may be under the rubble is clarified,” Zelenskyy said on the Telegram messaging app, adding that an informal Protestant place of worship was also damaged.

“Each such Russian strike undermines diplomacy, which is still ongoing, and hits, in particular, the efforts of partners who are helping to end this war,” he said.

A diplomatic push by the Trump administration to end the war has made progress, according to officials, but has delivered no breakthrough on the key issue of what happens to Russian-occupied Ukrainian land and other territory that Moscow is demanding.

Analysts says that Russian President Vladimir Putin is in no rush to find a settlement, despite his army’s difficulties on the roughly 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line. He believes that time is on his side, that Western support for Kyiv will fade and that Ukraine’s resistance will eventually break under pressure, according to analysts.

To replenish its forces and keep up the pressure on Kyiv, Moscow is offering cash bonuses, freeing convicts from prison, and luring foreigners to its army.

An Associated Press investigation found that unwitting Bangladeshi workers were enticed to Russia under the false promise of civilian work before being thrown into combat in Ukraine.

Zelenskyy said late Monday the next round of talks with the United States and Russia is penciled in for Feb. 1. but that “it would be good if this meeting could be accelerated.”

He also urged, the in the meantime, additional sanctions be imposed on Russia to compel the Kremlin to make compromises.

Russia fired 165 drones at Ukraine overnight, with 24 of them that got through air defenses hitting targets in seven regions, according to Ukraine’s air force.

In recent weeks, the relentless barrages have damaged some of Ukraine’s protected world heritage sites in Odesa, the western city of Lviv and the capital of Kyiv, UNESCO said Tuesday.

Russia has been improving its drone technology and tactics, striking Ukraine with increasing success.

The Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s main intelligence directorate said earlier this month that Russia had deployed the new jet-powered “Geran-5” strike drone against Ukraine for the first time. The Geran is a Russian variant of the Iranian-designed Shahed.

According to the directorate, the drone can carry a 90-kilogram (200-pound) warhead and has a range of nearly 1,000 kilometers (600 miles).

In response, Ukraine has significantly expanded production of interceptor drones, as well as developing its own long-range drones.

The Russian Defense Ministry said Tuesday that its air defenses shot down 19 Ukrainian drones overnight over several Russian regions.

AP

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The intense barrage and the launching of the nuclear-capable Oreshnik missile came days after Ukraine and its allies reported major progress toward agreeing on how to defend the country from further Moscow aggression if a peace deal is struck to end Russia’s almost 4-year-old invasion.

Months of U.S.-led peace efforts have failed to stop the fighting, however. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he has made significant progress on the terms of a possible peace settlement in talks with Washington envoys. But Moscow has given no public signal it is willing to budge from its demands.

The attack comes amid a new chill in relations between Moscow and Washington after Russia condemned the U.S. seizure of an oil tanker in the North Atlantic. It also comes as U.S. President Donald Trump has signaled he is on board with a hard-hitting sanctions package meant to economically cripple Moscow.

Ukrainian officials said four people were killed and at least 22 wounded in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, during the overnight attack as apartment buildings were struck.

Those killed included an emergency medical aid worker, according to Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko. Five rescue workers sustained injuries while responding to the ongoing attacks, Ukraine’s security service said.

The attack damaged the Qatari Embassy in Kyiv, Zelenskyy said Friday. He noted that Qatar has played a key role in mediating the exchange of prisoners of war.

He called for a “clear response” from the international community, particularly from the United States, which he said Russia takes seriously.

Moscow says attack was retaliation
Russia’s Defense Ministry said the attack was a retaliation to what Moscow said was a Ukrainian drone strike on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s residence last month. Both Ukraine and U.S. President Donald Trump have rejected the Russian claim of the attack on Putin’s residence.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has previously said that the Oreshnik streaks to its target at Mach 10, “like a meteorite,” and has claimed it is immune to any missile defense system. Several of them used in a conventional strike could be as devastating as a nuclear attack, according to Putin, who has warned the West that Russia could use the Oreshnik next against allies of Kyiv that allow it to strike inside Russia with their longer-range missiles.

Ukrainian intelligence says the missile has six warheads, each carrying six submunitions.

Russia didn’t say where Oreshnik hit, but Russian media and military bloggers said it targeted a huge underground natural gas storage facility in Ukraine’s western Lviv region. Foreign military aid for Ukraine is believed to pass through that region, which borders Poland.

Russia first used the Oreshnik missile on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro in November 2024. Analysts say it affords Russia a new element of psychological warfare, unnerving Ukrainians and scaring Western countries that supply weaponry to Ukraine.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Ukraine would be initiating international action in response to the use of the missile, including an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council and a meeting of the Ukraine-NATO Council.

“Such a strike close to EU and NATO border is a grave threat to the security on the European continent and a test for the transatlantic community. We demand strong responses to Russia’s reckless actions,” he said in a post on X.

Lviv Mayor Andrii Sadovyi said that Russia struck critical infrastructure with a ballistic missile, but didn’t give details. He said the missile traveled at a speed of 13,000 kilometers (more than 8,000 miles) per hour — which would be around Mach 10 — and that the specific type of rocket was being investigated.

Attacks hit Kyiv apartment blocks
In Kyiv, several districts were hit in the attack, said Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko. In the Desnyanskyi district a drone crashed onto the roof of a multi-story building. At another address in the same district the first two floors of a residential building were damaged.

In Dnipro district, parts of a drone damaged a multistory building and a fire broke out.

Dmytro Karpenko’s windows were shattered in the attack on Kyiv. When he saw that his neighbor’s house was on fire, he rushed out to help him.

“What Russia is doing, of course, shows that they do not want peace. But people really want peace, people are suffering, people are dying,” the 45-year old said.

Running water and electricity were disrupted in parts of the capital as a result of the attack, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.

The attack took place just hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy alerted the nation about Russia’s intentions for a large-scale offensive. He said that Russia aimed to take advantage of the frigid weather in the capital that has made roads and streets perilously icy.

AP

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The DA has condemned the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO), accusing it of diplomatic hypocrisy and the selective application of international law following South Africa’s appeal to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) over the United States’ capture and indictment of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, the DA spokesperson on International Relations and Cooperation, Ryan Smith, said DIRCO’s move to urgently call on the UNSC to address the prosecution of Maduro by the United States was inconsistent with South Africa’s past conduct on major international conflicts, most notably Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Smith said that DIRCO’s stance exposed the ANC’s “politically selective” approach to foreign policy, undermining the country’s credibility on the global stage.

“This approach has rendered South Africa an inconsistent, unreliable, and unserious player on the international stage. There is no room for ambiguity or the interpretation of a violation of state sovereignty,” he said.

According to the DA, South Africa never made a comparable appeal to the UNSC when Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, despite subsequent findings by international bodies, including the International Criminal Court, implicating Russia in grave human rights violations.

Smith said this failure rendered DIRCO’s current invocation of international law in the Venezuelan context hollow and contradictory.

“DIRCO cannot cite international law or make reference to refraining from ‘the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any State’, or the fact that ‘military invasions against sovereign States yield only instability and deepen crisis’ when it has shown diplomatic cowardice by turning a blind eye to the violation of Ukrainian sovereignty by the Russian Federation,” Smith said.

He accused the ANC of adopting a “two-faced approach” to foreign policy, particularly while continuing to portray South Africa as a mediator in the Ukraine conflict.

DIRCO’s position was formally outlined on Monday by Jonathan Passmoor, acting Deputy Permanent Representative, during a UNSC meeting on the situation in Venezuela.

Passmoor said South Africa condemned the “unilateral” US military strikes against Venezuela and the “abduction” of Maduro and his spouse, Cilia Flores, from Venezuelan territory for transfer to the United States.

Passmoor told the council that such actions “wantonly violate the sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of Venezuela” and undermine the UN Charter’s core principles.

He said that no nation is legally or morally superior to another and warned that unilateral use of force erodes the credibility of the international system.

Passmoor said that allegations of internal governance failures, human rights abuses or criminal conduct by a head of state cannot justify breaches of Article 2(4) of the UN Charter, which prohibits the use of force against another state.

He said disputes should instead be resolved through peaceful, multilateral mechanisms, including the International Court of Justice or the council.

Maduro was charged with federal drug trafficking on Monday, and narco terrorism, among other charges. The United States alleges he has used his position as president to allow the trafficking of drugs to America, and benefitted as a result. Flores, the couple’s son, and three others, have been charged alongside Maduro.

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U.S. President Donald Trump hosted Zelenskyy at his Florida resort on Sunday and insisted that Ukraine and Russia are “closer than ever before” to a peace settlement.

Negotiators are still searching for a breakthrough on key issues, however, including whose forces withdraw from where and the fate of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, one of the 10 biggest in the world. Trump noted that the monthslong U.S.-led negotiations could still collapse.

“Without security guarantees, realistically, this war will not end,” Zelenskyy told reporters in voice messages responding to questions sent via a Whatsapp chat.

Ukraine has been fighting Russia since 2014, when it illegally annexed Crimea and Moscow-backed separatists took up arms in the Donbas, a vital industrial region in eastern Ukraine.

Details of the security guarantees have not become public but Zelenskyy said Monday that they include how a peace deal would be monitored as well as the “presence” of partners. He didn’t elaborate, but Russia has said it won’t accept the deployment in Ukraine of troops from NATO countries.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Trump were expected to speak in the near future but there was no indication the Russian leader would speak to Zelenskyy.

French President Emmanuel Macron said Kyiv’s allies will meet in Paris in early January to “finalize each country’s concrete contributions” to the security guarantees.

Trump said he would consider extending U.S. security guarantees for Ukraine beyond 15 years, according to Zelenskyy. The guarantees would be approved by the U.S. Congress as well as by parliaments in other countries involved in overseeing any settlement, he said.

Zelenskyy said he wants the 20-point peace plan under discussion to be approved by Ukrainians in a national referendum.

However, holding a ballot requires a ceasefire of at least 60 days, and Moscow has shown no willingness for a truce without a full settlement.

AP

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The Russian leader “should end the bluster and the bloodshed and be ready to come to the table and to support a just and lasting peace,” said U.K. Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha urged Putin to “stop wasting the world’s time.”

The remarks reflect the high tensions and gaping gulf that remain between Russia on one side and Ukraine and its European allies on the other over how to end a war that Moscow started when it invaded its neighbor nearly four years ago.

A day earlier, Putin accused the Europeans of sabotaging the U.S.-led peace efforts — and warned that, if provoked, Russia would be ready for war with Europe.

Since Moscow invaded Ukraine in 2022, European governments, along with the U.S., have spent billions of dollars to support Kyiv financially and militarily. Under President Donald Trump, however, the U.S. has tempered its support — and instead made a push to end the war.

On Wednesday, the Kremlin spokesman said he wouldn’t discuss the substance of the talks but pushed back on any suggestion that Putin had rejected the U.S. peace plan.

Where the peace talks go from here depends largely on whether the Trump administration decides to increase the pressure on Russia or on Ukraine to make concessions.

Unclear where peace talks go now

A U.S. peace proposal that became public last month was criticized for being tilted heavily toward Moscow because it granted some of the Kremlin’s core demands that Kyiv has rejected as nonstarters.

Many European leaders worry that if Russia gets what it wants in Ukraine, it will have free rein to threaten their countries, which already have faced incursions from Russian drones and fighter jets, and an alleged widespread sabotage campaign.

Putin met Tuesday in Moscow with Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner. The Russian and American sides agreed not to disclose the substance of the talks, but at least one major hurdle to a settlement — the fate of four Ukrainian regions Russia partially seized and occupies and claims as its own — remains.

After the talks, Yuri Ushakov, a senior adviser to Putin, told reporters that “so far, a compromise hasn’t been found” on the issue of territory, without which, he said, the Kremlin sees “no resolution to the crisis.”

Ukraine has ruled out giving up territory that Russia has captured.

Asked whether peace was closer or further away after these talks, Ushakov said: “Not further, that’s for sure.”

“But there’s still a lot of work to be done, both in Washington and in Moscow,” he said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday that it was “not correct” to say that Putin had rejected the U.S. peace plan. He declined to comment further on the talks.

“We’re deliberately not going to add anything,” he said. “It’s understood that the quieter these negotiations are conducted, the more productive they will be.”

AP

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Zelenskyy’s visit to Paris followed a meeting between Ukrainian and U.S. officials in Florida on Sunday, which Secretary of State Marco Rubio described as productive. The two sides have worked to make revisions to a proposed U.S.-authored plan that was developed in negotiations between Washington and Moscow but criticized as being too weighted toward Russian demands.

Those criticisms were perhaps most vehement from Ukraine’s European allies who, while welcoming U.S. peace efforts, pushed back on key tenets of the plan. Ahead of his meeting with Zelenskyy on Monday, Macron’s office said the two leaders would discuss conditions for a “fair and lasting peace.”

U.S. President Donald Trump has since downplayed the 28-point peace framework, which would have imposed limits on the size of Ukraine’s military, blocked the country from joining NATO and required Ukraine to give up territory, as a “concept” to be “fine-tuned.”

Last week, Macron — a key ally for Ukraine who has firmly backed Kyiv and sought to counterbalance elements of the U.S. peace plan that are seen to favor Russia — urged Western allies to bring “rock-solid” guarantees to Ukraine in case a ceasefire or a peace deal was to be reached. He has endorsed deploying a “reassurance force” on land, at sea and in the air to help ensure the country’s security.

Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov confirmed Monday that Russian President Vladimir Putin would meet with U.S. presidential envoy Steve Witkoff on Tuesday afternoon. Witkoff’s role in the peace efforts came under scrutiny last week following a report that he coached Putin’s foreign affairs adviser on how Russia’s leader should pitch Trump on the Ukraine peace plan. Both Moscow and Washington downplayed the significance of the revelations.

Russia condemns Ukrainian strikes on energy infrastructure
Peskov on Monday condemned Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil infrastructure over the weekend, including an attack on an oil terminal owned by the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, CPC, and another that targeted two tankers in Turkish waters.

A major oil terminal near the port of Novorossiysk halted operations Saturday after a strike by unmanned boats damaged one of its three mooring points, according to a statement from CPC, which owns the terminal. This came a day after Ukrainian naval drones struck two oil tankers in the Black Sea that were reported to be part of Russia’s “shadow fleet” that evade sanctions.

Ukraine confirmed on Saturday it carried out the attacks.

Peskov described both incidents as “outrageous.”

“Such attacks by Ukrainian drones on critical infrastructure facilities are an ongoing practice,” Peskov said, discussing the CPC terminal strike. “It’s outrageous, because we’re talking about an international facility.”

Meanwhile, Russia’s Ministry of Defense said Russian forces had destroyed 32 Ukrainian drones overnight. The drones were shot down over 11 Russian regions, as well as the Sea of Azov, the ministry said.

An apartment block was damaged during a Ukrainian attack on the city of Kaspiysk in Russia’s Dagestan region, local Gov. Sergei Melikov said. Located on the shore of the Caspian Sea, close to Russia’s border with Azerbaijan, the city is more than 1000 kilometers (620 miles) from the front line.

Daytime strike on Ukrainian city
A Russian missile strike around midday on Monday killed four people and wounded 40 others, 11 in critical condition, in the eastern city of Dnipro, according to the head of regional administration Vladyslav Haivanenko.

The strike hit the city center, damaging four residential high-rises, an educational facility and the storage facility of a humanitarian organization, said Dnipro’s mayor, Borys Filatov, adding that search and rescue operations were ongoing.

Ukraine’s Air Force said Russia had fired 89 strike and decoy drones overnight Sunday before the attack on Dnipro, of which 63 drones were shot down or jammed.

Overall in November, Russia fired 100 missiles of various types and 9,588 reconnaissance and strike drones into Ukraine, according to the Air Force’s monthly report published Monday.

AP

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“We are … counting on the resumption of POW exchanges,” Zelenskyy wrote on X. “Many meetings, negotiations, and calls are currently taking place to ensure this.”

Rustem Umerov, Secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said Saturday he held consultations mediated by Turkey and the United Arab Emirates on resuming exchanges.

He said the parties agreed to activate prisoner exchange agreements brokered in Istanbul to release 1,200 Ukrainians. Moscow did not immediately comment.

The Istanbul agreements refer to prisoner-exchange protocols established with Turkish mediation in 2022 that set rules for large, coordinated swaps. Since then, Russia and Ukraine have traded thousands of prisoners, though exchanges have been sporadic.

Umerov said technical consultations would be held soon to finalize procedural and organizational details, expressing hope that returning Ukrainians could “celebrate the New Year and Christmas holidays at home — at the family table and next to their relatives.”

In other developments, energy infrastructure was damaged by Russian drone strikes overnight into Sunday in Ukraine’s Odesa region, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said. A solar power plant was among the damaged sites.

Ukraine is desperately trying to fend off relentless Russian aerial attacks that have brought rolling blackouts across Ukraine on the brink of winter.

Combined missile and drone strikes on the power grid have coincided with Ukraine’s efforts to hold back a Russian battlefield push aimed at capturing the eastern stronghold of Pokrovsk.

Russia fired a total of 176 drones and one missile overnight, Ukraine’s air force said Sunday, adding that Ukrainian forces shot down or neutralized 139 drones.

Ukrainian forces struck a major oil refinery in Russia’s Samara region, along with a warehouse storing drones for the elite Rubicon drone unit in the partially Russian-occupied Donetsk region, Ukraine’s general staff said Sunday. Russian officials did not immediately confirm the attacks.

AP

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Russia launched a major air attack early Thursday on Kyiv that included a rare strike on the city center, killing at least 19 people, wounding 48 and damaging European Union diplomatic offices, authorities said.

The bombardment of drones and missiles was the first major Russian attack on Kyiv in weeks as U.S.-led peace efforts to end the three-year war struggled to gain traction. Britain said the attack sabotaged peace efforts, while top EU diplomat Kaja Kallas summoned Russia’s EU envoy to Brussels over the strikes that damaged EU offices.

Ukraine on Thursday requested an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council to discuss the overnight bombardment, while two of Ukraine’s top envoys were set to meet Friday with the Trump administration regarding mediation.

The Kremlin said Russia remained interested in continuing peace talks despite Thursday’s air attack, which was one of the war’s biggest since it began in 2022.

Among the dead were four children between 2 and 17, said Tymur Tkachenko, the head of Kyiv’s city administration. He said up to 10 more people could still be under the rubble.

Rare attack on center of Kyiv

The attack was one of the few times Russian drones and missiles have penetrated the heart of Kyiv since the start of the full-scale invasion.

Ukraine’s Air Force said Russia launched 598 strike drones and decoys and 31 missiles of different types across the country early Thursday, most of them striking targets in Kyiv.

At least 33 locations across all 10 of the city’s districts were directly hit or damaged by debris, Tkachenko said. Thousands of windows shattered as nearly 100 buildings were damaged, including a shopping mall in the city center.

Oleksandr Khilko arrived at the scene after a missile hit the residential building where his sister lives in the capital’s Darnytsia district. He heard screams from people who were trapped under the rubble and pulled out three survivors, including a boy.

“It’s inhuman, striking civilians,” Khilko said, his clothes covered in dust and the tips of his fingers black with soot. “With every cell of my body I want this war to end as soon as possible. I wait, but every time the air raid alarm sounds, I am afraid.”

Sophia Akylina said her home in Kyiv’s Holosiivskyi district was damaged.

“It’s never happened before that they attacked so close,” the 21-year old said. “Negotiations haven’t yielded anything yet, unfortunately people are suffering.”

EU and UK summon Russian envoys after strikes hit their buildings

European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen said two strikes landed 20 seconds apart about 50 meters (165 feet) from the EU Mission to Ukraine building in Kyiv. She said no staff were injured in the strike.

“No diplomatic mission should ever be a target. In response, we are summoning the Russian envoy in Brussels,” Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s top diplomat, said Thursday in a post on X.

The British Council, which promotes cultural relations and educational opportunities, also said its Kyiv office had been “severely damaged” in the attack and was closed to visitors until further notice.

The organization posted a photo showing the building with its windows and entrance smashed open and surrounded by glass and debris. A guard was injured and is “shaken but stable,” council chief executive Scott McDonald posted on X.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Russian President Vladimir Putin was “sabotaging” hopes of peace following the “senseless” strikes. The Russian ambassador to London was summoned to the foreign office.

Diplomatic efforts to reach peace have stalled

Thursday’s attack is the first major combined Russian mass drone and missile attack to strike Kyiv since U.S. President Donald Trump met with Putin in Alaska earlier this month to discuss ending the war in Ukraine.

“Russia chooses ballistics instead of the negotiating table,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a post on X following the attack. “We expect a response from everyone in the world who has called for peace but now more often stays silent rather than taking principled positions.”

While a diplomatic push to end the war appeared to gain momentum shortly after that meeting, few details have emerged about the next steps.

Western leaders have accused Putin of dragging his feet in peace efforts and avoiding serious negotiations while Russian troops move deeper into Ukraine. This week, Ukrainian military leaders conceded Russian forces have broken into an eighth region of Ukraine seeking to capture more ground.

Zelenskyy hopes for harsher U.S. sanctions to cripple the Russian economy if Putin does not demonstrate seriousness about ending the war. He reiterated those demands following Thursday’s attack.

Trump bristled this week at Putin’s stalling on an American proposal for direct peace talks with Zelenskyy. Trump said Friday he expects to decide on next steps in two weeks if direct talks aren’t scheduled.

Russia says it targeted ‘military-industrial complex’

Russia’s Defense Ministry said it carried out a strike against military air bases and companies “within Ukraine’s military-industrial complex” using long-range weapons, including Kinzhal missiles.

“All designated objects were hit,” the ministry said in a statement.

Ukraine has ramped up domestic arms production to fight Russia’s invasion. Many weapons factories operate covertly, with some embedded in civilian areas with superior air defenses. Indiscriminate Russian attacks claiming to target Ukraine’s defense industry have killed many civilians.

The Russian Defense Ministry also said it shot down 102 Ukrainian drones overnight, mostly in the country’s southwest. A drone attack sparked a blaze at the Afipsky oil refinery in the Krasnodar region, local officials said, while a second fire was reported at the Novokuibyshevsk refinery in the Samara region.

Ukrainian drones have repeatedly struck refineries and other oil infrastructure in recent weeks in an attempt to weaken Russia’s war economy, causing gas stations in some Russian regions to run dry and prices to spike.

Ukraine’s national railway operator, Ukrzaliznytsia, reported damage to its infrastructure in the Vinnytsia and Kyiv regions, causing delays and requiring trains to use alternative routes.

AP

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The African National Congress has welcomed what it describes as “significant progress” in global efforts to end the devastating conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

It has commended South Africa’s role in leading a peace initiative that has positioned the country as a credible advocate for diplomacy on the world stage.

ANC national spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri said South Africa’ has sustained engagement in international mediation since 2023, when President Cyril Ramaphosa, alongside leaders from six African nations, embarked on a mission to Kyiv and Moscow to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“As a global advocate, champion and mainstay for peace, the ANC notes with appreciation a seed that had germinated into hope, heralding an end to the conflict. We commend the leadership of President Ramaphosa and the ANC subcommittee on International Relations for their role in the peace initiatives,” Bhengu-Motsiri said.

The delegation, which included Zambia, Senegal, Comoros, Uganda, and Egypt, represented one of the first coordinated African interventions in a major European conflict.

“Consistent with our policy of non-alignment, non-aggression and the resolution of conflict by peaceful means, South Africa assumed its rightful place in the community of nations,” Bhengu-Motsiri said, adding that the initiative showcased the continent’s growing diplomatic influence.

The ANC noted that the conflict, which began in February 2022, had “ravaged the two countries” and produced ripple effects far beyond Eastern Europe.

The war disrupted global food and energy supplies, destabilised international trade, and resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands while displacing millions more.

The party observed that the debilitating effects on agriculture, gas and trade were felt in Africa and across the Global South. These economic shocks underscored the need for a just and lasting peace.

Following the initial African peace mission, President Ramaphosa hosted both Putin and Zelensky in Pretoria during separate visits.

These engagements, the ANC explained, were aimed at “removing obstacles for peace” and laying the groundwork for dialogue.

The party praised what it called a “quantum leap” in recent diplomacy, referencing Ramaphosa’s renewed interaction with Putin and his engagements with leaders of the European Union.

These meetings, according to the ANC, represented “a major development” in global mediation since the start of South Africa’s involvement.

The ANC reiterated its longstanding position that sustainable peace would only be achieved if global powers placed the needs of ordinary Russians and Ukrainians above geopolitical rivalries.

It cautioned against what it described as NATO expansionism and Western-driven interests, arguing that these had complicated negotiations.

Framing South Africa’s role as both historic and symbolic, the ANC said the peace initiatives had “germinated into hope, heralding an end to the conflict.”

The party expressed optimism about forthcoming bilateral meetings between Russian and Ukrainian leaders, noting that dialogue was the only sustainable path forward.

With the latest developments, the party believes South Africa has “asserted its sovereignty in the diplomatic space” and demonstrated that its policy of non-alignment can deliver tangible results.

For now, the ANC said the world must rally behind negotiations to ensure that the war, which has lasted more than three years, finally comes to an end.

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Vladimir Putin is demanding that Ukraine give up all of the eastern Donbas region, renounce ambitions to join NATO, remain neutral and keep Western troops out of the country, three sources familiar with top-level Kremlin thinking told Reuters.

The Russian president met Donald Trump in Alaska on Friday for the first Russia-U.S. summit in more than four years and spent almost all of their three-hour closed meeting discussing what a compromise on Ukraine might look like, according to the sources who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

Speaking afterwards beside Trump, Putin said the meeting would hopefully open up the road to peace in Ukraine – but neither leader gave specifics about what they discussed.

In the most detailed Russian-based reporting to date on Putin’s offer at the summit, Reuters was able to outline the contours of what the Kremlin would like to see in a possible peace deal to end a war that has killed and injured hundreds of thousands of people.

In essence, the Russian sources said, Putin has compromised on territorial demands he laid out in June 2024, which required Kyiv to cede the entirety of the four provinces Moscow claims as part of Russia: Dontesk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine – which make up the Donbas – plus Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south.

Kyiv rejected those terms as tantamount to surrender.

In his new proposal, the Russian president has stuck to his demand that Ukraine completely withdraw from the parts of the Donbas it still controls, according to the three sources. In return, though, Moscow would halt the current front lines in Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, they added.

Russia controls about 88% of the Donbas and 73% of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, according to U.S. estimates and open-source data.

Moscow is also willing to hand over the small parts of the Kharkiv, Sumy, and Dnipropetrovsk regions of Ukraine it controls as part of a possible deal, the sources said.

Putin is sticking, too, to his previous demands that Ukraine give up its NATO ambitions and for a legally binding pledge from the U.S.-led military alliance that it will not expand further eastwards, as well as for limits on the Ukrainian army and an agreement that no Western troops will be deployed on the ground in Ukraine as part of a peacekeeping force, the sources said.

Yet the two sides remain far apart, more than three years after Putin ordered thousands of Russian troops into Ukraine in a full-scale invasion that followed the annexation of the Crimean peninsula in 2014 and prolonged fighting in the country’s east between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian troops.

Ukraine’s foreign ministry had no immediate comment on the proposals.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has repeatedly dismissed the idea of withdrawing from internationally recognised Ukrainian land as part of a deal, and has said the industrial Donbas region serves as a fortress holding back Russian advances deeper into Ukraine.

“If we’re talking about simply withdrawing from the east, we cannot do that,” he told reporters in comments released by Kyiv on Thursday. “It is a matter of our country’s survival, involving the strongest defensive lines.”

Joining NATO, meanwhile, is a strategic objective enshrined in the country’s constitution and one which Kyiv sees as its most reliable security guarantee. Zelenskiy said it was not up to Russia to decide on the alliance’s membership.

The White House and NATO didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment on the Russian proposals.

Political scientist Samuel Charap, chair in Russia and Eurasia Policy at RAND, a U.S.-based global policy think-tank, said any requirement for Ukraine to withdraw from the Donbas remained a non-starter for Kyiv, both politically and strategically.

“Openness to ‘peace’ on terms categorically unacceptable to the other side could be more of a performance for Trump than a sign of a true willingness to compromise,” he added. “The only way to test that proposition is to begin a serious process at the working level to hash out those details.”

TRUMP: PUTIN WANTS TO SEE IT ENDED

Russian forces currently control a fifth of Ukraine, an area about the size of the American state of Ohio, according to U.S. estimates and open-source maps.

The three sources close to the Kremlin said the summit in the Alaskan city of Anchorage had ushered in the best chance for peace since the war began because there had been specific discussions about Russia’s terms and Putin had shown a willingness to give ground.

“Putin is ready for peace – for compromise. That is the message that was conveyed to Trump,” one of the people said.

The sources cautioned that it was unclear to Moscow whether Ukraine would be prepared to cede the remains of the Donbas, and that if it did not then the war would continue. Also unclear was whether or not the United States would give any recognition to Russian-held Ukrainian territory, they added.

A fourth source said that though economic issues were secondary for Putin, he understood the economic vulnerability of Russia and the scale of the effort needed to go far further into Ukraine.

Trump has said he wants to end the “bloodbath” of the war and be remembered as a “peacemaker president”. He said on Monday he had begun arranging, opens new tab a meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian leaders, to be followed by a trilateral summit with the U.S. president.

“I believe Vladimir Putin wants to see it ended,” Trump said beside Zelenskiy in the Oval office. “I feel confident we are going to get it solved.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday that Putin was prepared to meet Zelenskiy but that all issues had to be worked through first and there was a question about Zelenskiy’s authority to sign a peace deal.

Putin has repeatedly raised doubts about Zelenskiy’s legitimacy as his term in office was due to expire in May 2024 but the war means no new presidential election has yet been held. Kyiv says Zelenskiy remains the legitimate president.

The leaders of Britain, France and Germany have said they are sceptical that Putin wants to end the war.

SECURITY GUARANTEES FOR UKRAINE

Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff was instrumental in paving the way for the summit, and the latest drive for peace, according to two of the Russian sources.

Witkoff met Putin in the Kremlin on August 6 with Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov. At the meeting, Putin conveyed clearly to Witkoff that he was ready to compromise and set out the contours of what he could accept for peace, according to two Russian sources.

If Russia and Ukraine could reach an agreement, then there are various options for a formal deal – including a possible three-way Russia-Ukraine-U.S. deal that is recognised by the U.N. Security Council, one of the sources said.

Another option is to go back to the failed 2022 Istanbul agreements, where Russia and Ukraine discussed Ukraine’s permanent neutrality in return for security guarantees from the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council: Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, the sources added.

“There are two choices: war or peace, and if there is no peace, then there is more war,” one of the people said.

Reuters

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