Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he would be willing to withdraw troops from the country’s eastern industrial heartland as part of a plan to end Russia’s war, if Moscow also pulls back and the area becomes a demilitarised zone monitored by international forces. The proposal offered another potential compromise on control of the Donbas region, which has been a major sticking point in peace negotiations. Washington and Kyiv have edged closer to a jointly agreed formula to end the war amid continuing uncertainty over Moscow’s response. Regardless of whether it is accepted by Moscow, it marks a success for Kyiv in rewriting an earlier US draft that had been criticised as a Kremlin wishlist. Zelenskyy said he expected US negotiators to be in contact with the Kremlin on Wednesday.
A majority of Russians expect the war in Ukraine to end in 2026, a state pollster said, in a sign that the Kremlin could be testing public reaction to a possible peace settlement as diplomatic efforts to end the conflict intensify. Officials said 70% of the 1,600 respondents saw 2026 as a more “successful” year for Russia than this year, while for 55% that hope was linked to a possible end to what Russia calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine.
A sunflower oil spill, caused by Russian aerial bombardments, has contaminated the shoreline around the southern Ukrainian city of Odesa, killing wildlife and triggering warnings from conservationists. Odesa has been targeted with some of the heaviest strikes of the war in recent weeks, in what Ukrainian officials have slammed as an attempt to hobble Ukraine’s maritime network and its vital agricultural exports. The Pivdenny port in the region was temporarily closed on Wednesday to help with the clean-up.
Russian air defence units downed 25 Moscow-bound Ukrainian drones on Wednesday, Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said. Emergency crews were examining fragments where they hit the ground, but no damage was reported, he said. Two of the four major airports servicing the capital limited operations for a time, Russia’s civil aviation authority said on Telegram.