At least two people have been killed in clashes in Aleppo between Syrian government forces and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) that control the country’s northeast. Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa signed a deal in March with the SDF to integrate the group into the country’s state institutions by the end of this year.
Published On 22 Dec 202522 Dec 2025
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New York City, United States – Since the recent termination of the nearly decade-old trade rule called “de minimis,” United States consumers and businesses have been exposed to slower shipping, destroyed packages and steep tariff fees on international goods – foreshadowing what could make for a chaotic holiday shopping season.
For major international carrier UPS, navigating the latest regulatory changes has proved more fraught than for its competitors FedEx and DHL.
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Matthew Wasserbach, brokerage manager for Express Customs Clearance in New York, a firm that assists importers with documentation, tariff classifications, valuation, and other federal requirements, has witnessed the fallout as UPS customers seek his firm’s assistance to clear packages entering the US.
“Over the last few months, we’ve been seeing a lot of UPS shipments, in particular, becoming stuck and being lost or disposed of … This all stems from the ending of the de minimis,” said Wasserbach. “Their [UPS’s] whole business model changed once the de minimis was ended. And they just didn’t have the capacity to do the clearance … a lot of people are expecting to receive international packages, and they’re just never gonna get them.”
UPS did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment.
Since 2016, the de minimis trade exemption determined that packages worth $800 or less were not subject to taxes and tariffs. According to US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the number of shipments entering the US claiming the exemption increased by more than 600 percent from 139 million shipments in 2015 to more than one billion in 2023.
In August, this all changed. President Donald Trump signed an executive order suspending de minimis treatment for all countries, spiralling US imports into a new landscape of paperwork and processes, subject to duties and tariffs based on their place of origin.
Just a month after de minimis ended, while shipping products with UPS, Tezumi Tea, an online Japanese tea and teaware company that sells its products online and through meetups in New York City, fell victim to the tariff backlog at US customs. Tezumi lost roughly 150kg (330lbs) of matcha, totalling about $13,000.
“We responded by increasing buffers in our supply planning across the dozen farms that we partner with,” said Ryan Snowden, a cofounder of Tezumi. “Even with those adjustments, the loss had a severe effect on a number of our cafe customers who suddenly needed to switch to another matcha blend.”
Now, UPS is no longer accepting shipments from Japan, and Tezumi has switched to shipping supplies through alternate carriers such as DHL and FedEx.
Wasserbach has witnessed similar instances of UPS losing imports.
“When a UPS package goes uncleared, it’s just basically sitting in a UPS facility, uncleared for a certain period of time,” said Wasserbach. “Then UPS indicates in their tracking that they’re disposing of the shipments without making, really, any effort, from what I’ve seen, to contact either the sender or the receiver, to get information they need to do to get the clearance.”
Wasserbach shared email chains with Al Jazeera from UPS customers who looped in his firm to their customs clearance UPS debacles.
In one exchange, UPS customer Stephan Niznik responded to a notice from the UPS Alternate Broker Team that their packages had been “destroyed”.
“The tracking says on multiple instances that UPS attempted to contact the sender (me), but this is false; aside from a request for more information on September 5 (which I responded to immediately), UPS never attempted to contact me,” wrote Niznik. “It is absolutely disgraceful that my package was mishandled – clothes and children’s toys were destroyed at the hands of UPS.”
In another email chain, UPS told customer Chenying Li that their package was released following an email from Express Customs Clearance stating that the shipment was cleared.
A week later, Li’s package was still showing as “Pending Release”, and when they asked for an update on the shipment, UPS responded, “At this time we are unable to provide an ETA, as volume is currently backed up and awaiting delivery due to the De Minimis impact.”
In addition to the customs backlog, Virginia Tech associate professor David Bieri says cost prevention may provide one explanation for UPS choosing to dispose of packages rejected by US customs rather than return the shipments to senders.
“All these additional rules and regulations impose additional pressure on already relatively tight margins for these companies – UPS, FedEx, DHL and so forth,” said Bieri. “They need to make money, and sometimes it’s easier not to fulfil a service than to take on the additional cost of customs clearance and making sure that it gets to its final destination.”
Bieri added that UPS resorting to package disposal may indicate that they believe themselves to be in “a sufficiently strong monopolistic position that they can do such horrible practice – unilateral nonfulfillment of contract”.
Wasserbach told Al Jazeera that “with FedEx and DHL shipments, we aren’t seeing these problems”.
When asked whether FedEx has disposed of packages stuck in customs, a spokesperson wrote, “If paperwork is not complete and/or rejected by US Customs and Border Protection, FedEx actively works with senders to update paperwork to resubmit to CBP or return shipments to senders. In some cases, shippers can request that packages be disposed of if they would prefer not to pay to return to sender. In those rare cases, recipients are notified at the direction of the shipper. This is not a common practice. We remain business as usual.”
But FedEx and DHL are encountering some of the same challenges as UPS. Since August, when de minimis ended and small packages were suddenly subject to taxes and tariffs, anyone who ordered from abroad was susceptible to unexpected fees on imported goods.
Without de minimis protecting packages worth $800 and less from import fees, the consumer essentially becomes the importer.
“You might order something you find a bargain abroad, and you don’t pay attention to where things are shipped from … and it might be shipped from China, and you might be in for a rude awakening once that thing arrives at your door,” said Beiri. “You paid the price and thought that this was it. But your deliverer is saying, no, actually, we’re passing that cost on to you. Because you’re acting as the importer.”
These fees could cost equal to or more than the item you ordered itself. “You’ve got to pay extra attention to small prints,” said Beiri.
With looming costs and lost packages on the horizon, Beiri says shoppers will likely make “substitution questions” – are you renovating or are you going on vacation? Are you splashing on Christmas gifts, or are you treating yourself to dining out?
“I think these are interesting times of having to make choices and asking yourself what can we do given that we have an affordability crisis, rent, insurance, making ends meet,” said Beiri. “That’s what’s currently going on.”
In order to better handle evolving trade policy, Wasserbach says that UPS will likely aim to hire a massive number of entry writers to assist with necessary documentation for legal transportation of goods across international borders. However, now that it is the busiest time of year in terms of delivering people their Christmas shopping, Wasserbach doubts an influx of hiring could make much of a difference, given the amount of training required.
The company’s revenue has already taken a hit on account of Trump’s policies. Tariffs on China and the elimination of the de minimis rule saw imports from China, UPS’s most profitable route, drop reportedly 35 percent earlier this year.
“I would assume it’s gonna get better next year,” said Wasserbach. “But as for solving this problem before Christmas, I don’t think that that’s gonna happen.”
MSF official tells Al Jazeera South Darfur hospital ‘overwhelmed’ by rapid increase in measles cases.
Displaced Sudanese families in the war-torn Darfur region are grappling with a dangerous measles outbreak that is spreading rapidly, a Doctors Without Borders (MSF) official warns.
Dr Ali Almohammed, an MSF emergency health manager, told Al Jazeera on Monday that the group has been “overwhelmed” by measles cases arriving each day at the Nyala Teaching Hospital in South Darfur, where MSF provides paediatric and maternal healthcare.
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“We have 25 beds [in] isolation for measles, but every day the number of cases is increasing,” Almohammed said in an interview from Amsterdam.
“The capacity of MSF to respond to all the needs of the people in Darfur is really limited. We cannot cover everything. Yes, we are trying to focus on the most lifesaving medical care, but still, our capacity is also limited,” he said.
The outbreak of measles, a vaccine-preventable virus, comes as violence between the Sudanese military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in the western region of Darfur and neighbouring areas has surged in recent weeks.
More than 100,000 people have fled their homes in el-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur State, after the RSF seized control of the city in late October after an 18-month siege.
The United Nations recently warned that Darfur has become “the epicentre of human suffering in the world” and UN and other humanitarian agencies have stressed that trapped civilians lack medicines, food and other critical supplies.
According to MSF, more than 1,300 new measles cases have been reported in Darfur since September.
An extremely contagious virus, measles causes high fevers, coughing and rashes.
It is particularly dangerous for children under age five because it can cause serious health complications, according to a fact sheet from the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
This week, MSF said that while nearly 179,000 Sudanese children had been vaccinated against the disease over six months last year, they are only a fraction of the 5 million who are at risk.
The organisation said it is not able to operate in most of North Darfur, including el-Fasher, or in East Darfur as a result of the ongoing conflict.
Almohammed also warned that other preventable diseases, such as diphtheria and whooping cough, are now appearing in Darfur with the number of vaccines arriving just a “drop in the ocean” of what’s needed.
According to MSF, shipping vaccines has been difficult due to ongoing violence as well as “significant administrative and bureaucratic hurdles”.
“We urge authorities to immediately eliminate all bureaucratic and administrative barriers to transporting vaccines throughout Darfur,” the organisation said in a statement.
“At the same time, there must be greater urgency from UNICEF to coordinate efforts to increase the transport and delivery of vaccines, syringes and the necessary supplies.”
Meanwhile, attacks on healthcare facilities in Sudan have worsened the situation for civilians and medical personnel.
On Saturday, the Sudan Doctors Network said the RSF released nine medical workers from detention in Nyala in South Darfur out of a total of 73 health workers who had been detained by the paramilitary group.
The network welcomed the move as a “positive” step but called for the release of all detained medical workers and civilians without exception.
On Friday, the World Health Organization said attacks on healthcare facilities in Sudan have killed 1,858 people and wounded 490 since the conflict began in mid-April 2023.
At least 70 health workers and about 5,000 civilians have been detained in Nyala in recent months, it added.
A day earlier, the Sudan Doctors Network said 234 medical workers have been killed, 507 injured and 59 reported missing since the war began.
Prosecutors accuse the official, named as Fahad A, of torturing dozens of prisoners in jail run by Syrian intelligence.
Published On 22 Dec 202522 Dec 2025
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German prosecutors have charged a former Syrian security official with crimes against humanity, accusing him of torturing dozens of prisoners at a Damascus jail while ex-President Bashar al-Assad was in power.
Germany’s Federal Public Prosecutor General’s office announced the indictment on Monday, alleging the ex-prison guard, named only as Fahad A, took part in more than 100 interrogations between 2011 and 2012 in which prisoners were “subjected to severe physical abuse”.
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The abuse included electric shocks, cable beatings, forced stress positions and suspensions from the ceiling, according to a statement by the prosecutor’s office.
“As a result of such mistreatment and the catastrophic prison conditions, at least 70 prisoners died,” said the statement, noting the former guard is also charged with murder.
The official was arrested on May 27 and formally indicted on December 10.
He is being held in pre-trial detention, the German prosecutor’s office added.
Syrians have demanded justice for crimes committed under the decades-long rule of al-Assad, who was removed from power in December 2024 after a rapid rebel offensive.
The Assad regime, which was accused of mass human rights abuses, including the torture of detainees and enforced disappearances, fell after nearly 14 years of civil war.
In Germany, prosecutors have used universal jurisdiction laws to seek trials for suspects in crimes against humanity committed anywhere in the world.
Based on these laws, several people suspected of war crimes during the Syrian conflict have been arrested in the last few years in Germany, which is home to about one million Syrians.
In June, a court in Frankfurt handed a life sentence to a Syrian doctor convicted of carrying out acts of torture as part of al-Assad’s crackdown on dissent.
The doctor, Alaa Mousa, was accused of torturing patients at military hospitals in Damascus and Homs, where political prisoners were regularly brought for supposed treatment.
Witnesses described Mousa pouring flammable liquid on a prisoner’s wounds before setting them alight and kicking the man in the face, shattering his teeth. In another incident, the doctor was accused of injecting a detainee with a fatal substance for refusing to be beaten.
One former prisoner described the Damascus hospital where he was held as a “slaughterhouse”.
Presiding judge, Christoph Koller, said the verdict underscored the “brutality of Assad’s dictatorial, unjust regime”.
On December 16, Sudanese political parties, armed movements, civil society organisations, and prominent political figures signed a nine-point political roadmap in Nairobi, presenting it as a civilian-led initiative aimed at ending Sudan’s war and restoring a democratic transition.
Framed as an antiwar, pro-peace platform, it seeks to position civilians as a “third pole” against the two military actors in Sudan’s conflict: the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
Its authors say it represents an attempt to reclaim political agency for civilians after months of marginalisation by armed actors and foreign mediators, even though the declaration does not outline any concrete steps towards military reform.
The roadmap reignited longstanding debates within Sudanese political and civic circles about representation, legitimacy, and the persistent dominance of elite-driven civilian politics.
The Nairobi declaration emerged after a statement released by the Quad – Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and the United States – in September.
The Quad statement called for an immediate three-month truce to lead to a permanent ceasefire, humanitarian access to help civilians, and the creation of a political process for a civilian transition.
It also emphasised excluding remnants of former President Omar al-Bashir’s regime and reforming Sudan’s security forces under civilian oversight, all points that the Nairobi declaration echoed.
The Nairobi signatories included the National Umma Party, the Sudanese Congress Party, civil society organisations – including the Darfur Lawyers Association and the Coordination of Internally Displaced Persons and Refugees – and the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM-AW) led by Abdelwahid al-Nur.
Former Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, who led Sudan’s transitional civilian government from al-Bashir’s overthrow in 2019 until the October 2021 military coup by the SAF and the RSF working in concert, also signed the declaration.
It was likewise endorsed by al-Nur, longtime leader of the SLM-AW armed group that controls Jebel Marra in Darfur and has historically rejected what he describes as “elite-driven” political settlements.
Sudanese researcher Hamid Khalafallah told Al Jazeera that despite the intent to present a civilian leadership, the declaration falls short of reflecting Sudan’s broader civic movement.
The Nairobi coalition, he argued, mirrors earlier civilian formations that failed to connect with Sudanese citizens, particularly those most affected by the war.
“It’s in many ways a reproduction of former groups that have … struggled to represent the Sudanese people,” he said. “It’s still very much an elite group that does politics in the same way they always have.”
Although resistance committees – neighbourhood groups that emerged from Sudan’s protest movement and helped topple al-Bashir in 2019 – were referenced in the declaration, no committees formally endorsed or signed it.
Drafts were reportedly shared with some grassroots groups, but the process advanced without waiting for collective deliberation – reinforcing concerns that civilians on the ground remain politically instrumentalised rather than empowered.
While al-Nur’s participation was hailed by some as a breakthrough, Khalafallah questioned the underlying motivation, arguing that his inclusion was intended to counterbalance rival military-aligned forces rather than transform civilian politics.
Before the Nairobi declaration, there were three main civilian coalitions in Sudan, each aligned with a warring party or accused of such an alliance.
Tasis is the coalition of political parties and armed movements that was founded in February 2025, before forming the RSF’s parallel government in July 2025, while the Democratic Bloc is a grouping of parties and armed groups aligned with the SAF.
Finally comes Hamdok’s Sumoud, comprising political parties and civil society organisations and accused by SAF of supporting the RSF.
European officials have distanced themselves from the Nairobi initiative.
A senior European Union diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Al Jazeera that Brussels does not see the Nairobi roadmap as the foundation for a unified civilian process.
“We would like to see only one civilian process, that’s why we are helping the African Union [AU],” the source said. “Everything else is a distraction, like this Nairobi one.”
According to the EU official, the priority is not multiplying civilian platforms but consolidating them under a single credible framework, led by the AU and broadly accepted by Sudanese society.
“Our aim is to create a credible third pole – versus RSF and SAF,” the source said. “An inclusive one, supported by most Sudanese citizens.”
The EU plans to build a broad coalition that can take the lead after the Quad’s humanitarian truce and ceasefire proposals are accepted by the SAF and the RSF, including reforms placing security forces under civilian-led oversight.
The EU’s language reflects growing frustration among international actors with Sudan’s fragmented civilian landscape, while insisting that abandoning it would legitimise military rule by default.
“Of course, we are not naive that civilians will take over tomorrow,” the source said. “But we have to stand for our values.”
The EU official was blunt in assessing the conduct of Sudan’s warring parties, rejecting narratives that frame either side as a governing authority.
“I would not call what RSF does in Darfur ‘governing’, SAF is a bit better – but not much,” the source said.
“Look at the oil deal they did,” the official added. “Money is important; people are not.”
They referred to the latest agreement between the SAF and the RSF – under South Sudanese mediation – that both would withdraw from the Heglig oil facility, with South Sudanese troops deployed to secure the refinery following SAF’s pullout and the RSF’s capture of the site.
US-Africa policy expert Cameron Hudson told Al Jazeera that the Nairobi declaration appears to mimic the Quad’s recent statement, effectively presenting to the international community a roadmap that aligns with pre-existing objectives to gain Quad support.
“My sense is that the Nairobi declaration reverse engineers what the Quad has said,” Hudson said, suggesting that the initiative is designed more to attract international endorsement than to build genuine domestic consensus.
Hudson warned that this approach mishandles the sequencing of Sudan’s political transition, “prematurely” linking ceasefire efforts with reforms of the army or other political changes, arguing that these should remain on separate tracks until violence subsides.
“If what the Quad wants is an unconditional ceasefire, then it needs to pursue that, not create opportunities to trade a ceasefire for political assurances during a transition,” he said.
“For that reason, it is premature to be talking about reforming the army or other political reforms. These should remain in separate tracks for now.”
The tension is stark. The Quad and the European Union increasingly state that neither the SAF nor the RSF should have a political future and that remnants of the Bashir regime must be excluded entirely.
Yet both armed forces remain indispensable to any cessation of hostilities, creating an unresolved contradiction at the heart of international strategy.
US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff has hailed talks on ending Moscow’s war in Ukraine as “productive and constructive”, after holding separate meetings with Ukrainian, European and Russian negotiators in the state of Florida.
The talks in Miami on Sunday were the latest in a series of meetings between the US, Russia and Ukraine on a 20-point plan touted by US President Donald Trump to end the nearly four-year-old war.
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Despite the optimism from the US, there have been no clear signals of imminent resolutions to key hurdles, including on the issue of the territory Russia has seized during the conflict.
Witkoff, who met with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s special envoy Kirill Dmitriev on Saturday, held talks on Sunday with officials from Ukraine and Europe. He then held separate talks with the Ukrainian delegation, led by senior official Rustem Umerov.
Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, also joined the meetings.
Witkoff, in a joint statement with Umerov, called Sunday’s talks “productive and constructive”, saying they focused on a “shared strategic approach between Ukraine, the United States and Europe”.
“Particular attention was given to discussing timelines and the sequencing of next steps,” they said.
Witkoff and Umerov said that bilateral discussions between Ukrainian and US officials on Sunday focused on developing and aligning positions on four key documents: the 20-point plan, a “multilateral security guarantee framework,” a “US Security guarantee framework for Ukraine”, and an “economic & prosperity plan”.
In a separate X post that used some of the same language, Witkoff said his talks with Dmitriev were also “productive and constructive”.
“Russia remains fully committed to achieving peace in Ukraine,” Witkoff said in the post. “Russia highly values the efforts and support of the United States to resolve the Ukrainian conflict and re-establish global security.”
Earlier on Sunday, Putin’s top foreign policy aide, Yury Ushakov, said that the changes requested by Ukraine and its European allies to the framework put forth by the US were not improving prospects for peace.
Ushakov said that Dmitriev was due to return to Moscow on Monday and would report to Putin on the outcome of his talks.
“After that, we will formulate the position with which we will proceed, including in our contacts with the Americans,” he said.
Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, sees Europe as “pro-war” and argues that its participation in the talks only hinders them.
Separately on Sunday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Putin was ready to talk with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, after the latter said Europe should reach out to the Russian president to end the war.
Putin has “expressed readiness to engage in dialogue with Macron”, Peskov told Russian state news agency RIA Novosti. “Therefore, if there is mutual political will, then this can only be assessed positively.”
Macron’s office welcomed the Russian statement.
“It is welcome that the Kremlin has publicly agreed to this approach. We will decide in the coming days on the best way to proceed,” it said.
Trump first shared his plan consisting of 28 points to end the war in Ukraine last month, triggering immediate criticism from European leaders who said it echoed the Kremlin’s demands.
Zelenskyy has since said that Ukraine and its European allies have shared their own version of a 20-point plan, which was based on the initial plan put forward by the White House.
One of the key sticking points between Russia and Ukraine remains Russia’s demand to retain some of the land it has captured in Ukraine since launching its full-scale invasion after years of fighting in Ukraine’s east.
Zelenskyy has described the talks as “constructive” and said they were “moving at a fairly rapid pace”. He nevertheless cautioned that “much depends on whether Russia feels the need to end the war for real”.
He also hailed this week as “historic” for Ukraine, thanking Europe for pledging $100bn of funding over the next two years.
These are the key developments from day 1,397 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Published On 22 Dec 202522 Dec 2025
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Here is where things stand on Monday, December 22:
Yury Ushakov’s remarks come a day after US and Russian officials held talks on the US proposal in Florida.
Published On 21 Dec 202521 Dec 2025
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Russian President Vladimir Putin’s top foreign policy aide says that changes made by European countries and Ukraine to the United States’ proposals for an end to Russia’s war on Ukraine did not improve prospects for peace.
“I am sure that the proposals that the Europeans and Ukrainians have made or are trying to make definitely do not improve the document and do not improve the possibility of achieving long-term peace,” Yury Ushakov was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies on Sunday.
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The US-drafted proposals for an end to the nearly four-year war, leaked to the media last month, raised European and Ukrainian concerns that they favour more of Russia’s wartime demands and that US President Donald Trump’s administration could push Kyiv into conceding too much.
Since then, European and Ukrainian negotiators have met with Trump envoys in an attempt to add their own proposals to the US drafts, though the exact contents of the current proposal have not been disclosed.
The remarks from Ushakov came after Putin’s special envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, met in Florida on Saturday with US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. Dmitriev said the talks would continue on Sunday.
The Miami meeting followed US talks on Friday with European and Ukrainian officials.
In the wake of those talks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his team should hold more talks with European allies.
“There is a shared sense that after the work by our diplomatic team in the United States, we should now hold consultations with European partners in a broader circle,” Zelenskyy said in a post on X on Sunday.
Zelenskyy had said on Saturday that Ukraine would back a US proposal for three-way talks with the US and Russia if it facilitated more exchanges of prisoners and paved the way for meetings of national leaders.
Ushakov said that a proposal for three-way talks had not been seriously discussed by anyone and that it was not being worked on.
Russia says that European leaders are intent on scuttling the talks by introducing conditions that they know will be unacceptable to Russia, which took 12-17 square kilometres (4.6 to 6.6 square miles) of Ukrainian territory per day in 2025.
Ukraine and European leaders say that Russia cannot be allowed to achieve its aims in what they call its imperial-style land grab.
In Ukraine, fighting continues with the Ukrainian army battling an attempted Russian breakthrough in the Sumy region, it said on Sunday, following reports that Moscow forcibly moved 50 people from a border village there.
This marks a renewed Russian advance in the part of the region previously largely spared from intense ground fighting since Ukraine regained land there in a swift 2022 counter-offensive.
“Fighting is currently ongoing in the village of Grabovske,” Ukraine’s joint task force said, adding the troops were “making efforts to drive the occupiers back into Russian territory”.
Zelenskyy said that over the week, “Russia has launched approximately 1,300 attack drones, nearly 1,200 guided aerial bombs, and nine missiles of various types” against Ukraine.
Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 after eight years of fighting in the country’s east.
Some European leaders feel sidelined as US mediation takes Russian priorities into consideration.
After years of support from the United States for the Ukraine war to continue “as long as it takes”, the Trump administration is now pushing to end Europe’s war – quickly and imperfectly.
While details are still under negotiation, they include issues such as ensuring Ukraine never joins NATO and Russia’s control over about 20 percent of Ukraine.
To understand the implications for Europe, the US and their relations, host Steve Clemons speaks with Kurt Volker, Trump’s former special representative for Ukraine negotiations, and retired Colonel Heino Klinck, former director of US Army international affairs.
Published On 21 Dec 202521 Dec 2025
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“These peace negotiations are a farce.”
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Negotiators from Russia and the United States have met in the US city of Miami as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged Washington to ramp up the pressure on Moscow to end its war on Ukraine.
The meeting on Saturday took place between Russian President Vladimir Putin’s special envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, and US President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
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Dmitriev told the reporters the talks were positive and would continue on Sunday.
“The discussions are proceeding constructively,” said Dmitriev. “They began earlier and will continue today, and will also continue tomorrow.”
Earlier, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had said that he may also join the talks in Miami. He said that progress has been made in discussions to end the war, but there is still a way to go.
“The role we’re trying to play is a role of figuring out whether there’s any overlap here that they can agree to, and that’s what we’ve invested a lot of time and energy [on], and continue to do so,” Rubio said. “That may not be possible. I hope it is. I hope it can get done this month, before the end of the year.”
Trump’s envoys have for weeks been negotiating a 20-point peace plan with Ukrainian, Russian and European officials.
While US officials say they have made progress, major differences remain on the issues of territory and possible security guarantees that Kyiv says are essential for any agreement.
Russia has shown few signs that it is willing to give up its expansive territorial demands in Ukraine, which it believes it is well-positioned to secure as the war grinds on and political fractures emerge among Ukraine’s European allies.
In Kyiv, Zelenskyy said he remains supportive of a US-led negotiations process, but that diplomacy needs to be accompanied by greater pressure on Russia.
“America must clearly say, if not diplomacy, then there will be full pressure… Putin does not yet feel the kind of pressure that should exist,” he said.
The Ukrainian leader said Washington has also proposed a new format for talks with Russia, comprised of three-way talks at the level of national security advisers from Ukraine, Russia, and the US.
Zelenskyy expressed scepticism that the talks would result in “anything new”, but said he would support trilateral discussions if they led to progress in areas such as prisoner swaps or a meeting of national leaders.
“If such a meeting could be held now to allow for swaps of prisoners of war, or if a meeting of national security advisers achieves agreement on a leaders’ meeting… I cannot be opposed. We would support such a US proposal. Let’s see how things go,” he said.
The last time Ukrainian and Russian envoys held official direct talks was in July in Istanbul, which led to prisoner swaps but little else.
The talks in Miami come after Putin promised to press ahead with his military offensive in Ukraine, hailing Moscow’s battlefield gains in an annual news conference on Friday.
Putin, however, suggested that Russia could pause its devastating strikes on the country to allow Ukraine to hold a presidential ballot, a prospect that Zelenskyy rejected.
Meanwhile, the death toll in Ukraine’s Black Sea Odesa region from an overnight Russian ballistic missile strike on port infrastructure rose to eight, with 30 people wounded.
A civilian bus was struck in the attack, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said.
The Russian attacks on the coastline region have wrought havoc in recent weeks, hitting bridges and cutting electricity and heating for hundreds of thousands in freezing temperatures.
Moscow earlier said it would expand strikes on Ukrainian ports as retaliation for targeting its sanctions-busting oil tankers.
On Saturday, Ukraine claimed to have destroyed two Russian fighter jets at an airfield in Moscow-occupied Crimea, according to the security service SBU. Kyiv’s army said it struck a Russian oil rig in the Caspian Sea as well as a patrol ship nearby.
Putin described Russia’s initial full-scale invasion of Ukraine as a “special military operation” to “demilitarise” the country and prevent the expansion of NATO.
Kyiv and its European allies say the war, the largest and deadliest on European soil since World War II, is an unprovoked and illegal land grab that has resulted in a tidal wave of violence and destruction.
Here is where things stand on Sunday, December 21:
A Russian ballistic missile strike on port infrastructure in Ukraine’s Odesa port in the south has killed at least eight people and wounded 27, as Moscow intensifies attacks on the strategic Black Sea region and talks to end the war remain in a critical stage.
The attack late on Friday hit critical logistics infrastructure, with some of the wounded trapped on a bus at the strike’s epicentre as trucks caught fire in a car park.
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Ukrainian officials say the bombardment is part of a sustained Russian campaign against Odesa’s civilian infrastructure that has left more than two million people without electricity, water and heating for days amid freezing temperatures in the war’s fourth punishing winter.
Moscow struck the same port again on Saturday, hitting reservoirs in what Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Oleksii Kuleba described as deliberately targeting civilian logistics routes.
The escalation comes as both sides trade blows across multiple fronts, while United States-led negotiations and numerous high-level meetings in Europe to end the war lumber on without a breakthrough.
Russia claimed on Saturday to have seized the villages of Svitle in the eastern Donetsk region and Vysoke in the northeastern Sumy region, though the reports could not be independently verified.
Ukraine has responded with a widening campaign against Russian military and energy assets.
On Friday night, Ukrainian drones struck the Filanovsky oil rig belonging to Russian energy giant Lukoil in the Caspian Sea, along with a military patrol ship patrolling near the platform.
The attack marked the first officially acknowledged Ukrainian strike on Caspian drilling infrastructure, though the rig had been hit at least twice before in December.
Between December 14 and 15, Ukrainian forces used sea drones to strike a Russian Kilo-class submarine at the Novorossiysk Naval Base in the Black Sea, according to a United Kingdom Defence Intelligence assessment.
The attacks unfold as American and European officials gather in Miami for weekend talks aimed at ending the nearly four-year war, with Russian and Ukrainian teams also in attendance.
Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev said on Saturday he was heading to Miami.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington would not force Ukraine into any agreement, though he described the conflict as “not our war”.
Trump envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are leading discussions with Ukrainian negotiator Rustem Umerov and officials from the UK, France and Germany. Russian representatives, including Kremlin key negotiator Dmitriev, are meeting separately with American officials.
The key obstacle remains territorial concessions, with reports suggesting Washington is pushing Kyiv to cede parts of the eastern Donetsk region.
Russian President Vladimir Putin showed no signs of compromise at his annual choreographed news conference on Friday, pledging to press ahead with military operations and predicting new successes before the year’s end.
Putin’s remarks were the latest in a drumbeat of often-repeated maximalist Russian positions nearly four years after he ordered troops into the neighbouring country.
The issue of territory gained, lost, to be ceded or not, delves into the heart of the matter on one of the most contentious issues in the talks to end the war so far.
Putin has demanded Ukraine cede all territory in four key regions his forces have captured and occupied, along with Crimea, which Moscow seized and annexed in 2014.
He also wants Ukrainian troops to withdraw from parts of eastern Ukraine that Russian forces have not yet taken in the eastern Donetsk region, where fighting remains attritional – conditions Kyiv has rejected outright.
As talks continue, so does the fighting, with Russia controlling large parts of Ukraine’s eastern and Black Sea coastal regions.
Putin projected confidence on Friday about battlefield progress, saying Russian forces had “fully seized strategic initiative” and would make further gains before the year ends.
However, that narrative is on shaky ground this week, as Moscow’s assertion of inevitable victory flew in the face of facts on the ground.
Ukraine steadily took back control of almost all of its northern city of Kupiansk after isolating Russian forces within it, belying Russian claims to have seized it.
Russian forces were also unable to dislodge Ukrainian defenders from the eastern city of Pokrovsk in the eastern area of Donetsk to back up Moscow’s claims of total control.
Ukraine received a boost on Friday when European leaders agreed to provide a 90 billion euros ($105bn) loan to cover military and economic needs for the next two years.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who met Polish President Karol Nawrocki in Warsaw the same day to reinforce regional unity against Russia, said the funds would go towards defence if the war continues or reconstruction if peace is achieved.
These are the key developments from day 1,395 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Published On 20 Dec 202520 Dec 2025
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Here is where things stand on Saturday, 20 December :
Dec. 19 (UPI) — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Friday that U.S. negotiators have made “progress” attempting to end the war between Russia and Ukraine, but ultimately “it’s not our war.”
The Russian invasion of Ukraine was one of several global issues Rubio addressed during his 2-hour year-end news conference with reporters. He said despite the progress in negotiations, “we have a ways to go” to end the nearly four-year war in eastern Europe.
“And obviously, the hardest issues are always the last issues,” he said during the briefing.
“Maybe that happens this week, maybe that happens next month, maybe that’s not ready for a few months,” Rubio said of a deal.
His comments came ahead of a weekend meeting in Miami between U.S. and Russian negotiators. He said that while the United States is trying to work on a deal that would make both parties happy, he’s not willing to force a plan.
“It’s not our war. It’s a war on another continent.
“We can’t force Ukraine to make a deal. We can’t force Russia to make a deal. They have to want to make a deal.”
White House officials said they were optimistic this weekend’s meeting would result in an agreement. Previous talks resulted in about “90%” consensus on terms, the officials told The Hill.
Those terms included a multi-national force deployed to Ukraine to respond to acts of aggression against the country in the future. Earlier this week, European leaders pledged to provide military support to Ukraine in protection against Russia, however Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky conceded over the weekend his country may have to give up its dream of joining NATO to end the war.
As peace talks have gone on, U.S. negotiators have put pressure on Ukraine to make more concessions to Russia, which has remained staunch in its demands, which including giving up land. Politico reported that the Trump administration believes Russia will accept EU membership for Ukraine as well as offers of mutual defense from the United States and European countries.
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Marco Rubio weighed in on Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Hamas peace efforts and defended the Trump administration’s increasing military pressure on Venezuela during a rare, end-of-year news conference Friday.
In a freewheeling meeting with reporters running more than two hours, Rubio also defended President Trump’s radical overhaul in foreign assistance and detailed the administration’s work to reach a humanitarian ceasefire in Sudan in time for the new year.
Rubio’s appearance in the State Department briefing room comes as key meetings on Gaza and Russia-Ukraine are set to be held in Miami on Friday and Saturday after a tumultuous year in U.S. foreign policy. Rubio has assumed the additional role of national security advisor and emerged as a staunch defender of Trump’s “America First” priorities on issues ranging from visa restrictions to a shakeup of the State Department bureaucracy.
The news conference is taking place just hours before Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff meets with senior officials from Egypt, Turkey and Qatar to discuss the next phase of the Republican president’s Gaza ceasefire plan, progress on which has moved slowly since it was announced in October.
Witkoff and other U.S. officials, including Trump son-in-law and informal advisor Jared Kushner, have been pushing to get the Gaza plan implemented by setting up a “Board of Peace” that will oversee the territory after two years of war and create an international stabilization force that would police the area.
On Saturday, Witkoff, Kushner and Rubio, who will be at his home in Florida for the holidays, are to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s adviser Kirill Dmitriev in Miami to go over the latest iteration of a U.S.-proposed plan to end the Russia-Ukraine war.
Rubio said there would be no peace deal unless both Ukraine and Russia can agree to the terms, making it impossible for the U.S. to force a deal on anyone. Instead, the U.S. is trying to “figure out if we can nudge both sides to a common place.”
“We understand that you’re not going to have a deal unless both sides have to give, and both sides have to get,” Rubio said. “Both sides will have to make concessions if you’re going to have a deal. You may not have a deal. We may not have a deal. It’s unfortunate.”
The U.S. proposal has been through numerous versions with Trump seesawing back and forth between offering support and encouragement for Ukraine and then seemingly sympathizing with Putin’s hard-line stances by pushing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to agree to territorial concessions. Kyiv has rejected that concession in return for security guarantees intended to protect Ukraine from future Russian incursions.
On Venezuela, Rubio has been a leading proponent of military operations against suspected drug-running vessels that have been targeted by the Pentagon in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean since early September. The Trump administration’s actions have ramped up pressure on leftist Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who has been charged with narco-terrorism in the U.S.
In an interview with NBC News on Friday, Trump would not rule out a war with Venezuela. But Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have publicly maintained that the current operations are directed at “narco-terrorists” trying to smuggle deadly drugs into the United States. Maduro has insisted the real purpose of the U.S. military operations is to force him from office.
Rubio sidestepped a direct question about whether the U.S. wants “regime change in 2026” in the South American country.
“We have a regime that’s illegitimate, that cooperates with Iran, that cooperates with Hezbollah, that cooperates with narco-trafficking and narco-terrorist organizations,” Rubio said, “including not just protecting their shipments and allowing them to operate with impunity, but also allows some of them to control territory.”
Rubio defended Trump’s prerogatives on Venezuela and said the administration believes “nothing has happened that requires us to notify Congress or get congressional approval or cross the threshold into war.” He added, “We have very strong legal opinions.”
Trump has spoken of wanting to be remembered as a “peacemaker,” but ceasefires his administration helped craft are already in trouble due to renewed military action between Cambodia and Thailand in Asia and Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Africa. Rubio, however, said those deals helped create a list of commitments that can now be used to bring both sides back to peace.
“Those commitments today are not being kept,” Rubio said of the Thailand-Cambodia conflict, which now threatens to reignite following Thai airstrikes. ”The work now is to bring them back to the table.”
Rubio’s news conference comes just two days after the Trump administration announced a massive $11-billion package of arms sales to Taiwan, a move that infuriated Beijing, which has vowed to retake the island by force if necessary.
Trump has veered between conciliatory and aggressive messages to China since returning to the Oval Office in January, hitting Chinese imports with major tariffs but at the same time offering to ease commercial pressure on Beijing in conversations with China’s President Xi Jinping. The Trump administration, though, has consistently decried China’s increasingly aggressive posture toward Taiwan and its smaller neighbors in disputes over the South China Sea.
Since taking over the State Department, Rubio has moved swiftly to implement Trump’s “America First” agenda, helping dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development and reducing the size of the diplomatic corps through a significant reorganization. Previous administrations have distributed billions of dollars in foreign assistance over the last five decades through USAID.
Critics have said the decision to eliminate USAID and slash foreign aid spending has cost lives overseas, although Rubio and others have denied this, pointing to ongoing disaster relief operations in the Philippines, the Caribbean and elsewhere, along with new global health compacts being signed with countries that previously had programs run by USAID.
“We have a limited amount of money that can be dedicated to foreign aid and humanitarian assistance,” Rubio said. “And that has to be applied in a way that furthers our national interest.”
Lee and Klepper write for the Associated Press. AP writer Bill Barrow contributed to this report.
The war on Ukraine was a big topic at Vladimir Putin’s annual televised question and answer session, but the Russian president wouldn’t say if the war is coming to an end.
Published On 19 Dec 202519 Dec 2025
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Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during his annual live broadcast press conference with Russian federal, regional, and foreign media in Moscow. Photo by Sergei Ilnitsky/EPA
Dec. 19 (UPI) — Russian President Vladimir Putin said he was determined to continue the war in Ukraine until his conditions are met, which include taking Ukrainian territory.
Putin spoke at his annual press conference and touted Russia’s recent gains in the region.
“The strategic initiative is completely in the hands of the Russian forces,” Putin said. He added that Russia is “ready to end the conflict peacefully” if Ukraine cedes large areas of its eastern territories.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said Ukraine won’t give up its land, which is set by the country’s constitution.
Russia has also demanded that Ukraine give up its bid to join NATO and said that if NATO members sent troops, Russia would view them as “legitimate targets.”
“The ball is entirely in the court of our Western opponents,” he said, adding that Russia had agreed to compromises proposed by the United States in its peace plan negotiated by the President Donald Trump administration.
Earlier this week, Zelensky was asked if Kyiv would give up its attempts to join NATO. He said Ukraine’s “position remains unchanged.”
“The United States don’t see us in NATO, for now,” he said. “Politicians change.”
European leaders have agreed to continue funding Ukraine in its fight against Russia with a two-year, $105 billion loan for munitions in the ongoing war.
European leaders couldn’t agree on their first choice to arm Ukraine using frozen Russian state assets to back the loan.
The plan to use frozen Russian assets fell apart in the final moments after Belgium pushed back, fearful that it would be at legal and financial risk. The bank holding the assets is in Belgium, and Russia has sued to block the plan.
European leaders announced Thursday that they will instead use money from the EU budget. The new plan could be more costly and difficult to mobilize.
Ukrainian military successes and Russian narratives clashed this week, as Moscow’s assertion of inevitable victory flew in the face of facts on the ground.
Ukraine steadily took back control of almost all of its northern city of Kupiansk after isolating Russian forces within it, belying Russian claims to have seized it.
Russian forces were also unable to dislodge Ukrainian defenders from the eastern city of Pokrovsk to back up Moscow’s claims of total control.
And Moscow attempted to deny Ukraine’s successful use of an underwater unmanned vehicle to severely damage a Kilo-class submarine, despite visual evidence.
Ukrainian forces operating in the northern Kharkiv region said they had cut Russian logistics to Kupiansk, surrounded a vanguard of 200 Russians inside it, and cleared Russian forces out of forests north of the city on December 12.
Geolocated footage showed Ukrainian forces advancing in the city the following day and taking back the southern suburb of Yuvileynyi, pushing Russian troops to the northern and western suburbs.
The Russian position had become more precarious by Monday. Ukrainian forces said they prevented reinforcements from entering the city through a gas pipeline, a tactic Russia had used in the siege of Chasiv Yar, and the isolated Russian troops were being supplied solely by drone. Ukraine’s General Staff said its forces were still repelling Russian attacks on Friday.
Russia’s Ministry of Defence insisted it had control of the situation. “Units of the Zapad Group of Forces exercise reliable control over all districts of liberated Kupiansk,” it said on Monday, claiming that Ukraine’s efforts to enter the city from the south were being suppressed.
“The only thing that can be said for sure is that the Russian Armed Forces are still holding part of the centre and north of Kupiansk, but most of it is already either in the grey zone or under the control of the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” wrote a Russian military reporter on the Telegram messaging app.
On Wednesday this week, Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskii, Ukraine’s Army commander-in-chief, told a Ramstein-format of Ukraine’s allies that his forces had taken back 90 percent of Kupiansk. At the same time in Moscow, Russian Defence Minister Andrei Belousov was telling Russian President Vladimir Putin that “the enemy is unsuccessfully trying to regain” the city.
“The Russian Defense Minister, Belousov, continues to lie that Russia controls Kupiansk,” wrote Andrii Kovalenko, head of Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation, on Telegram. “In reality, most of the city is controlled by the Ukrainian Defense Forces, which are continuing to clear it of Russians. However, all of Putin’s officials, from [commander-in-chief Valery] Gerasimov, who was the first to lie about controlling the city, to Belousov, continue to lie in the presence of Putin himself.”
Contrary to the available evidence, Belousov also insisted that Russia had seized Pokrovsk, which Russia calls Krasnoarmeysk, and was on the cusp of vanquishing neighbouring Myrnohrad, which Russia calls Dimitrov. Both towns are in the eastern Donetsk region, and are almost surrounded by Russian forces to the north, south and east.
“Russian soldiers continue to inflict fire damage on Ukrainian troops in Dimitrov, the last stronghold of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Krasnoarmeysk agglomeration,” Belousov told Putin.
But Syrskii told allies that Ukrainian forces had regained about 16 square kilometres (6 square miles) in the northern part of Pokrovsk and 56sq km (22sq miles) west of the city. “Logistics in Myrnograd are complex, but the operations continue,” he wrote.
Russia had claimed complete control over Pokrovsk on December 2 and was sticking to its story.
A third point of contention was Ukraine’s successful use of an underwater unmanned vehicle (UUV) to strike a Russian Kilo-class submarine on Monday (December 15), in what is considered the first such attack in military history.
Video of the Russian fleet at anchor in the port of Novorossiysk on the Black Sea shows a huge explosion in the stern section of the submarine.
Ukraine’s State Security Service later claimed credit for the attack.
However, Russia’s Defence Ministry said: “Not a single ship or submarine as well as the crews of the Black Sea Fleet stationed in the bay of the Novorossiysk naval base were damaged as a result of the sabotage.”
The ministry published footage of what it said was the attacked submarine, in which it appeared undamaged above the surface, but the video did not show the stern section.
Ukraine’s long-range strikes against Russia scored other successes, on which Russia did not comment.
Ukraine struck the oil refinery in Yaroslavl, northeast of Moscow, on December 12. On Sunday, Ukrainian drones struck the Afipsky refinery in Krasnodar Krai and the Uryupinsk oil depot in Volgograd, causing explosions in both locations. They also struck the Dorogobuzhskaya power plant in Smolensk.
United States and Ukrainian negotiating teams met for two days in Berlin on Sunday and Monday. Russian officials said they would be briefed next week on the results of those talks.
But even as it claimed to be interested in ongoing peace negotiations, Russia clearly signalled that it plans to continue aggressive operations next year.
“The key task for the next year is to maintain and increase the pace of the offensive,” said Belousov in Putin’s presence on Wednesday, at an expanded meeting of the Defence Ministry Board.
“It wasn’t us who started the war in 2022; it was the destructive forces in Ukraine, with the support of the West – essentially, the West itself that unleashed this war,” Putin said. “We are only trying to finish it, to put an end to it.”
Putin said “the goals of the special military operation will certainly be achieved,” and “Russia will achieve the liberation of its historical lands by military means,” suggesting there was little room for compromise on Moscow’s side.
Putin’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov signalled the same thing in an interview with ABC on Tuesday. He said Europe and Ukraine expected a “deep and very wrong” revision of Russian peace proposals, and ruled out conceding seized Ukrainian land.
“We are not able in any form to compromise on this, because it would be, in our view, a revision of a very fundamental element of our statehood, set forth through our constitution,” Naryshkin said.
Russia has attempted to give the impression that it has inexhaustible manpower with which to prosecute the war it started in Ukraine.
Belousov said almost 410,000 Russians volunteered for military service, exceeding expectations for 2025.
That translates to 32,800 per month. “Data from the Ukrainian General Staff on Russian losses indicate that Russian forces suffered an average of 34,600 casualties per month between January and November 2025 – suggesting that Belousov’s recruitment numbers are not quite replacing Russian losses,” wrote the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy suggested most of these casualties were deaths. “[Putin] spends around 30,000 soldiers’ lives on the front every month. Not wounded – 30,000 killed each month… We have drone footage confirming these deaths,” he told Dutch parliamentarians.
Syrski also doubted Russian recruitment quotas were sufficient.
“The number of Russian troops has long been around 710,000,” he wrote on Telegram. “However, the enemy has not been able to increase this figure, despite active recruitment in Russia, because our soldiers are ‘reducing’ the number of occupiers by a thousand every day through deaths and injuries.”
Russian leader underscores Kremlin’s hardline stance on peace talks as Trump pushes for deal to end war.
Published On 19 Dec 202519 Dec 2025
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Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking at his highly choreographed annual question-and-answer session in Moscow, has said his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy refuses to discuss territorial concessions.
The comments were made on Friday during the “Results of the Year” event, where Putin fielded questions from millions of Russians on topics ranging from domestic policy to the war.
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Putin’s remarks are the latest in a drumbeat of often-repeated maximalist Russian positions nearly four years after he ordered troops into the neighbouring country, as United States President Donald Trump intensifies diplomatic efforts to broker a peace deal between Moscow and Kyiv.
The issue of territory gained, lost, to be ceded or not, delves into the heart of the matter on one of the most contentious issues in the talks to end the war so far.
“We know from statements from Zelenskyy that he’s not prepared to discuss territory issues,” Putin told attendees at the event in the capital’s Gostiny Dvor exhibition hall. Zelenskyy has indeed stated that clearly, but Ukraine’s constitution also forbids the ceding of land.
Putin has demanded Ukraine cede all territory in four key regions his forces have captured and occupied, along with Crimea, which Moscow seized and annexed in 2014.
He also wants Ukrainian troops to withdraw from parts of eastern Ukraine that Russian forces have not yet taken in the eastern Donetsk region, where fighting remains attritional – conditions Kyiv has rejected outright.
Putin projected confidence about battlefield progress, saying Russian forces had “fully seized strategic initiative” and would make further gains before the year ends.
Moscow’s larger army has made steady advances in recent months, seizing between 12 and 17 square kilometres (4.5 and 6.6 square miles) daily in 2025, according to Western assessments.
The Russian president also attacked Western handling of frozen Russian assets, labelling plans to use them for Ukraine as “robbery” rather than theft because it was being done openly.
“Whatever they stole, they’ll have to give it back someday,” he said, pledging to pursue legal action in courts he described as “independent of political decisions”.
European Union leaders agreed to provide a hefty $105bn interest-free loan to Ukraine to meet its military and economic needs in its war with Russia for the next two years, EU Council President Antonio Costa said.
The leaders decided early on Friday to borrow cash on capital markets to fund Ukraine’s defence against Russia rather than use frozen Russian assets, diplomats said.
The annual event, which Putin has held in different formats since 2001, drew about three million questions from Russians via phone, text and online platforms. An artificial intelligence system processed the queries to identify common themes.
Putin’s comments come at a pivotal moment, and are watched closely by Western officials who will want to get a read on how he intends to present the situation on the ground to the Russian public.
Trump has launched a major diplomatic push to end nearly four years of fighting, but negotiations have stalled over sharply conflicting demands from Moscow and Kyiv.
US officials estimate that Russia and Ukraine have suffered more than two million casualties since Moscow launched its invasion in February 2022. Neither side discloses reliable loss figures.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to address the future of the war in Ukraine when he speaks at his marathon end-of-year news conference on Friday. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 triggered the most severe confrontation between Moscow and the West since the Cold War, following years of conflict in eastern Ukraine. The annual “Results of the Year” event, held in various formats since 2001, allows Putin to field wide-ranging questions from journalists and citizens, covering domestic pressures such as inflation as well as foreign policy, nuclear weapons and the war that the Kremlin still calls a “special military operation”.
Why it matters
Putin’s remarks are likely to be closely parsed in Washington and European capitals for clues about whether Moscow is open to negotiations or prepared for a prolonged conflict. U.S. President Donald Trump has said he wants to be remembered as a peacemaker but has struggled to bring the war to an end, fuelling concern in Kyiv and Europe that any U.S.-brokered deal could sideline European interests or weaken Ukraine. With millions of casualties reported by U.S. officials and continued territorial gains by Russian forces, the stakes include not only the future of Ukraine but also the stability of Europe’s security order.
Russia is seeking to consolidate gains and redefine its relationship with the West, while Ukraine and its European allies remain wary of concessions that could reward aggression. The United States plays a central role as a potential broker, with Trump’s approach diverging from that of his predecessor, Joe Biden. The European Union, which has just agreed to jointly borrow funds to support Ukraine’s defence, faces long-term financial and security implications depending on how the war evolves. China is an indirect but important actor, given Moscow’s growing alignment with Beijing.
What’s next
Putin’s statements could clarify whether Russia is willing to engage in serious peace talks or intends to press ahead militarily, despite the economic and human costs. Any hint of compromise may open the door to renewed diplomatic efforts led by Washington, while a hardline stance would point to a longer, bloodier conflict with rising risks of escalation. Markets, governments and militaries will be watching closely for signals that could shape the next phase of the war.
With information from Reuters.
In a territory where 81 percent of buildings lie damaged or destroyed, a small community of young Palestinians is fighting to preserve what remains of Gaza’s digital world.
Coders, repair technicians and freelance workers are labouring under impossible conditions to keep the besieged enclave connected to the outside world.
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Against all odds, Gaza’s youths continue to adapt. They work offline, code in notebooks, store solar power whenever the sun is out, and wait for rare moments of connectivity to send their work to clients around the world.
In a war that has taken nearly everything, digital skills have become a form of survival – and resilience.
Many now also rely on online work to make a living. But even that fragile lifeline is now hanging by a thread after more than two years of Israel’s genocidal war.
According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, Israeli forces have “deliberately and systematically destroyed” the telecommunications infrastructure.
“We just always look for another way to get connected, always find another way,” said Shaima Abu Al Atta, a coder working from a displacement camp. “This is what actually gave us purpose because if we didn’t do this, we would just die surviving and not doing anything. We would die internally.”
Before the war erupted in October 2023, Gaza had a modest but vibrant tech scene. Innovation hubs hosted coding bootcamps, and hundreds of freelancers worked remotely for international clients. Much of that ecosystem now lies in ruins.
Shareef Naim, an engineer who led a technology hub, described what was lost. His building housed more than 12 programmers with contracts for companies outside Gaza, he said. “The team was very active,” Naim told Al Jazeera.
Today, the structure is destroyed, though some team members are still trying to work from tents and emergency shelters.
Computer technician A’aed Shamaly says, “The main challenge is electricity. Today, electricity is not available all the time, and if it is available, it is unstable, and there will be a lot of cuts. Prices are also high.”
Electricity, when available at all, is unstable and prohibitively expensive, $12 per kilowatt compared with $1.50 for 10 kilowatts before the war, he said. “There are no spare parts,” he added, so technicians must scavenge components from broken equipment pulled from bombed buildings.
The scale of destruction is staggering. According to the United Nations Satellite Centre (UNOSAT), approximately 198,273 structures across Gaza have been damaged, with 123,464 completely destroyed. The telecommunications sector has been particularly hard hit.
Data from the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics reveals that 64 percent of mobile phone towers were out of service as of early April 2025. In Rafah, coverage has collapsed to just 27 percent, down from near-universal access before the war.
During the war, connectivity watchdog NetBlocks documented repeated disruptions, including what it called a “near-total telecoms blackout” in January 2024 that lasted for days.
Israel has long restricted Gaza to outdated 2G mobile technology while allowing 4G in the occupied West Bank.
The telecommunications sector’s value has cratered from $13m in 2023 to just $1.5m in 2024, an 89 percent collapse. Estimated losses exceed half a billion dollars, while reconstruction is projected to cost at least $90m.
The consequences ripple across Gaza’s economy and society.
Remote work was a crucial income source in a territory where unemployment exceeded 79 percent even before October 2023. Now, erratic internet access has pushed many freelancers into joblessness just as Israeli-induced famine has sent food prices soaring.
The telecommunications collapse has also paralysed the banking system, preventing money transfers and leaving families unable to access cash. Healthcare has been disrupted, with the World Health Organization documenting deaths caused by the inability to contact emergency services in time.
Even during the fragile ceasefire that took effect in October 2025, Israel has blocked essential repair equipment from entering Gaza. The restrictions form part of what analysts describe as a deliberate strategy to maintain control over Palestinian digital infrastructure and suppress the flow of information to the outside world.
The future remains deeply uncertain, as efforts to push a fragile ceasefire forward appear to stall and Israel threatens the possibility of returning to full-scale war.