Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is set to meet US President Donald Trump on Sunday in West Palm Beach, Florida, in a high-stakes bid to push stalled peace talks toward a breakthrough—while Russia continues to bombard Kyiv with missiles and drones.

The surprise 1 p.m. ET meeting at Mar-a-Lago, announced just days ago, comes after weeks of intensive US-led negotiations aimed at finalizing a peace framework to end the nearly four-year war. Trump’s original 28-point proposal has been narrowed to a 20-point plan, with US officials saying 90% of the deal is agreed. Zelensky confirmed that figure on Friday.

The remaining issues are the hardest: territorial concessions, security guarantees, and the future of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Moscow continues to demand full control of eastern Donbas, while Kyiv has begun signaling limited flexibility—contingent on a ceasefire and a national referendum.

Even as talks accelerate, Russia has escalated attacks. Ukraine’s air force said Moscow launched 519 drones and 40 missiles overnight into Saturday. Zelensky warned that Russia’s actions on the battlefield contradict its diplomatic posture.

US officials say Trump believes he can push both sides toward agreement, including persuading Russia to accept US-backed security guarantees modeled on NATO’s Article 5. The package—described by officials as the “platinum standard”—would deter future Russian aggression and outline consequences for violations. Trump is reportedly open to taking the guarantees to Congress.

Russia will not participate in Sunday’s meeting. President Vladimir Putin said Saturday that if Kyiv refuses a political settlement, Moscow will achieve its goals “by military means.”

Trump struck a familiar note of leverage ahead of the meeting, telling Politico: “He doesn’t have anything until I approve it.”

With European leaders sidelined from this round of talks, Sunday’s meeting could determine whether diplomacy overtakes battlefield momentum—or whether the war grinds on despite near-complete negotiations.

As Ukraine pushes toward what could be the most consequential phase of peace negotiations since Russia’s full-scale invasion, Volodymyr Zelenskyy is set to meet European leaders and Donald Trump amid a renewed wave of Russian strikes on Kyiv that underscored the urgency—and fragility—of the diplomatic moment.

European leaders, including European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, were scheduled to join a call on Saturday with Zelenskyy and Trump, according to a commission spokesperson, as coordination intensifies ahead of the Ukrainian president’s trip to Florida on Sunday.

Zelenskyy has framed the meeting with Trump as pivotal, saying it would focus on the most sensitive elements of a proposed peace deal, including security guarantees, postwar reconstruction, and territorial questions surrounding the Donbas region and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

The outlines of the deal are taking shape but remain incomplete. Zelenskyy said Friday that a proposed 20-point peace plan is “90% ready,” adding that Ukrainian and American negotiating teams have made “significant progress.” The aim of the Florida talks, he said, is to close the remaining gaps.

According to Axios, Zelenskyy has signaled a willingness to put the deal to a national referendum—if Russia agrees to a ceasefire of at least 60 days—particularly if Ukraine fails to secure what he considers a strong position on territorial integrity.

Yet even as diplomacy accelerated, the war did not pause. In the early hours of Saturday, Kyiv came under one of its most intense attacks in weeks. Ukrainian officials said Russia launched a mix of Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, Iskander ballistic missiles, Kalibr cruise missiles, and drones, striking at least seven locations across the capital.

Eleven people were injured, including two children. Fires broke out in high-rise residential buildings in multiple districts, and power outages were reported in parts of the surrounding region.

The assault rippled beyond Ukraine’s borders. Poland scrambled fighter jets, and airports in Rzeszów and Lublin were temporarily closed, highlighting how closely the conflict is watched—and felt—by NATO’s eastern flank.

The current push follows a burst of behind-the-scenes diplomacy last weekend in Miami, where Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff held separate meetings with Russian and Ukrainian representatives, as well as with Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. The emerging proposal is described as an updated version of an earlier 28-point framework developed in US–Russia contacts, a document that critics say leaned heavily toward Moscow’s demands.

Ukraine has insisted that any agreement must include robust security guarantees, ideally modeled on NATO’s Article 5 mutual defense clause. Whether Russia would accept such guarantees remains deeply uncertain.

Moscow has already pushed back. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Friday that Kyiv and its European backers were trying to “torpedo” an agreement and warned that the current proposal diverges sharply from earlier drafts discussed with US officials.

Trump, for his part, struck a characteristically transactional note. In an interview with Politico, he said he expected a “good” meeting with Zelenskyy but emphasized that no deal exists without his approval. “He doesn’t have anything until I approve it,” Trump said.

The juxtaposition is stark. As negotiators refine text and trade assurances, missiles continue to fall. Whether the Florida meeting narrows the gap between diplomacy and battlefield reality—or exposes how wide it remains—may determine not only the future of Ukraine’s war, but the credibility of the peace process itself.

A broken train line in Poland. Fires in Estonia. Balloons from Belarus. None of it is random — and all of it is costing Europe more than Moscow ever pays.

Europe is confronting a form of warfare that leaves no craters, no front lines and few public acknowledgments — yet steadily drains its security capacity. Western intelligence officials say Russia is deliberately overwhelming European states through a sustained campaign of sabotage designed to be cheap for Moscow and exhausting for everyone else.

The evidence is mounting. In eastern Poland, a passenger train carrying nearly 500 people was forced to stop after an overhead line collapsed, smashing windows and damaging tracks. Elsewhere on the same route, explosives detonated beneath a freight train. No one was killed, but Warsaw reacted as if the warning was unmistakable: 10,000 troops were deployed to protect critical infrastructure. Polish authorities blamed Russia’s intelligence services.

That incident is one of at least 145 cases logged in an Associated Press database that Western officials link to Russia, its proxies or its ally Belarus since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The acts range from arson and explosives plots to cyberattacks, vandalism and warehouse fires. Most cause limited physical damage. That is precisely the point.

European intelligence officials say the real cost lies in the response. Every incident triggers multinational investigations, intelligence sharing and surveillance operations. One senior intelligence chief told AP that Russian interference now consumes as much agency time as counterterrorism. From Moscow’s perspective, tying up Europe’s security machinery is already a strategic win.

The scale is accelerating. AP data shows arson and explosives plots jumping from one documented case in 2023 to 26 in 2024, with several more already recorded in 2025. Poland and Estonia — both bordering Russia and among Ukraine’s strongest backers — are the most frequently targeted, followed by Germany, France, the U.K. and Latvia.

Officials believe Moscow briefly slowed the campaign late last year, likely to avoid antagonizing the incoming Trump administration in Washington. That pause is over. “They are back to business,” one European official said.

Russia’s method is calculated. Rather than risking trained intelligence officers, Moscow outsources operations to criminals, smugglers and foreign nationals with little to lose. Recruits are often found in prisons or through organized crime networks. One suspect linked to sabotage of Polish railways had worked for Russia’s GRU while moving across borders unnoticed, exploiting gaps in intelligence sharing.

Even failed plots serve a purpose. In Lithuania, a cache of drone parts and explosives hidden in a cemetery was uncovered before an attack could occur — but only after months of surveillance and coordination. In Latvia and Estonia, foreign operatives with no local ties have forced authorities into cross-border manhunts stretching from the Baltics to Italy.

The strategy is brutally efficient. Europe spends millions to stop attacks that cost Moscow almost nothing to organize.

Yet the pressure has produced one unintended effect: deeper cooperation. Baltic prosecutors have formed joint investigation teams. British police are training officers to recognize state-backed sabotage. Intelligence sharing is improving, even as Russia tests new methods — from arson to weather balloons drifting from Belarus that repeatedly shut down airports.

For now, the damage remains limited. But officials warn the campaign is evolving. What carries cigarettes today, they note, could carry something far more dangerous tomorrow.

This is not chaos. It is a system — and Europe is learning, belatedly, that the quiet wars can be the most corrosive of all.

Zelensky Seeks U.S. Backing to Freeze Ukraine Front Line as Berlin Talks Begin.

Berlin — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky entered high-stakes talks in Berlin on Sunday with a clear objective: securing U.S. support for freezing the war’s front line along its current positions, effectively locking in a ceasefire without conceding additional territory to Russia.

Speaking before his arrival, Zelensky framed the proposal as the most realistic and “fairest possible option” under current battlefield conditions. “To stay where we are,” he said, “is a ceasefire.”

He acknowledged Moscow’s resistance to such an arrangement but made clear that Washington’s stance will be decisive. “I would like the Americans to support us on this issue,” he told reporters.

The Berlin meetings bring together Zelensky, U.S. President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff, and senior European leaders at a moment of acute diplomatic tension.

Trump has intensified pressure on Kyiv to reach an agreement since unveiling a peace framework last month that critics say mirrors core Russian demands, including territorial concessions by Ukraine.

That proposal triggered urgent coordination between Kyiv and its European allies, leading Ukraine to submit revised amendments to Washington.

Zelensky confirmed he has not yet received a formal U.S. response but said signals from Washington suggest dialogue remains open. “The summit in Berlin is important,” he said. “We are meeting with both the Americans and the Europeans. These talks are happening today and tomorrow.”

At the heart of Kyiv’s position is a strategic recalibration rather than a retreat. Freezing the front line would halt Russia’s incremental advances, preserve Ukrainian-controlled territory, and create space for longer-term negotiations—without formally recognizing Moscow’s claims. Zelensky underscored that any plan must begin with a basic principle: “Russia started the war.”

The diplomatic push comes as fighting continues unabated on the ground. Ukrainian officials reported a fresh wave of Russian attacks overnight, including 138 drones and a ballistic missile.

A drone strike hit a hospital in Kherson, wounding two people, while at least 11 others were injured in the Zaporizhzhia region.

For Washington, the Berlin talks test the balance Trump is trying to strike between ending the war quickly and avoiding the perception of rewarding aggression.

For Europe, they underscore growing anxiety that U.S.-led diplomacy could harden the conflict’s territorial realities rather than reverse them.

For Kyiv, freezing the front line is not presented as peace—but as damage control. Zelensky’s message in Berlin is blunt: Ukraine is prepared to talk, but not to surrender the outcome of the war at the negotiating table after resisting it on the battlefield.

The Widening Rift Between Trump and Europe Is a Strategic Gift to Putin. 

The latest rupture in trans-Atlantic relations is unfolding at a moment of acute geopolitical vulnerability—and Moscow is wasting no time exploiting it.

As U.S. President Donald Trump escalates public criticism of European leaders and questions the viability of continued support for Ukraine, the Kremlin sees a strategic opening it has sought for years: deepening mistrust between Washington and Europe, weakening NATO cohesion, and eroding the West’s unified posture against Russian aggression.

Trump’s remarks this week, dismissing Europe as “weak” and “decaying” because of its immigration policies, came just days after his administration released a national security strategy portraying European governments as obstacles to peace in Ukraine.

According to the document, Europe’s “unrealistic expectations” and alleged “subversion of democratic processes” have hindered Washington’s efforts to negotiate an end to the war.

For European leaders, the message was unmistakable. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz pushed back sharply, warning that elements of the U.S. strategy were “unacceptable” and stressing that Europe “does not need help from the United States to save democracy.” The diplomatic strain is widening—precisely the dynamic Moscow has sought to amplify since the first day of its invasion.

The Kremlin’s reaction was immediate. Spokesman Dmitry Peskov praised the new U.S. strategy as “consistent with our vision,” while Kirill Dmitriev—one of Moscow’s key intermediaries in the backchannel dialogue with Trump’s envoys—celebrated the administration’s scolding of Europe.

Russian officials have long understood that political division within the West is a force multiplier for their operations in Ukraine, and Trump’s framing delivers precisely that.

Meanwhile, Trump’s assertion that Ukraine is “losing” and that President Volodymyr Zelensky must “start accepting things” reinforces a narrative Russia has been pushing aggressively across European information ecosystems.

It mirrors the Kremlin’s psychological operations: project inevitability, erode Western resolve, and force Kyiv into concessions it cannot survive.

Moscow’s information war is tailored to exploit wavering public opinion in Europe, where the economic costs of supporting Ukraine remain a contentious domestic issue.

Sergey Karaganov, a hardline Russian political theorist, spelled out the strategic intent on state television: “We are at war with Europe, not with a pitiful, misled Ukraine… This war will not end until we smash Europe morally and politically.”

Even Russian President Vladimir Putin, while meeting Trump’s emissaries in Moscow, issued a blunt signal to European capitals: Russia is “ready right now” for conflict if Europe provokes one.

The message was aimed squarely at European publics already questioning the durability of U.S. support.

For Putin, the trans-Atlantic rift is more than a diplomatic spat—it is a geopolitical windfall.

If Europe doubts America’s commitment, if NATO’s center of gravity shifts, if Ukraine’s coalition fractures, then Moscow achieves what it cannot win on the battlefield: strategic depth, political time, and a divided West.

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has issued new threats against Ukraine in the aftermath of a drone strike near his residence in Grozny—warnings that echo an alleged 2022 plot to assassinate President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, according to a former Ukrainian government official.

The strike, reported by Reuters, hit the Grozny-City complex on Nov. 5, damaging a 28-story high-rise located roughly 830 meters from Kadyrov’s home.

Although Kadyrov confirmed the attack in a Telegram post and said no casualties were reported, he denounced the strike as senseless and vowed retaliation.

“Starting tomorrow and in the course of the week, the Ukrainian fascists will be feeling a stern response,” he warned, insisting that unlike Ukraine, “we will not be making a cowardly strike on peaceful targets.”

A former Ukrainian official, speaking to Fox News Digital on condition of anonymity, said Kadyrov’s rhetoric signals a revival of threats reminiscent of the early days of Russia’s full-scale invasion, when Chechen operatives were allegedly tasked with infiltrating Kyiv to kill Zelenskyy and senior government figures.

“This new threat would just be another assassination threat for Zelenskyy,” the former official said. “The Chechens are really serious about revenge. But in Kyiv they are not panicking about this like they were in 2022. Zelenskyy is now better protected, feels more powerful, and is less fragile.”

According to the former official, Kyiv’s leadership was deeply alarmed in February 2022 when intelligence indicated that Chechen units were advancing toward the capital with orders to target top political and security officials.

Zelenskyy and his chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, were reportedly concerned that Chechen fighters might penetrate the presidential bunker through one of Kyiv’s deep underground metro stations—a potential vulnerability that security services rushed to reinforce.

“They tried to reach Kyiv via the river or through other routes, but they were killed before they got close,” the former official said.

Ukrainian forces have previously struck sites inside Chechnya, including police and training facilities.

The latest strike, which hit a building housing the Chechen Security Council and regional government offices, highlights Ukraine’s expanding capacity to reach targets deep inside Russian territory.

Kadyrov—one of Vladimir Putin’s most aggressive loyalists—is signaling a harsher posture as the war increasingly spills into Russia’s internal regions. Yet Kyiv appears unfazed.

“These days, Zelenskyy isn’t afraid of Kadyrov’s actions against him or the Ukrainian people,” the former official said. “Zelenskyy is feeling very powerful right now.”

French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Beijing this week with a dual mission: press China’s Xi Jinping to help secure a ceasefire in Ukraine and confront a widening trade imbalance that has become a political and economic liability for Paris and Brussels.

The visit, Macron’s fourth to China since taking office, comes as France prepares to assume the G7 presidency next year and as global pressure mounts to break the stalemate in Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II.

Xi greeted Macron and his wife, Brigitte, with full ceremonial fanfare in the Great Hall of the People, underscoring China’s desire to project stability and diplomatic maturity.

Rows of schoolchildren waving French and Chinese flags, military honor guards, and a red-carpet welcome set the tone for a meeting framed as a partnership rather than a confrontation.

Macron reciprocated with a warm public display, blowing kisses to the crowd before stepping into a more sober conversation behind closed doors.

Once inside, the French leader delivered a clear message: the war in Ukraine remains the defining test of the international order and China’s global ambitions.

He urged Xi to use his influence with Moscow to push for a ceasefire and support a “fair, lasting and binding agreement” that respects territorial integrity and the rule of law. Europe, Macron stressed, cannot absorb another year of conflict without profound security and economic consequences.

For Xi, peace messaging is part of Beijing’s broader strategic narrative—one that positions China as a global stabilizer while avoiding direct criticism of Russia, its most important geopolitical partner against Western influence.

He told Macron that China supports all efforts toward dialogue, but offered no indication Beijing intends to pressure the Kremlin publicly.

The meeting unfolded against a backdrop of competing diplomatic initiatives. Macron is leading an effort to counter a U.S.-backed plan that critics say grants Russia too much leverage, while Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned European leaders not to drift toward political fatigue.

Zelensky, fresh from talks in Paris, reminded allies that Ukraine needs unity more than ever as Washington pushes its own proposals.

If Ukraine dominated the geopolitical agenda, trade dominated the economic one. France’s deficit with China reached €46 billion last year, and the EU’s broader imbalance—$357 billion—has become politically explosive.

Macron urged Xi to work with the G7 on new rules for a fairer, more balanced global trading system, warning that Europe cannot maintain its political stability or industrial resilience if dependency on Chinese exports continues to grow.

His advisers were blunt: China must consume more and export less; Europe must save less and produce more.

Macron reiterated long-standing calls for European “strategic autonomy,” particularly in the tech sector, where he fears the continent is becoming a “vassal” to U.S. and Chinese companies.

Xi, for his part, signaled interest in easing tensions by announcing a new cooperation deal on giant panda protection—an unmistakable gesture of goodwill toward French public sentiment.

From here, Macron heads to Chengdu, where he will meet Premier Li Qiang and seek to reinforce China’s commitments on trade, investment, and cultural cooperation.

But the larger question remains unanswered: can Europe persuade China to shift from symbolic neutrality to meaningful influence over Russia’s war in Ukraine? Macron’s visit may clarify China’s intentions, but it has not yet revealed China’s willingness.

Nearly four years after Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Kremlin continues to insist that Russia is on the path to victory.

The reality — buried beneath layers of internal deception, failing force structures, and catastrophic miscalculations — tells a very different story.

Russia is losing a war that Putin still imagines he is winning, and the gap between battlefield truth and Kremlin illusion is widening by the day.

A Military Bleeding Beyond Recovery

By October 2025, British intelligence estimated that Russian military casualties — killed and wounded — had surpassed 1.1 million. Kyiv’s own numbers are even higher. Russia has also lost over 11,000 tanks, 23,000 armored vehicles, and 33,000 artillery systems, far exceeding its entire pre-war inventory.

Moscow’s attempt to regenerate combat power now depends on untrained recruits, prison battalions, and coercive mobilization.

Yet Putin continues to celebrate “victories” for marginal advances measured in meters, not miles. Russia’s 2025 casualty rate is the highest of the war.

Why does the Kremlin believe failure is success? Because Russia’s command-and-control system is designed to lie upward. Officers conceal losses to avoid arrest.

Corruption hollows out units. Ammunition, fuel, and salaries are stolen. Putin’s tightly centralized decision-making — built on intimidation rather than information — ensures that the military commander-in-chief is the last person to know the truth.

The Invasion That Was Built to Fail

The roots of Russia’s defeat go back to February 2022. The invasion violated every principle of modern warfare: no force concentration, no intelligence coordination, no logistical preparation, and no fallback plan.

Russia needed a 3:1 force advantage to overwhelm Ukraine. Instead it attacked with a force smaller than Ukraine’s active-duty military and divided it across six axes of advance.

The chaotic assault from Belarus toward Kyiv — Russia’s best chance for a quick victory — collapsed in a matter of weeks under Ukrainian resistance, poor logistics, and failed assumptions.

Russia’s elite airborne troops at Hostomel Airport were surrounded, pinned down, and ultimately forced into retreat.

By April 2022, the Kremlin suffered one of the most humiliating reversals in its modern military history: a full withdrawal from Kyiv Oblast.

Ukraine’s Slow Turn into a War Machine

While Russia bleeds, Ukraine has quietly transformed into a serious defense-production state. Ukrainian drone manufacturers — now numbering hundreds — have outpaced Russian innovation, forcing Moscow to adapt with crude, high-casualty infantry tactics.

Ukraine now produces more artillery shells than all of NATO combined. Domestic armored vehicle output has surged, while the locally produced Bohdana howitzer outperforms many Western systems in cost and production time.

Drone warfare has changed the character of the conflict, making Russian assaults — often launched with barely trained infantry in civilian vehicles — shockingly costly.

A Strategic Disaster with Global Consequences

Even if Putin refuses to admit it, the war has already weakened Russia in ways that cannot be reversed:

• Ukrainian nationalism is stronger than ever.

• NATO is larger, richer, and more energized — with Sweden and Finland joining.

• Russia has lost Europe’s gas market.

• More than 500,000 young Russians have fled the country.

• Europe’s combined GDP is 10 times larger than Russia’s — an industrial imbalance Moscow cannot escape.

Putin’s war machine is burning through men and material faster than Russia can replace them, while Ukraine’s Western-backed resilience only grows.

The Kremlin still clings to the illusion of victory. But the trajectory is unmistakable: this is a war Russia cannot win, and Putin cannot survive politically in the long run.