Trump Gives Zelenskyy an Ultimatum as Ukraine Risks Losing Key Advantage

The conflict between Russia and Ukraine is likely nearing its end. The United States, as a mediator in the settlement, has met with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The countries have agreed to hold a tripartite summit in Abu Dhabi and put an end to unresolved issues. Ahead of the key negotiations, Trump stated that Ukraine could lose its remaining territories, but named a condition that could save the country.

It is difficult to keep up with all events in the news flow, so every Friday we compile a digest of the main events about the conflict. Today we will talk about what happened in the last seven days.

Mutual Strikes by Russia and Ukraine and Their Consequences

This week, regions of Russia came under a mass drone attack. In Krasnodar Krai, four tanks with petroleum products caught fire due to strikes.

According to Governor Veniamin Kondratyev, the drone raids targeted port terminals in the settlement of Volna in the Temryuk district. Three people died there, and eight more were injured.

Another oil depot caught fire in Penza due to UAV strikes. Fortunately, no one was injured there.

In Voronezh Oblast, due to falling drone debris, the roof of a private house caught fire. The fire was quickly extinguished. The affected family is temporarily staying with relatives, Governor Alexander Gusev reported.

In Belgorod Oblast, a local resident was wounded during the strikes. According to regional head Vyacheslav Gladkov, in the area of the village of Arkhangelskoye in the Shebekino district, a drone struck a car. The man was diagnosed with a mine-blast injury, as well as blind fragment wounds to the face, neck, chest, abdomen, arms and legs.

Also in Belgorod, more than 1,700 people had to be evacuated from a dangerous zone. The reason is that work was being carried out in the city to extract a munition on one of the streets. Traffic there is currently blocked, and the city administration«s operational headquarters has been deployed.

«For almost 24 hours without a break, the most difficult work went on. To ensure the safety of the townspeople, the explosive ordnance disposal experts of the Ministry of Defence had to carry out extensive earthworks at great depth using special equipment. They completed their task — the munition was taken away for disposal,» wrote the head of the city administration Valentin Demidov in his Telegram channel.

In response to attacks on Russian regions, the Russian Armed Forces are striking critical infrastructure in Ukraine. Because of this, the country is experiencing power outages for 16 hours a day, Sergey Kovalenko, general director of the energy supply company YASNO (part of the Ukrainian energy holding DTEK), reported on his social media.

«The maximum intervals — seven hours without power and 3.5 hours with power — no longer correspond to reality. The previously published schedule of likely outages has lost its relevance. <…> Power supply interruptions can last more than 16 hours. These are the current realities,» stated the head of YASNO and noted that the situation in the country«s energy system has significantly deteriorated.

Also in Ukraine, the situation with water supply and heating remains difficult. This was reported by the city«s mayor Vitaliy Klitschko in his Telegram channel.

«I«ll be honest: the situation is extremely difficult, and this might not even be the most difficult moment,» said Klitschko.

Western media suggest that this winter will be particularly harsh and severe for Ukraine. Due to retaliatory strikes by the Russian army, Ukrainian authorities have faced significant difficulties in carrying out restoration work, Reuters reports. Moreover, not a single intact power plant remains in the country.

At the same time, Russian military liberated five settlements this week. Among them are Privolye and Novopavlovka in the DPR, as well as Priluki and Pavlovka in Zaporizhzhia Oblast and Siminovka in Kharkiv Oblast, the Russian Defence Ministry reports.

Trump«s »Peace Council«

American leader Donald Trump has officially announced the formation of an international «Peace Council». Its initial task is to implement a plan for post-war settlement in the Gaza Strip. However, Trump«s team is considering the idea of creating a similar organization for Ukraine. This issue has already been discussed with Ukrainian officials, writes the Financial Times.

According to the American leader«s plan, a separate council under his chairmanship will oversee the implementation of a future peace agreement between Moscow and Kyiv and guarantee its execution. This council could include representatives from Ukraine, Russia, Europe, NATO and the USA. The US president could also become the chairman.

He has already sent an invitation to join the «Peace Council» to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Russian Foreign Ministry is studying the received documents and consulting with strategic partners on this issue. According to Putin, only after that will Russia be able to respond to the invitation to the «Peace Council».

Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy also received an invitation to join the organization. He explained that diplomats are currently working on it. So far, the Ukrainian leader is also not agreeing to join the «Peace Council», as he finds it difficult to imagine Ukraine«s participation in a single body together with Russia and Belarus, he stated in a conversation with UNIAN. However, he wants to understand the future format of the organization»s work — he needs to understand whether the «Peace Council» is the very structure whose creation is being discussed within the framework of current peace negotiations with the USA, reports the Financial Times.

Ukraine Recovery Plan

This week, the presidents of Ukraine and the USA, Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Donald Trump, were supposed to sign an agreement on the restoration of Ukrainian territory during a meeting at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos. However, this did not happen, as the documents that were negotiated with American officials before the summit remained unfinished, writes the Financial Times.

According to The Telegraph, the plan discussed by Kyiv and Washington involves raising about $800 billion over ten years to restore Ukraine and restart its economy. This includes loans, grants and investments from private companies.

Nevertheless, during a closed hour-long conversation, Trump and Zelenskyy did manage to reach some agreements. After the bilateral summit ended, the American president commented on their details.

«The meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy went well. We«ll see how it all ends,» he said.

Trump also stated that the conflict between Russia and Ukraine must end and that paths to peace remain open. Soon after the US president, Ukrainian leader Zelenskyy spoke and announced tripartite negotiations between Ukraine, the USA and Russia in the UAE.

Tripartite Negotiations in Abu Dhabi

The first meeting of the tripartite working group created to resolve the Ukrainian crisis will take place on 23 January in Abu Dhabi. The Russian delegation will be headed by the Chief of the Main Directorate (GRU) of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Igor Kostyukov, and will also include representatives of the Defence Ministry.

«These are military personnel, these are representatives of the Defence Ministry. We will not name them yet. They are all military. So, this is a working group on security issues. These will be the first negotiations,» noted Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov.

Moreover, the special representative of the Russian president, Kirill Dmitriev, will be present at the tripartite meeting. He has a separate meeting scheduled with Trump«s special envoy Steve Witkoff, at which they will discuss economic issues, as well as the »Peace Council« and Russia»s readiness to allocate $1 billion to the organization«s budget from Russian assets frozen by the previous US administration.

According to the assistant to the Russian president Yury Ushakov, before departure to Abu Dhabi, Kremlin representatives received specific instructions from Russian President Vladimir Putin, taking into account all the details of the conversation held in Moscow with the American side.

The Ukrainian leader stated before the meeting of delegations in Abu Dhabi that Kyiv is ready for compromises. According to Zelenskyy, a tripartite meeting in Abu Dhabi is better than no meeting at all.

At the negotiations, Ukraine will be represented by Rustem Umerov — secretary of the National Security and Defence Council (NSDC) of Ukraine; Kyrylo Budanov (listed in Russia as a terrorist and extremist) — head of the Office of the President of Ukraine; Serhiy Kyslytsya — first deputy head of the Office of the President; David Arakhamia — head of the parliamentary faction «Servant of the People»; and Andriy Hnatov — Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

The USA will act as a mediator between the countries at this meeting. From the American side, the negotiating table will be occupied by Donald Trump«s special envoy Steve Witkoff, entrepreneur and son-in-law of the US president Jared Kushner, as well as Commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service (FAS) of the US General Services Administration Josh Grünbaum.

During the negotiations, the countries plan to discuss the possibility of a temporary ceasefire. This means that Ukraine should refrain from strikes on Russian oil refineries and vessels that are involved in the so-called shadow fleet. In response, Russia should stop attacks on the Ukrainian energy system.

Along with this, the countries will discuss Kyiv«s renunciation of territories in exchange for a financial support program for Ukraine»s recovery worth $800 billion, writes Corriere della Sera citing sources. Also, four documents will be presented at the summit, which are supposed to form the basis of a peace treaty. One of the documents concerns the complete withdrawal of the Ukrainian Armed Forces from Donbas.

«Russia«s position is well known that Ukraine, the Ukrainian armed forces must leave the territory of Donbas, must be withdrawn. This is a very important condition. There are also other nuances that remain on the negotiation agenda,» said Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov.

In addition to Donbas, Ukraine may lose even more territories. However, only a peace agreement can save the country, so believes US President Donald Trump.

«(Kyiv faces new territorial losses. — Ed.), unless we conclude an agreement,» noted the head of the White House in a conversation with journalists.