Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks with French President Emmanuel Macron (right), British Prime Minister Keir Starmer (left), and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz during a meeting in Kyiv on May 10.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks with French President Emmanuel Macron (right), British Prime Minister Keir Starmer (left), and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz during a meeting in Kyiv on May 10.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is due to arrive in London on December 8 to meet with his key allies — the so-called European 3 — looking to bolster Kyiv’s negotiating position following his team’s talks in Florida with US officials.
Along with discussions on an elusive peace proposal, the Ukrainian leader is set to push for additional defensive weapons from his allies as Russia steps up attacks on civilian and energy infrastructure sites as the winter cold weather moves in.
“Almost every day and every night, our emergency services eliminate the consequences of Russian shelling of peaceful Ukrainian cities and communities,” he wrote on Telegram, adding there were some 1,600 Russian drone attacks and 1,200 guided aerial bombs launched against Ukraine over the past week.
“We continue to work with partners to strengthen our defense in response to these strikes. The priority is obvious — more air-defense systems and missiles, more support for our defenders. Each agreement should be implemented faster,” he added.
In London, Zelenskyy is scheduled to meet with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz — Kyiv’s biggest backers in Europe.
“Ukraine can count on our unwavering support. That is the whole point of the efforts we have undertaken as part of the coalition of the willing,” Macron said on X on December 6, referring to a loose grouping of Western countries aiming to provide more military support for Ukraine.
Macron said the group of four leaders would “take stock” of peace negotiations when they convene in London.
On the eve of the visit, senior British cabinet minister Pat McFadden said Ukraine was facing a “pivotal moment” and that its security and sovereignty would be “at the heart” of the leaders’ talks
“The principle behind the talks will be for Ukraine to be able to decide its own future,” McFadden, who has been a vocal supporter of Kyiv, told Sky News.
“This is a really pivotal moment now. Everybody wants the war to come to an end, but they want it to come to an end in a way that gives Ukraine that freedom of choice in the future,” McFadden added.
The London talks follow three days of negotiations between Ukrainian and US officials near Miami. Those discussions ended with a positive tone but produced no evident breakthrough.
US President Donald Trump’s administration is pressing Kyiv to accept a peace proposal that many critics have said is highly tilted in Russia’s favor.
After the Florida talks, Zelenskyy said on Telegram that “Ukraine is committed to continuing to work honestly with the American side to bring about real peace,” adding that the parties agreed on the next steps and a format for talks, without disclosing further details.
In his nightly video address on December 7, Zelenskyy said the “American envoys are aware of Ukraine’s core positions, and the conversation was constructive, though not easy.”
The recent flurry of diplomacy around ending the war was sparked when a US 28-point peace plan was leaked to the media in November. That original proposal appeared to heavily favor Russia, although it has since undergone several changes to take Kyiv’s concerns more into account. The most recent version of the proposal has not been shared publicly.
The White House has pushed Kyiv and Moscow to agree to a plan to end the war, but there has been little sign of headway, despite both sides engaging with the US-led process.
Questions remain over what the final US peace plan will look like and whether Russia is willing to make concessions to its maximalist positions that it has held since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping standing next to French President Emmanuel Macron during a welcome ceremony in Beijing on December 4
Speaking at the Reagan National Defense Forum in California on December 7, Trump’s outgoing Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg, said a deal to end the Ukraine war was “really close.”
The two main outstanding issues, Kellogg said, were on territory — primarily the future control of Ukraine’s Donbas region — and the status of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant — which is Europe’s largest and remains under Russian control.
“If we get those two issues settled, I think the rest of the things will work out fairly well,” Kellogg said. “We’re almost there.”
The territory and US security guarantees are long-standing sticking points for any possible deal.
Ukraine maintains that a just end to the war would include reliable security guarantees and would not force it to surrender more territory to Russia.
Meanwhile, Russia has continued its air strikes on key Ukrainian infrastructure as winter temperatures continue to fall.
Oleksandr Gusarov, mayor of the town of Pechenihy, said on Telegram on December 7 that Russian forces had struck a dam in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, disrupting a supply route used by Ukrainian forces, who are engaged in fierce ground battles in the region.
A drone strike on a Single Point Mooring oil-loading facility near Novorossiysk has had a devastating impact on the Black Sea port’s capacity. (file photo)
“The Russian army has launched and continues to launch missile strikes on the dam of the Pechenihy reservoir,” he wrote, without giving an exact time frame.
“There is a probable threat of destruction of the Pechenihy hydroelectric dam by the enemy. An emergency situation may occur due to catastrophic flooding of territories downstream.”
Earlier, the mayor of the central Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk, a key industrial hub home to one of Ukraine’s biggest oil refineries, said his city suffered a “massive” attack that caused power and water damage. No deaths were reported.
Ahead of the London talks, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni — who is not expected to be at the meeting — spoke by phone with Zelenskyy and reaffirmed Rome’s solidarity with Kyiv and pledged to supply emergency supplies to support Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and its population, her office said.
