New Year around the world: Pacific nations welcome 2025
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(LONDON) — The Pacific island nation of Kiribati was the first country to ring in 2025, with its 133,500 citizens celebrating the new year at 5 a.m. ET on Tuesday.
The Micronesian nation was soon followed into 2025 by the Chatham Islands in New Zealand at 5:15 a.m. ET.
Most of the rest of New Zealand crossed the International Date Line at 6 a.m. The islands of Tokelau, Samoa, Tonga and parts of Antarctica were among those joining the party shortly after.
Auckland, New Zealand
New Zealand’s capital Wellington and its largest city of Auckland — both located on the country’s North Island — welcomed 2025 at 6 a.m. ET. Fireworks lit up the Auckland skyline as massed crowds watched.
Sydney, Australia
Residents of the western Australian city of Sydney enjoyed a fireworks display three hours ahead of midnight local time, which will be at 8 a.m. ET.
The famed Sydney Harbour Bridge and Sydney Opera House provided a familiar backdrop for New Year revellers in the country’s largest city.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(LONDON) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy hit back at President Donald Trump’s call for the country to hold fresh presidential elections following Tuesday’s historic Russia-U.S. talks in Saudi Arabia.
The U.S.-Russia talks in Riyadh — to which Ukraine was not invited — represented “an important step forward” toward ending Russia’s three-year-old invasion of its neighbor, according to a State Department readout.
Hours after the talks concluded, Trump told reporters at Mar-a-Lago that Zelenskyy’s public approval rating was “down to 4%,” failing to provide a source for the figure. Russian President Vladimir Putin has also repeatedly framed Zelenskyy as illegitimate, citing the postponement of the country’s 2024 presidential elections due to martial law.
During a Wednesday press conference in Kyiv, Zelenskyy challenged Trump’s claim, pointing to respected recent surveys showing him polling consistently above 50% with voters and describing Trump’s assertion as Russian “disinformation.”
“If someone wants to replace me right now, then right now it won’t work,” Zelenskyy said. “If we are talking about 4% then we have seen this disinformation, we understand that it comes from Russia. And we have evidence.”
The Ukrainian president said he would conduct opinion polls for trust ratings for world leaders, including Trump, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Zelenskyy said he took Trump’s comments “calmly.”
“As for President Trump, with all due respect to him as a leader of the American people, who we deeply respect and are thankful for all his support, but President Trump, unfortunately, is living in this disinformation space,” Zelenskyy continued.
Meanwhile, Trump on Wednesday, without providing evidence, called the Ukrainian president a “Dictator without Elections,” writing on Truth Social that Zelenskyy “better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left.”
Russia launches drone strike on Ukraine in wake of talks
Hours after the U.S.-Russia discussions concluded with a commitment to continue talks, Russia launched a major missile and drone barrage into Ukraine. Ukraine’s air force reported 167 drones and two Iskander ballistic missiles launched into the country, with 106 intercepted and 56 more lost in flight.
Odesa Mayor Gennadiy Trukhanov reported a “massive enemy strike on a densely populated area of the city” causing electricity, heating and water outages.
Zelenskyy said in a post to social media that the strike targeted “civilian energy facilities,” in keeping with longstanding Russian doctrine. “For nearly three years now, the Russian army has relentlessly used missiles and attack drones against them,” he said.
“Just yesterday, after the notorious meeting in Riyadh, it became clear that Russian representatives were once again lying, claiming they do not target Ukraine’s energy sector,” Zelenskyy continued.
“Yet, almost simultaneously, they launched another attack, with drones striking electrical transformers,” he wrote. “And this is during winter — it was minus 6 degrees Celsius at night.”
“We must never forget that Russia is ruled by pathological liars — they cannot be trusted and must be pressured,” the president said.
Trump says Ukraine has ‘had a seat for 3 years’
Kyiv’s exclusion from the Saudi talks has badly unsettled Ukraine and its European allies. Trump was unapologetic when speaking with reporters Tuesday at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, just as Odesa came under attack.
“They’ve had a seat for three years and a long time before that,” Trump said of Ukraine, suggesting Kyiv could have made a deal with Moscow to avoid the huge loss of lives and land.
Trump said he believes he has “the power to end this war,” while falsely claiming Ukraine started the conflict against Russia. The war began when Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of its neighbor in February 2022, a campaign that followed eight years of cross-border Russian aggression in Crimea and Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region.
“I think it’s going very well,” Trump said of U.S. efforts to end the war. “But today I heard, oh, ‘Well, we weren’t invited.’ Well, you’ve been there for three years. You should have ended it three years — you should have never started it.”
Speaking on Wednesday, Zelenskyy criticized the Trump administration’s recent demand for a treaty that would hand over 50% of Ukraine’s natural resources to the U.S., in exchange for no security guarantees. Trump himself has repeatedly said he wants $500 billion worth of Ukraine’s rare minerals to pay back the U.S. for its support during Russia’s invasion.
Zelenskyy said such a demand was “not serious”, and corrected Trump’s claim that the U.S. has provided more money than Europe.
“There wasn’t a word there about security guarantees,” he said. “There is nothing precise there. I can’t sell the state.”
Zelenskyy said that if Ukraine cannot join NATO, it needs a strong army backed by Western weapons and air defense. He said Ukraine was looking for a troop contingent from European countries to help protect Ukraine after a ceasefire, but warned that Ukraine’s own troops needed to be backed by air defense, which only the U.S. can provide.
“Only the Americans, President Donald Trump, have this protection, this air defense, it’s exclusively from them, and that’s what’s important,” Zelenskyy said. “We have a map that shows us this, but we are ready for dialogue, for discussion, about what quantity, how much is needed. We’ve calculated everything; we’ve figured it all out. So this is essentially the main point of what we are requesting.”
Zelenskyy suggested on Tuesday that the U.S.-Russia talks in Riyadh merely revived ultimatums issued by Moscow in the early stages of its invasion.
“I have the impression that there are now some negotiations happening and they have the same mood, but between Russia and the United States,” Zelenskyy said during a visit to Turkey.
“Again, about Ukraine without Ukraine,” he added. “It’s interesting, if Ukraine didn’t yield to ultimatums in the most difficult moment, where does the feeling come from that Ukraine will agree to this now?”
“I never intended to yield to Russia’s ultimatums and I don’t intend to now,” Zelenskyy added.
Putin addresses US-Russia meeting
In Riyadh, the U.S. and Russia agreed to appoint as-yet-unnamed special representatives to continue peace talks, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry.
Addressing the Russian parliament on Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov — who led Moscow’s team in Riyadh — told lawmakers that “the atmosphere is positive, the intentions are correct, we will see how the situation develops further, what decisions will be made.”
He added, “The main thing is to meet, listen and hear, make decisions that will be realistic.”
Putin — in his first public comments since the talks — said on Wednesday that he had been informed of the results of the meeting in Riyadh. The Russian leader added that the talks were intended as a trust-building exercise which produced positive outcomes. Putin also said he would be happy to meet with Trump in person, though did not offer any information on when such a meeting might occur.
Putin aide Yuri Ushakov told the state-controlled Channel One television channel that Trump’s Ukraine-Russia envoy — Keith Kellogg — would negotiate a settlement with Kyiv and European nations.
Kellogg arrived in Kyiv on Wednesday morning, where he is expected to hold talks with Ukrainian leaders.
Kellogg told reporters his “mission is to sit and listen” and then report back to Trump. He parried questions about whether Trump is siding with Putin, saying that Trump wants to end the war because “he understands the human suffering” it is causing.
Kellogg added that he agrees with Trump that the war would never have begun if he had been president at the time.
ABC News’ Fidel Pavlenko, Oleksiy Pshemyskiy, Joe Simonetti and Will Gretsky contributed to this report.
Bucket-wheel excavators mine rare earth materials on Feb. 25, 2025 in the Zhytomyr region of Ukraine/Libkos/Getty Images
(LONDON) — Ukraine is “preparing for negotiations” with the U.S. regarding security guarantees and “crucial” aid, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, with the Ukrainian leader expected to travel to Washington, D.C. on Friday to meet with President Donald Trump and sign a minerals deal.
Kyiv is maneuvering to win a U.S. security agreement as part of the proposed minerals deal, a “preliminary framework” of which Ukraine has been working on, Zelenskyy told reporters in Kyiv on Wednesday.
But Trump said he would not offer any security guarantees to Ukraine “beyond very much,” as part of any agreement. “We’re going to have Europe do that,” he told reporters at the White House on Wednesday.
In a video statement posted to the presidential website on Wednesday evening, Zelenskyy said his team is “working to ensure that Ukrainian positions are protected under any circumstances.”
“And this is one of the key conditions for the diplomacy we need — for the right diplomacy that will guarantee peace for Ukraine,” he added.
The president said there “was a lot of international work” on Wednesday. “Our teams are working with the United States, we are preparing for negotiations as early as this Friday. The agreement with America. Support for our state and people.”
“Guarantees of peace and security — this is the key to ensuring that Russia will no longer destroy the lives of other nations,” Zelenskyy said. “I will meet with President Trump. For me and for all of us in the world, it is crucial that America’s assistance is not stopped. Strength is essential on the path to peace.”
Trump said Wednesday that he expects to sign the minerals deal with Zelenskyy at the White House on Friday, adding that his administration is “happy” with the deal. Trump has framed the agreement as a means to recoup American wartime aid to Ukraine.
The countries agreed to a deal relating to critical minerals and other resources, a senior Ukrainian official said on Tuesday.
Details of the deal appear to suggest Kyiv has succeeded in significantly improving the terms, perhaps staring down some of the Trump administration’s more onerous demands.
The $500 billion demanded by Trump no longer features in the deal, and the fund that Ukraine will pay into is also no longer going to be 100% U.S.-owned, according to the full text of the agreement obtained by ABC News.
Ukraine agreed to contribute 50% of all revenue from its natural resources to a fund jointly owned by Ukraine and the U.S., according to the deal.
The natural resource assets include those directly or indirectly owned by the Ukrainian government and are defined as “deposits of minerals, hydrocarbons, oil, natural gas and other extractable materials, and other infrastructure relevant to natural resource assets (such as liquified natural gas terminals and port infrastructure).”
Zelenskyy, though, warned that any deal will not be viable without U.S. security backing.
“Without future security guarantees, we will not have a real ceasefire,” Zelenskyy said. “And if we don’t have it, nothing will work. Nothing will work.”
ABC News’ Patrick Reevell, Hannah Demissie, Rachel Scott and Michelle Stoddart contributed to this report.
(LONDON) — Talks are ongoing between Paris and Kyiv for the possible deployment of French troops inside Ukraine despite the ongoing war with Russia, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a post to social media.
Zelenskyy and French President Emmanuel Macron “had a detailed discussion about the situation on the battlefield and the progress of Ukrainian forces in the Kursk operation,” the Ukrainian leader said in a Monday night post to X.
“We also agreed to work closely with key allies on achieving peace and developing effective security guarantees,” Zelenskyy added.
“As one such guarantee, we discussed the French initiative to deploy military contingents in Ukraine,” he continued. “We addressed practical steps for its implementation, potential expansion and the involvement of other nations in this effort.”
Macron and top French officials have repeatedly hinted at the possibility of deploying a French military contingent to Ukraine in a variety of non-combat roles.
French troops, Macron has said, could train Ukrainian soldiers inside the country or serve as peacekeepers to help maintain any forthcoming ceasefire agreement.
Ukrainian military analysts have also suggested that French troops could replace Ukrainian forces guarding the country’s borders with Belarus and Transnistria — the Russian-aligned separatist state in eastern Moldova — thus freeing up Ukrainian troops for combat duties.
Macron’s suggestion of NATO boots on the ground in Ukraine drew rebukes from Russia. In June, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters that “no instructor involved in training the Ukrainian military has immunity.” He added, “It doesn’t matter whether they’re French or not.”
Macron also faced domestic criticism. Far-right leader Marine Le Pen said the president “plays the war leader, but it is the lives of our children that he speaks about with such carelessness.”
Far-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon said sending French troops to Ukraine would “make us belligerents.”
Within NATO, Macron’s suggestion won some support, particularly on the bloc’s eastern flank where nations bordering Russia have generally urged a more assertive allied strategy in aiding Ukraine and containing Moscow.
But key nations like the U.S., Germany and U.K. expressed discomfort with any suggestion of allied troops operating on Ukrainian soil.
Macron framed his proposal as a pursuit of “strategic ambiguity” that could be achieved without “crossing the threshold of belligerence.” The president acknowledged last year there was no allied consensus on deploying troops.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said in November that Western allies should “not set and express red lines” related to their support for Ukraine.
