Emmanuel Macron has warned that Russia still shows a “desire for war” despite efforts towards a ceasefire as European leaders including Volodymyr Zelenskyy meet in Paris on Thursday to discuss how Europe might offer Kyiv security guarantees in the event of a lasting truce. Macron said Russia had tried to impose “new conditions” and not responded to a 30-day general ceasefire offered by Ukraine “without preconditions”. He praised Kyiv for having “taken the risk of peace”.
Thursday’s gathering brings together leaders from the so-called “coalition of the willing” – a British-French-led group of countries considering deploying peacekeeping troops to Ukraine should a ceasefire be reached. Macron on Wednesday announced a new French €2bn ($2.15bn) military aid package for Ukraine, with Paris ready to rapidly ship existing hardware from its stocks.
There remained no clearly defined or mutually agreed ceasefire covering any aspect of the Russia-Ukraine war. Russia said that only in return for the lifting of a raft of sanctions and access to the Swift international banking system would it implement a ceasefire covering Black Sea shipping. The US said it would consider the sanctions request, while the EU suggested it would only lift sanctions in response to “the unconditional withdrawal of all Russian military forces” from Ukraine. The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said examining Russia’s asks and reaching a deal “won’t be simple, it’ll take some time, but at least we’re on that road and we’re talking about these things”.
Russia claimed to be observing a month-long moratorium declared by Vladimir Putin on strikes against Ukrainian energy targets; however, Russian drone and missile strikes have continued to cause blackouts and, according to Ukraine, energy sites have been hit. Despite there being no actual ceasefire, Russia has accused Ukraine of committing breaches, including by targeting gas storage in Crimea – actually Ukrainian territory – which Ukraine denied; while Zelenskyy says Russia has proven by its continued attacks on Ukraine that it does not truly want peace.
Four people were reported killed and six injured across Ukraine overnight into Wednesday, writes Pjotr Sauer, while the Ukrainian air force said it shot down 56 of 117 incoming drones and another 48 were decoys that caused no damage.
Late on Wednesday, Russian forces launched a mass drone attack on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, injuring nine people, causing considerable damage and starting four fires in the city centre, officials said. The Kharkiv mayor, Ihor Terekhov, said there had been at least 12 drone strikes. A drone attack also triggered fires in the central city of Dnipro, said the regional governor, Serhiy Lysak.
North Korea has sent 3,000 more troops to Russia so far this year and continues to supply missiles, artillery and ammunition, according to South Korea’s military joint chiefs of staff. Of the initial 11,000 soldiers sent in 2024, 4,000 were believed to have been killed or wounded.
The US-Ukraine critical minerals deal was mentioned again as the US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, told Fox News that “a completed document for the economic partnership is currently being reviewed by Ukrainians, and we hope to go to full discussions and perhaps even get signatures next week”. A week ago, the White House said it had “moved beyond” that deal to focus on peace efforts – only for Trump, the US president, to reverse that a day later by saying it would be signed “very shortly”.
Relations between Kyiv and Washington were “back on track”, said Andriy Yermak, chief of staff to Ukraine’s president. He told Reuters that after the fraught Oval Office encounter last month, two rounds of talks in Saudi Arabia on a potential ceasefire had given Kyiv an opportunity to show it could work with US officials on ending the war.
Russia convicted 23 captured Ukrainians on terrorism charges in a military trial that Kyiv denounced as a sham and a violation of international law. The defendants included 14 current or former fighters of the Azov brigade, and nine women and one man who worked as cooks or support personnel, according to Russian media reports and human rights defenders. They were given sentences ranging from 13 to 23 years in prison. Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman, Dmytro Lubinets, called the verdicts “illegal”, adding: “Ukrainian prisoners of war are combatants, not criminals! They were fulfilling their duty to the state, protecting its territorial integrity and sovereignty.”
Last year brought Ukraine’s worst wildfires in more than three decades as shelling along front lines triggered an unprecedented number of blazes, scientists said. Forest fires in Ukraine in 2024 burnt more than twice the area destroyed by fire in the entire 27-country European Union in 2024, said an EU report.
