Donald Trump told Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday that the US could own and run Ukrainian nuclear power plants as part of a ceasefire. The Ukrainian president said following their call that “we talked only about one power plant, which is under Russian occupation”, referring to Zaporizhzhia, Europe’s largest nuclear power station. The White House said it had “moved beyond” the idea of taking possession of Ukraine’s mineral wealth as part of negotiations. “We are now focused on a long-term peace agreement,” said White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt.
Kyiv was “ready” to pause attacks on Russia’s energy network and infrastructure, Zelenskyy said, write Shaun Walker and Pjotr Sauer. Zelenskyy indicated he did not yet consider a ceasefire to be in place, instead saying it could be established quickly, and his team would present the Americans with a list of the kind of facilities it should include. Zelenskyy also indicated he expects the ceasefire to apply to civilian infrastructure as well as energy facilities.
Zelenskyy’s call with Trump came a day after Vladimir Putin agreed to halt similar strikes on Ukraine but Russia immediately went back on the attack with drones and missiles. The Ukrainian president remained sceptical of Vladimir Putin’s goodwill and intentions after Ukraine’s defence ministry said on Wednesday that an overnight barrage of Russian missiles and drones killed one person and damaged two hospitals. The national railway service said railway energy infrastructure in the central Dnipropetrovsk region was hit. Such actions put Putin’s words about ceasing attacks “at odds with reality”, Zelenskyy said.
A major Russian oil pipeline station continued to burn at Kavkazskaya in Russia’s Krasnodar region after a successful Ukrainian drone strike. Authorities in the region said a total of 406 firefighters and 157 pieces of equipment had been sent.
European leaders reacted sceptically to the Trump-Putin limited ceasefire idea, saying it showed the Russian president was not serious about seeking a peaceful end to the three-year-old conflict, Sam Jones writes. Putin’s sweeping demands include leaving the Ukraine military weakened and vulnerable, with no western arms or intelligence, and a depleted army. The EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said: “It is clear that Russia does not really want to make any kind of concessions,” adding along with other leaders that Kremlin demands to stop arming Kyiv could not be accepted.
Zelenskyy said on Wednesday that Ukraine had received more F-16 fighter jets. “Several F-16s have flown to Ukraine. I’m not going to tell you how many,” Zelenskyy told reporters. Ukraine received its first F-16s in 2024.
Kallas said she would present a proposal to European leaders gathering in Brussels on Thursday to provide Ukraine with two million rounds of large-calibre artillery ammunition, according to a letter seen by Reuters. The EU executive has meanwhile launched a push to buy more weapons in the bloc and from allied countries, rather than from the US, Jennifer Rankin writes. The UK, US and Turkey will be excluded from defence contracts funded by a €150bn (£125bn) EU loans programme unless they sign a security and defence partnership agreement with the EU. The €150bn loans scheme will be open to EU member states as part of a massive surge in defence spending, but 65% of the costs of equipment funded must come from suppliers in the EU, Norway or Ukraine. The rest could be spent in non-EU countries with a security agreement.
The EU should fund Ukraine’s access to satellite services from EU-based commercial providers, the European Commission said in its white paper on the future of European defence published on Wednesday. Ukraine’s military has been heavily dependent on Elon Musk’s Starlink but there have been veiled threats it could be cut off unless Ukraine accepts Trump-dictated peace terms. European satellite operators are in talks with the EU as they have been asked if they can step in and replace Starlink. “This will help Ukraine to enhance its resilience by diversifying its sources of space-based services,” the paper said.
