European nations commit to troops in Ukraine as part of ‘milestone’ peace talks in Paris
Volodymyr Zelensky President of Ukraine, Emmanuel Macron President of France and Keir Starmer Prime Minister of Great Britain sign a Declaration of Intent to deploy forces to Ukraine in event of a peace deal, during the ‘Coalition Of The Willing’ meeting at Elysee Palace on January 6, 2026 in Paris, France. (Tom Nicholson/Getty Images)
(LONDON) — U.S., European and Ukrainian representatives are gathering in Paris again on Wednesday for further talks regarding a potential peace deal to end Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country.
Participants were positive on the outcome of the first day of talks, with Jared Kushner — U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and a key member of the American delegation — describing Tuesday as a “real milestone,” though warning that a peace agreement is not imminent.
Notably, the U.K. and France signed a “Declaration of Intent” to send troops to Ukraine to safeguard any future deal, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Tuesday.
The two nations said they would establish “military hubs” across Ukraine and protective facilities to be used by Ukraine’s armed forces to support the country’s defensive needs, Starmer said. The British leader, though, said that “the hardest yards are still ahead” in terms of reaching a deal.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, meanwhile, said at a joint press conference that Berlin is “not fundamentally ruling anything out” regarding its future involvement.
“Germany will continue to engage politically, financially, and also militarily,” Scholz said. “This could include, for example, deploying forces for Ukraine on neighboring NATO territory after a ceasefire.”
Kyiv has long said it cannot accept any peace deal with Russia without binding security guarantees from its Western partners to protect against future aggression from Moscow. The largely-European “Coalition of the Willing” group of nations has been pushing for such guarantees.
For its part, Russia has repeatedly said it will not accept the deployment of any troops from NATO nations to Ukraine as part of a peace deal.
The Coalition of the Willing said in a joint statement on Tuesday that its proposed guarantees will include a “U.S.-led ceasefire monitoring and verification mechanism” overseen by a “Special Commission” to address any “breaches, attribute responsibility and determine remedies.”
The Coalition also said it would continue “critical long-term military assistance and armament” to Ukraine alongside intelligence and military industrial cooperation and deploy a multinational force to “support the rebuilding of Ukraine’s armed forces and support deterrence.
The Coalition will offer “military capabilities, intelligence and logistical support, diplomatic initiatives, adoption of additional sanctions” in the event of any future Russian aggression, it said.
The extent of any U.S. involvement remains unclear, Trump having already ruled out deploying American forces to Ukraine.
Presidential envoy Steve Witkoff said in a post to X that Tuesday’s talks made “significant progress” on several critical issues related to the proposed 20-point peace plan, including on security guarantees.
“We agree with the Coalition that durable security guarantees and robust prosperity commitments are essential to a lasting peace in the Ukraine and we will continue to work together on this effort,” Witkoff said in a post on X.
Kushner, meanwhile, warned that there is still significant work to be done before any peace deal is finalized. “This does not mean we will make peace,” he said after Tuesday’s talks. “But peace would not be possible without the progress we made today.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in posts to social media that significant progress was made on the practicalities of future security guarantees.
“It’s determined which countries are ready to take leadership in elements of ensuring security on land, in the sky, at sea and in reconstruction. It’s determined what forces are needed. It’s determined how the forces will be managed and at what levels the command will be located,” he wrote.
“We had very substantive discussions with the American side on monitoring — to ensure there are no violations of peace. The United States is ready to work on this. One of the most critical elements is deterrence — the tools that will prevent any new Russian aggression,” he added.
“Thank you, America, for your willingness to provide backstop on all fronts: security guarantees, ceasefire monitoring and reconstruction,” Zelenskyy wrote.
Russian Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov smiles during the Council for Interethnic Relations, on November 5, 2025 in Moscow, Russia. (Photo by Contributor/Getty Images)
(LONDON) — Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov declined to elaborate on Moscow’s position in the unfolding U.S.-Ukraine negotiations regarding Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor, telling journalists on Tuesday it was “impossible to comment” amid what he called “an information frenzy.”
Russian officials have offered limited reaction to the weekend talks in Geneva, Switzerland, which saw American, European and Ukrainian officials meet to discuss the controversial U.S.-backed peace plan proposal put to Kyiv last week, with terms critics say would have constituted a Ukrainian capitulation.
On Monday, a Ukrainian official close to the matter told ABC News that the original 28-point draft had been revised down to 19 points, with both American and Ukrainian representatives framing the Geneva talks as productive.
Peskov, though, said Tuesday that Moscow could not yet comment. “It’s impossible to comment on every media report right now,” the Kremlin spokesperson said, as quoted by Russia’s state-run Tass news agency.
“I would describe the situation as an information frenzy — there’s no other way to describe it,” he said. “Indeed, a lot of contradictory information is being published, contradictory statements, and so on and so forth.”
Nonetheless, Peskov added that the original U.S. 28-point framework “is currently the only substantive thing.” The Kremlin spokesperson described the proposal as “Trump’s framework.”
“We believe that it could be a very good basis for talks, and this is what our president has stated,” Peskov said. “We will examine it thoroughly when the time comes.”
The initial 28-point American proposal was widely interpreted as favorable to Russia, containing as it did several long-held maximalist Kremlin demands. Among them were that Ukraine cut its armed forces by more than half and cede swaths of territory not yet occupied by Russia.
Ukraine would also be forbidden from possessing long-range weapons, while Moscow would retain virtually all the territory it has occupied — and receive some form of recognition of its 2014 seizure of Crimea under the latest proposed U.S. plan.
On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said during a meeting of his Security Council that the Kremlin had received the 28-point U.S. proposal. “I believe that it could also form the basis for a final peace settlement, but this text has not been discussed with us in detail,” Putin said.
“I believe the reason is the same: the U.S. administration has not yet managed to secure the agreement of the Ukrainian side, as Ukraine is opposed to it,” Putin added. “Apparently, Ukraine and its European allies are still under the illusion that they can inflict a strategic defeat on Russia on the battlefield.”
The Kremlin’s top foreign policy aide, Yuri Ushakov, told reporters on Monday that any proposal would require revision by all parties and that so far no one has discussed it with Russia.
“I would assume that it would be natural to expect the Americans to approach us to meet face-to-face and begin discussions,” he said when asked whether talks between Moscow and Washington on the American plan were expected in the coming weeks.
A U.S. official told ABC News that U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll held secret talks on Monday with a Russian delegation in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates to follow up on the talks with Ukrainian representatives in Geneva.
Driscoll and his team also met with Ukrainian representatives, a U.S. official told ABC News. “The Ukrainians have agreed to the peace deal,” the official said. “There are some minor details to be sorted out but they have agreed to a peace deal.”
A source familiar with the discussions confirmed to ABC News that Ukraine agreed to the new 19-point peace plan during the talks in Geneva, not in Abu Dhabi.
The source added that Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukrainian intelligence, is currently in Abu Dhabi where he is meeting with American officials and might meet with Russian officials as well.
On Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in televised comments that Moscow had received the peace proposal “through unofficial channels.” There are, he added, “a number of issues that, of course, need clarification.”
It is not entirely clear how many of the 19 remaining points were included in the initial proposal.
But a Ukrainian source briefed on the matter told ABC News that the updated proposed peace agreement does not include a strict limit on the size of the Ukrainian army and does not include any offer of amnesty for acts committed during the war.
U.S. President Donald Trump hinted at progress in a Monday social media post. “Is it really possible that big progress is being made in Peace Talks between Russia and Ukraine???” he wrote on social media.
“Don’t believe it until you see it, but something good just may be happening,” Trump added.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, meanwhile, said Monday that “after Geneva, there are fewer points, no longer 28, and a lot of the right things have been taken into account in this framework.”
“There is still something to work on together — very difficult — to make a final document, and we need to do everything with dignity,” he added, saying he will discuss “sensitive” issues with Trump.
Rustem Umerov, the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council and long a prominent member of Kyiv’s negotiating team, suggested in a Tuesday social media post that Zelenskyy could visit Washington, D.C. “at the earliest suitable date in November to complete final steps and make a deal with President Trump.”
Zelenskyy, though, said shortly after that Ukraine and Western negotiators had “coordinated our positions and the priority issues for discussion, as well as some of our next steps and contacts.” The president did not mention a potential trip to Washington.
“We see many prospects that can make the path to peace real,” Zelenskyy said. “There are significant results, and much work lies ahead.”
ABC News’ Luis Martinez, Patrick Reevell and Joe Simonetti contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Dozens of humanitarian organizations have begun rapidly scaling up operations in the hopes of delivering aid to Gaza again amid the Israel-Hamas ceasefire.
Items in Gaza — including food, clean water, medicine and hygiene products — are running low, the organizations say. Additionally, hundreds of thousands of families have been displaced, many living in tents in extremely crowded areas.
Humanitarian aid workers told ABC News that they will face several challenges in delivering aid to Gaza. Israeli authorities have limited the amount of aid that can enter the strip, and destroyed roads and neighborhoods make it difficult to reach areas of the enclave.
Additionally, winter is fast-approaching, and aid workers say they have a limited amount of time to deliver provisions to help Palestinians in Gaza get through the cold weather months.
“We’re not asking for anything unreasonable. We’re asking for the volume of aid that entered Gaza Strip before the escalation in October 2023,” Tess Ingram, communications manager for UNICEF, told ABC News. “I think that’s something to watch for in the coming days. Does the aid flow? Are the crossings open? Is the U.N. enabled to do its job, to serve the children of Gaza. … But the other part is, does the ceasefire hold? The stakes are really high right now, so that ceasefire has to hold.”
Lifting restrictions on aid
The U.N. said that Sunday, Oct. 12, was the first day progress was seen in the scale-up of humanitarian aid deliveries into Gaza.
Hundreds of thousands of hot meals and bread bundles were distributed in the north and south, according to the U.N. Additionally, cooking gas entered the strip for the first time since March as well as tents, frozen meat, fresh fruit, flour and medicine, the U.N. said.
However, on Monday, no trucks entered Gaza because of the transfer of Israeli hostages, and border crossings were also closed on Tuesday due to the Jewish religious holiday of Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah.
Israeli officials announced on Tuesday it would not reopen the Rafah crossing on the border with Egypt and would limit aid entering Gaza after Hamas failed to return all the bodies of the deceased hostages, as called for under the ceasefire agreement.
“Starting tomorrow, only half of the agreed number of trucks — 300 trucks — will be allowed to enter, and all of them will belong to the U.N. and humanitarian NGOs, with no private sector involvement,” COGAT, the Israeli defense body in charge of coordinating aid to Gaza, said in a statement. “No fuel or gas will be allowed into the Strip, except for specific needs related to humanitarian infrastructure.”
Hamas said the rubble makes it logistically challenging to locate the bodies of the deceased hostages, but Israel said it believes Hamas knows where the hostages’ bodies are and is purposefully delaying their return.
Jolien Veldwijk, CARE Palestine Country Director, said the number of trucks entering Gaza is just “a trickle” of what is needed to meet the needs of the population.
“The destruction is significantly worse than compared to seven, eight months ago,” she told ABC News, compared to the first ceasefire when she was also in Gaza.
Multiple organizations, including CARE, said they have not been able to get aid into Gaza since March 2, when Israel imposed a total blockade — in an effort to pressure Hamas to release the remaining hostages — that lasted for 11 weeks.
The organization said their repeated requests to deliver aid have been denied by Israeli authorities. Veldwijk said supplies are currently stuck in warehouses in Egypt and in Jordan.
Similarly, James Hoobler, a humanitarian policy adviser with Oxfam America, told ABC News the group has had 4,000 food parcels and a large volume of essential water sanitation and hygiene equipment stuck in its warehouse in Amman, Jordan, since March.
Some organizations say they are also running into red tape while trying to access the strip.
“We’re running out of supplies now,” Veldwijk said of the CARE team on the ground in Gaza. “We still can’t bring anything in. … We’re desperate to get our supplies in, but we’re also sort of desperate for all the border crossings to open.”
Ingram, from UNICEF, who is currently in Gaza, said limiting the volume of aid entering the strip is the opposite of what is needed but that UNICEF has seen some success in its operations on the ground since the ceasefire went into effect.
“We are able to move far more freely, get access to areas that we haven’t been able to get to for a while,” she told ABC News. “We don’t have to coordinate our movements with the Israeli authorities anymore, which means that we’re not facing delays or denials.”
She went on, “So for example, the last three days, I was in and around Gaza City, and that was kind of the first time in a while that we were able to get into parts of Gaza City that were the focus of that intense bombardment in August and September, and really get a sense of how that has affected the area and how people are planning to resume living there, and what they need.”
Aid workers added that rebuilding sanitation networks is also necessary but will be a challenge until the supplies entering Gaza necessary increase.
“I went to a big wastewater dam in Gaza City, which is surrounded by residential area, and it’s at risk of flooding because the pumps aren’t working,” Ingram said. “Sanitation presents a massive disease risk if we don’t get on top of it. So, we need to really improve the systems that remove solid waste, that deal with sewage and wastewater.”
Clearing rubble and rebuilding roads
Destruction across Gaza also presents a logistical challenge in delivering aid to the civilian population. Many roads have been destroyed, and rubble may be hiding unexploded ordinances.
Zaheer Kham, global director of fundraising for the humanitarian charity Human Appeal, told ABC News that he received a message from teams on the ground in Gaza on Tuesday that rubble in the roads is starting to be removed.
“Is it enough? Of course not, we need heavy machinery to remove the rubble in the roads that has accumulated over two years,” he told ABC News.
Humanitarian workers told ABC News that rebuilding water networks will be critical in the rebuilding effort in Gaza, but it comes with many logistical challenges.
Aid workers said water that comes from the ground in Gaza is very salty from years of degradation. Drinking water needs to be desalinated, which is accomplished by desalination plants across Gaza, aid workers say.
“There needs to be quite a bit of work to make sure that they’re all functioning properly.” Ingram said. “There’s some that are out of service. So, there’s work that needs to go into making sure that drinking water production increases.”
The network of pipes that brought water into homes has mostly been destroyed so most people in Gaza receive their water from water trucks, which collect drinking water from desalination plants and distribute it throughout the strip.
Ingram said the trucks have gone through wear and tear, which may limit their ability to distribute water as water networks and wells are rehabilitated.
“The water trucks themselves are a limited fleet that have done two years in a war zone over rubble,” she said. “They need maintenance and repairs.”
Aid workers say there are many groundwater wells, which pump domestic water that people use for cooking, cleaning and showering, many of which need repairs.
Veldwijk said CARE has rehabilitated water networks in the past to bring drinking water and domestic water to people’s homes to complement the water supplied by trucks, but some of have been destroyed and need to be rebuilt.
She said the group is also working to rehabilitate wells as well as desalination units.
Aid workers added that rebuilding sanitation networks is also necessary but will be a challenge until the supplies entering Gaza necessary increase.
“I went to a big wastewater dam in Gaza City, which is surrounded by residential area, and it’s at risk of flooding because the pumps aren’t working,” Ingram said. “Sanitation presents a massive disease risk if we don’t get on top of it. So, we need to really improve the systems that remove solid waste, that deal with sewage and wastewater.”
Clearing rubble and rebuilding roads
Destruction across Gaza also presents a logistical challenge in delivering aid to the civilian population. Many roads have been destroyed, and rubble may be hiding unexploded ordinances.
Zaheer Kham, global director of fundraising for the humanitarian charity Human Appeal, told ABC News that he received a message from teams on the ground in Gaza on Tuesday that rubble in the roads is starting to be removed.
“Is it enough? Of course not, we need heavy machinery to remove the rubble in the roads that has accumulated over two years,” he told ABC News.
Veldwijk said the roads being destroyed make it difficult to travel from southern Gaza to central Gaza to northern Gaza and if all the border crossings are opened, supplies can more easily be funneled throughout Gaza.
Aid workers say entire sections in Gaza have been destroyed, making it difficult to find people who may be in need of aid.
“It’s like being inside the skeleton of a city,” Ingram said of visiting neighborhoods in Gaza City and Jabalia, just north of Gaza City. “Everything is gray. Things that would normally tell you where you are, are gone, and it’s very disorienting.”
On Tuesday, the U.N. Development Programme announced that the cost of rebuilding Gaza is estimated at around $70 billion, with $20 billion needed in the next three years alone.
Fast-approaching winter season
With the cold weather months approaching, humanitarian organizations say there is an urgent need to get warm clothes and blankets into Gaza.
Winters in Gaza are usually not very severe with low temperatures typically in the 40s F, but heavy rains and its seaside location can make it feel colder.
“It really is a race against time,” Hoobler, with Oxfam America, said. “Winterization is a major issue, especially with the amount of destruction to housing that we’ve seen. So, we know people are in very overcrowded conditions there. They don’t have adequate shelter. Many of the makeshift shelters that people were in were destroyed in bombings.”
Nine out of 10 homes have been damaged or destroyed in Gaza, meaning some people are sleeping in homes with missing walls or roofs while others are sleeping in tents, according to Ingram, increasing the need for mattresses, blankets and other provisions.
Ingram said that last winter, some children — including babies — died of hypothermia, which she said is preventable with the proper supplies.
She added that she is concerned that many children in Gaza have only one or two sets of clothes, many of which are not warm enough for winter months.
“Our aim is to provide every child in the Gaza Strip under the age of 10 with a new set of winter clothes during the ceasefire and a new pair of shoes,” Ingram said. “That goal is heavily dependent on the volume of aid that gets into the Gaza Strip, so we remain hopeful, but we do call on both parties to the conflict to adhere to the terms of the ceasefire.”
(NEW YORK) — Typhoon Kalmaegi was barreling on Thursday morning toward Vietnam after leaving a trail of destruction in the Philippines.
The storm was expected to make landfall later on Thursday or early on Friday, the U.S. Consulate in Vietnam said in a weather advisory.
Vietnam’s Prime Minister urged the country’s emergency response agencies and ministries to ready themselves as the country braces for the impact of the typhoon.
The Vietnamese National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting said coastal areas may see waves up to 26 feet and a storm surge up to 2 feet. Winds were expected to be as strong as about 84 mph, the center said.
The country is already battling flash floods and landslides after record rainfall in late October. Those floods killed at least 35 people, officials told AFP.
Some 100,000 homes flooded and the country experienced more than 150 landslides, Vietnam’s environment ministry said, according to AFP.
The typhoon is expected to bring a heightened risk of flooding, flash floods and landslides, weather and state officials said.
“Additionally, infrastructure already weakened by previous flooding may be increasingly unreliable,” the U.S. Mission’s advisory added.
A trail of destruction in the Philippines
In the Philippines, where the typhoon made landfall on Tuesday amid heavy rains and flooding, President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. approved a state of emergency declaration on Thursday.
That declaration was intended to “expedite government response efforts in areas” affected by the storm, according to a press release from the official Philippine Information Agency.
The storm killed at least 66 people, according to state-run media. The official Philippine News Agency reported that “most” of those deaths “were due to fallen debris, landslides and flooding.”
Another six Philippine Air Force personnel were killed in a helicopter crash on Tuesday while performing humanitarian assistance, officials said.
The country was already recovering from an offshore earthquake and typhoons in the last few months. The Philippine Area of Responsibility is hit an average of 20 per year, most in the world, according to the Philippines Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration.
Another potential super typhoon is approaching the country now, local officials said in a news release. That storm is expected to make landfall either Friday night or Saturday morning, officials said.
