Russia-Ukraine Negotiations

<excerpt> Zelensky is saving the details for his meeting with Biden, but he has said that the plan contains a number of elements related to Ukraine’s long-term security and geopolitical position, which presumably includes joining NATO on an accelerated schedule, and  the provision of Western military aid with fewer restrictions. (In the run-up to the trip, Zelensky has been lobbying his allies in the West to allow Ukraine to strike targets deep inside Russia with long-range missiles supplied by the U.S. and other Western countries.) Ukraine’s incursion last month into Kursk, a border region in western Russia—where Ukrainian forces currently occupy around four hundred square miles of Russian territory—is also part of this plan, according to Zelensky, in that it provides Kyiv with leverage against the Kremlin, while also demonstrating that its military is capable of going on the offensive. </excerpt>

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine made a rare appearance in Parliament on Wednesday, pitching a plan to lawmakers that he said could end the war by next year but which has drawn a lukewarm response from allies... The proposal, which Mr. Zelensky has called a “victory plan,” aims to strengthen Ukraine’s position enough on the battlefield to force Russia to negotiate an end to the war. Much of that would hinge on increased Western support... But whether Kyiv’s allies will endorse the plan remains to be seen...

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is running into a problem with his victory plan based on Ukraine getting an invitation to join NATO — some of the alliance’s key members aren’t keen on that happening. Germany and the U.S. are among the major powers slow-walking Zelenskyy’s call for an immediate invitation to join NATO... Hungary and Slovakia are also resisting, but they come from a different starting point... “Countries like Belgium, Slovenia or Spain are hiding behind the U.S. and Germany. They are reluctant,” said one of the NATO officials. A second official said that countries “support it in the abstract but once it gets closer to materializing” they will start to balk at the idea more publicly...

Ukraine and Russia are in preliminary talks to stop bombing each other’s energy infrastructure. Qatar acted as a mediator in talks that came close to an agreement in August, the Financial Times reported, before they were derailed by Ukraine’s invasion of Russia’s Kursk region... A senior Ukrainian official also told the publication that Russia and Ukraine had already reduced attacks on energy infrastructure in recent weeks under a deal arranged by Kyiv’s intelligence services...

President-elect Donald Trump spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday, the first phone conversation between the two men since Trump won the election, said several people familiar with the matter. During the call, which Trump took from his resort in Florida, he advised the Russian president not to escalate the war in Ukraine and reminded him of Washington’s sizable military presence in Europe, said a person familiar with the call, who, like others interviewed for this story, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter...

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz wants to resume a dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin "soon" to discuss the conflict in Ukraine. "Yes, I have resolved to speak to the Russian president at the right time," the German leader told a Sunday evening talk show on public broadcaster ARD...

President Biden’s decision to provide anti-personnel mines to Ukraine, and allow the use of long-range missiles on Russian territory comes as the Russian military is accelerating its gains along the front line. Data from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) shows that Russia has gained almost six times as much territory in 2024 as it did in 2023, and is advancing towards key Ukrainian logistical hubs in the eastern Donbas region. Meanwhile, Ukraine's surprise incursion into Russia's Kursk region is faltering...