Ukraine war latest: Zelensky targets diplomatic end to Putin’s conflict

Mr Trump’s comprehensive victory in the US election, which came off the back of his promises to end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours, has brought into sharp relief the difficult situation on the frontline for Kyiv.

Russian forces have continued to make gains in the eastern region of Donetsk, advancing along several fronts towards the city of Pokrovsk, a linchpin of the wider area’s defence.

Russia is close to achieving its military goals in Ukraine and holds the strategic initiative in all areas, Moscow’s foreign intelligence chief was cited as saying by Russian media this morning.

“The situation on the front is not in Kyiv’s favour,” RIA cited Sergei Naryshkin as saying to Razvedchik, the official publication of the foreign intelligence agency. “The strategic initiative in all areas belongs to us”.

Russia controls nearly a fifth of Ukrainian territory after launching its invasion in 2022, and has been making slow but steady gains in the Donbas region in recent months.

Volodymyr Zelensky has reacted to calls from Western allies for Ukraine to reduce its mobilisation age from 25 to 18, saying that he will not sacrifice Ukrainian youths to the war.

“We must not compensate the lack of equipment and training with the youth of soldiers. The priority should be providing missiles and lowering Russia’s military potential, not Ukraine’s draft age,” he said in a post on X.

He added: “The goal should be to preserve as many lives as possible, not to preserve weapons in storages.”

In his remarks, Mr Zelensky thanked Donald Trump and Emmanuel Macron for their talks in Paris, saying they were working to secure peace in Europe and maintain the international order.

“I told President Trump that Putin fears only him and, perhaps, China. And that’s the truth – only decisiveness can bring this war to a just end and ensure lasting peace,” he wrote.

Volodymyr Zelensky has reacted to the calls from the Western allies on reducing the mobilisation age of men from 25 to 18, saying that he will not sacrifice the youth of young Ukrainian men.

“We must not compensate the lack of equipment and training with the youth of soldiers. The priority should be providing missiles and lowering Russia’s military potential, not Ukraine’s draft age,” he said in a post on X.

He added: “The goal should be to preserve as many lives as possible, not to preserve weapons in storages.”

In his remarks, Mr Zelensky thanked Donald Trump and Emmanuel Macron in a bid to secure peace in Europe and maintain the international order.

“I told president Trump that Putin fears only him and, perhaps, China. And that’s the truth—only decisiveness can bring this war to a just end and ensure lasting peace,” he wrote.

Almost 800,000 Russian troops are currently deployed in Ukraine, the Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported on Monday, citing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The Ukrainian leader said on Sunday that 43,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed and 370,000 injured, of whom about half had been able to return to service after treatment. He also claimed that 198,000 Russian soldiers had been killed and a further 550,000 injured. We have not been able to independently verify any of these figures yet.

Russia is bearing staggeringly high costs to maintain its war effort against Ukraine, the Institute for the Study of War said.

It pointed to mounting economic strain, labour shortages, and systemic corruption threatening the sustainability of the Russian defence industrial base (DIB).

The Washington-based think tank monitoring the war cited US defence secretary Lloyd Austin’s remarks that Russia has spent over $200bn on its war in Ukraine and suffered at least 700,000 casualties since February 2022, with recent losses averaging 1,000 soldiers per day.

According to the Ukrainian Center for Countering Disinformation, Russia’s liquid assets in its National Welfare Fund dropped from $140bn in February 2022 to $53.8bn by 1 December, 2024.

“Russia’s mounting economic pressures stemming from the war, paired with widespread corruption, labor shortages, and inefficiencies in Russia’s DIB, will likely compound the cost of Russia’s war and further undermine its ability to effectively sustain DIB operations while maintaining economic stability,” the ISW said in its assessment.

Officials in Russia say they have returned the bodies of dead Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) who were on board a Russian Il-76 military plane that crashed in Belgorod in January this year.

Russian human rights ombudsman Tatyana Moskalkova claimed the bodies had been transferred to Ukraine on an unspecified date.

In Kyiv, the Ukrainian coordination headquarters for the treatment of POWs said the remains were transferred in the latest POW exchange on 29 November. However, they said they were still working to confirm if the remains belonged to the POWs involved in the Belgorod crash.

Russia claims the Ilyushin Il-76 military aircraft was carrying 74 people – six crew members, three Russian soldiers and 65 POWs being readied for prisoner exchanges with Ukraine – when it was shot down near the Russian city Belgorod, 40km north of the border with Ukraine. Regional Russian officials said all those on board the plane had been killed.

The plane was shot down on 24 January. Watch the video here:

Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the UK Government has “long hoped” to see Bashar Assad gone, telling MPs: “We welcome the opportunity this brings the people of Syria.

“Assad’s demise is not just a humiliation to him and his henchman, it is a humiliation for Russia and Iran. Iran’s so-called axis of resistance is crumbling before our eyes.”

Mr Lammy said Russian president Vladimir Putin has attempted to “prop up Assad for more than a decade”, adding: “All that he’s got for this is a fallen dictator, filing for asylum in Moscow.

“He says he wants to return to Russia to its imperial glory, but after more than 1,000 days he has not subjugated Ukraine. Putin’s fake empire stops short just a few miles out of Donetsk.”

Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the fall of the Assad regime in Syria was also a “humiliation for Russia and Iran.

Volodymyr Zelensky said he had discussed a “freezing” of the lines in the war when he met Emmanuel Macron and Donald Trump over the weekend.

The Ukrainian president has made the case for a diplomatic settlement to Russia’s war in Ukraine and raised the idea of foreign troops being deployed in his country until it could join the Nato military alliance.

Russia controls nearly a fifth of Ukrainian territory after launching the 2022 invasion that unleashed the biggest conflict in Europe since World War Two.

Mr Zelensky said he told the two leaders that he did not believe Putin actually wanted to end the war and that the Russian president had to be forced to make peace.

“You can only exert force if Ukraine is strong. A strong Ukraine before any diplomacy means a strong (Ukraine) on the battlefield,” he said, implying Kyiv needed help to become stronger.

Volodymyr Zelensky has issued orders to increase funding for equipping the country’s brigades with new drones.

The Ukrainian president said he had received a report from Pavlo Palisa, a former military commander and the president’s newly-appointed deputy chief of staff, to provide additional funding for drones.

“We recently approved a decision about the amount of such direct funds. But now I see that the amount is insufficient,” Mr Zelensky said.

“I instructed the prime minister to increase financing for brigades in the coming days, to increase several times over.”

The Ukrainian leader has increasingly focused on the deployment of drones in the war, which has extended over 33 months since Russia invaded in February 2022.