Ukrainian drones attack Moscow, Russia says, as Zelenskyy says Kyiv ready for deal
Recruits crawl a designated distance with combat gear under the supervision of instructors during the zero day of basic combined arms training with the 65th Separate Mechanized Brigade at an improvised training ground in Ukraine, on December 12, 2025 (Dmytro Smolienko/Ukrinform) (Ukrinform/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
(LONDON) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Tuesday that he believes the U.S. “wants to reach a final agreement,” to end the war in Ukraine, with Kyiv offering its full backing for a peace deal.
“We sense that America wants to reach a final agreement, and from our side, there is full cooperation,” Zelenskyy said. “Ukraine has never been, and will never be, an obstacle to peace.”
Ukraine and Russia continued their nightly exchange of long-range drones overnight into Wednesday. Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Wednesday that its forces downed at least 195 Ukrainian drones, including five over Moscow region of which two were “flying toward” the capital.
Russia’s federal air transport agency, Rosaviatsiya, said flight restrictions were introduced at two of Moscow’s four international airports — Domodedovo and Vnukovo — during the attacks. Restrictions were also put in place at airports in Volgograd, Yaroslavl, Orenburg, Ufa and Orsk, Rosaviatsiya said.
Ukraine’s air force, meanwhile, said Russia launched 116 drones into the country overnight, of which 60 were shot down or suppressed. Forty-eight drones impacted across 19 locations, the air force said.
On Tuesday night, Zelenskyy said Ukrainian repair crews were working to restore power after a major Russian drone and missile strike on Monday night. “Throughout the day, repair crews have been working at energy facilities — putting in maximum effort to ensure that Ukrainians have electricity for Christmas,” Zelenskyy said.
“Of course, the Russians are trying to ruin this holiday, this sacred day, as well. No surprise there,” Zelenskyy added.
At a briefing in Kyiv with journalists on Tuesday, Zelenskyy revealed details of the 20-point peace plan negotiated with the U.S. which is now being reviewed by Moscow.
Zelenskyy told reporters that said all sides were “much closer” to finalizing the documents. Kyiv expects to receive a response from Moscow on Wednesday, Zelenskyy added.
The proposed framework includes security guarantees from the U.S., NATO and European partners, though territorial questions remain unresolved. Under the draft plan, Ukraine would hold a presidential election as soon as possible after any deal is signed.
Zelenskyy said the deal would see Article-5-style security guarantees kick in if Russia attacks the country again, even without Ukrainian NATO membership. Zelenskyy again stressed that Kyiv rejected any ban on joining the alliance — a key Russian demand.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin has been briefed on recent U.S. contacts.
“We now intend to formulate our future position based on the information received by the head of state and continue our contacts in the very near future through the existing channels that are currently operational,” Peskov said, as quoted by the state-run Tass news agency.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, meanwhile, said Moscow and Washington have “significant similarities” in their positions on a possible settlement.
A view of destruction after the Israeli military launches airstrikes on the Dahieh district in Beirut, Lebanon on March 5, 2026. (Photo by Houssam Shbaro/Anadolu via Getty Images)
(BEIRUT) — Israeli strikes continued to bombard Lebanon’s capital on Thursday morning, as the U.S.-Israel war with Iran widens, further embroiling Iran’s proxy force in Lebanon, Hezbollah.
The Israeli military issued a number of evacuation warnings for parts of Beirut and huge swathes of southern Lebanon prior to the latest attacks on Wednesday, where it has struck hundreds of targets throughout the country since Monday, according to statements by Israel.
The Israeli military on Thursday afternoon expanded its warning to residents of the densely populated southern suburbs of Lebanon’s capital, ordering them to leave immediately ahead of planned strikes. The notice from the Israel Defense Forces, which lists four neighborhoods, is effectively a forced evacuation of the entire Dahiyeh area on the outskirts of Beirut, which has long been a Hezbollah stronghold but is also a major residential and commercial hub — home to many civilians.
More than 300,000 people have evacuated southern Lebanon, according to the IDF.
The IDF said heading south is “strictly prohibited” and any movement south “could endanger your lives.”
At least 77 people have been killed and 527 others wounded since Israel resumed strikes on Lebanon on Monday, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.
Anyone south of the Litani River in Lebanon is being told by the IDF to abandon their homes and evacuate north. The order is raising concerns among some residents that this could mean a significant incursion once again from IDF forces moving into southern Lebanon in the coming days and weeks.
Tens of thousands have already fled from parts of Southern Lebanon and from other Hezbollah strongholds to points to the north of the country, according to local reports.
The strikes on Beirut on Wednesday were concentrated on the densely populated southern suburb, Dahiyeh, a Hezbollah stronghold, according to local reports.
In Hazmieh, another southern neighborhood of Beirut, the Comfort Hotel was struck without warning before dawn Wednesday, a local council member told ABC News, confirming reports from Lebanese state media. Hazmieh is a Christian neighborhood not under Hezbollah control with foreign embassies scattered nearby and the Lebanese Presidential Palace a quarter mile away from the hotel.
Officials in Lebanon think Israeli targeting neighborhoods like Hamiyeh could show an emboldened strategy — the gloves are off.
Israeli officials said on Wednesday that Hezbollah continues to act in concert with Iran.
Israeli forces had been striking targets periodically in October and November in southern Lebanon that they say are associated with Hezbollah after the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas went into effect in Gaza.
Ahead of the attack on Iran, Israel launched strikes against targets in Baalbek, east Lebanon, in February, saying it killed “several” members of Hezbollah’s missile unit in three different locations.
This week’s strikes were the first time Israel struck Beirut, in central Lebanon, since June 2025.
The Israeli military warned Tuesday that Hezbollah “will pay a heavy price” after the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group fired rockets into northern Israel overnight Monday into Tuesday.
Immediately after the rocket fire, the IDF “launched a large-scale attack against Hezbollah terrorist targets throughout Lebanon, including Beirut,” according to IDF spokesperson Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin.
“We attacked dozens of the organization’s headquarters and launch sites,” Defrin said. “We attacked senior commanders. Some of the last surviving senior veterans of this organization. We are currently examining the results of the attack.”
Defrin noted that “forces are deployed along the border in front and are prepared to continue the defense and attack as long as they require.”
When asked whether the IDF is preparing for a ground maneuver in Lebanon, Defrin said the troops are “well prepared.”
“We have mobilized close to 100,000 men,” he added. “Dozens of battalions, divisions and brigades are prepared in the defense on the northern border. Prepared for all possibilities. In defense and in attack. All possibilities are on the table. We are conducting situation assessments and all possibilities are on the table.”
The deputy head of Hezbollah’s political council, Mahmoud Qamati, warned Tuesday that Israel “wanted an open war … so let it be an open war.”
“The enemy wanted an open war, which he has not stopped since the ceasefire agreement decision, so let it be an open war,” Qamati said in a statement.
The IDF said it struck an underground Hezbollah weapon storage facility and additional command centers in Beirut in its latest wave of strikes. The IDF claimed its targets included an underground weapon storage facility, additional command centers and a site used by Hezbollah for terrorist attacks, intelligence gathering and for propaganda.
Steve Witkoff, US special envoy, right, and Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, during the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026. (Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
LONDON — Special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner — U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law — will lead American negotiators in Geneva, Switzerland, in high-stakes talks starting Tuesday regarding Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine and the U.S. standoff with Iran over the latter’s nuclear energy program.
The talks on Ukraine will be in a trilateral format including American, Ukrainian and Russian representatives. They are the third instalment of the trilateral format following two rounds of recent negotiations in the United Arab Emirates.
Those talks were described as constructive by participants, but appeared to have failed to achieve a breakthrough on key contentious points, such as the fate of Ukraine’s partially-occupied eastern Donbas region, the future of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and proposed Western security guarantees for Kyiv.
Asked what he expected ahead of talks with Russia and Ukraine in Geneva on Tuesday, Trump on Monday put the onus on Ukraine to “come to the table fast,” appearing to suggest that the U.S. and Russia “are in a position” to make a deal.
“Well they’re big talks. It’s going to be very easy,” Trump said. “Ukraine better come to the table fast. That’s all I’m telling you. We are in a position, we want them to come.”
Army Secretary Dan Driscoll and Gen. Alexus Grynkewich — the top U.S. commander in Europe and NATO’s chief military officer — will also attend the Ukraine-Russian talks in Geneva on Tuesday and Wednesday as part of the U.S. delegation, a person familiar with the upcoming discussions told ABC News.
The Ukraine talks are expected to stretch through Tuesday and into Wednesday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a Monday evening address that Kyiv’s negotiators had already traveled to Switzerland, warning that Moscow was preparing fresh long-range attacks on Ukrainian cities despite the ongoing diplomatic push.
Ukraine’s air force on Tuesday reported a major Russian overnight attack, in which it said Moscow launched 396 drones and 29 missiles into the country. Ukrainian forces downed or suppressed 367 drones and 25 missiles, the air force said. Four missiles and 18 drones impacted across 13 locations, the air force reported.
“It was a combined strike, deliberately calculated to cause as much damage as possible to our energy sector,” Zelenskyy wrote in a post on X. Twelve regions of Ukraine were targeted in the Russian strikes and at least nine people, including children, were injured, the Ukrainian president said.
Among the targets was the southern port city of Odesa and the wider region, where “tens of thousands of people are without heat and water supply after the drone strike,” according to Zelenskyy.
Poland’s Armed Forces Operational Command said NATO aircraft were scrambled and air defenses put on alert as a response to the Russian strikes. “No violations of the Republic of Poland’s airspace by objects that could pose a threat were recorded,” the command said on X.
Russia’s Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said its forces shot down at least 151 Ukrainian drones overnight.
Also on Tuesday, U.S. representatives are scheduled to take part in talks over Iran’s nuclear program. The talks will be mediated by Oman, traditionally a conduit for U.S.-Iran exchanges.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in Geneva on Monday. Araghchi said in a post to X that he would hold talks with International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi and Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi.
“I am in Geneva with real ideas to achieve a fair and equitable deal,” Araghchi wrote. “What is not on the table: submission before threats.”
Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Monday that he would be “indirectly” involved in Tuesday’s talks with Iran.
“They’ll be very important,” Trump told reporters of the talks. “We’ll see what can happen. Specifically, Iran is a very tough negotiator.”
Trump has said the U.S. wants Iran to end all nuclear enrichment as part of any deal, while American officials have also indicated that the U.S. wants constraints on Tehran’s ballistic missile program and its support of regional proxies.
All three demands have long been U.S. goals, but such proposals have been repeatedly rebuffed by Iranian leaders.
The talks have been preceded by a U.S. military buildup in the Middle East, with officials in Tehran warning that Iranian forces will retaliate against U.S. and Israeli targets if Iran is attacked.
The latest round of talks also come in the aftermath of a major anti-regime uprising in Iran, in which protests — initially sparked by the deteriorating economic conditions inside the country — spread nationwide. Trump offered his support to the demonstrators, telling them to “keep protesting”, saying “help is on its way.”
Security forces violently suppressed the demonstrations, killing at least 7,000 people according to data published by the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).
Denmark’s then-Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod speaks to the press in Brussels, Belgium, on July 18, 2022. (Xinhua News Agency via Getty Images_
(LONDON )– Denmark’s new government was less than two months old when U.S. President Donald Trump’s campaign to acquire Greenland broke into public view in the summer of 2019.
“We thought it was unprecedented,” recalled former Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod, who then was in post and suddenly tasked with a transcontinental fire drill.
Trump’s desire for what he at the time called “essentially a large real estate deal” threw a wrench in the works of a planned state visit by the president to Denmark. The president ultimately cancelled the trip, saying Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen had shown “no interest in discussing the purchase of Greenland.”
Frederiksen at the time rejected Trump’s proposal as “absurd.”
Kofod, who has since left Danish politics, told ABC News in an interview on Tuesday that the 2019 saga was “a really bad situation for the bilateral relationship.”
“We also saw it as offending a close ally,” Kofod recalled. “We were very surprised that the first major comments he had were, ‘Why can’t I just buy Greenland?'”
Copenhagen, he said, never considered formulating a price for Greenland’s potential sale.
At the time, though, Danish leaders did not believe Trump was “determined” to force a U.S. acquisition of the world’s largest island, Kofod said. Rather, the Danish government saw the proposal as a means to foster more U.S. engagement in and influence over Greenland.
Nearly seven years later, Kofod’s successors — again under the leadership of Frederiksen — have faced a more protracted and aggressive campaign from Washington. Trump has repeatedly said the U.S. will acquire Greenland — “one way or another,” he said earlier this month.
Greenland is a self-governing territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. Trump’s second term has seen the president double down on his ambition to acquire the minerals-rich island — despite Danish and Greenlandic politicians repeatedly rebuffing him.
Trump has suggested that U.S. sovereignty over Greenland is necessary to ensure American security and blunt Chinese and Russian influence in the Arctic region. A 1951 defense agreement already grants the U.S. military access to Greenland, but Trump has suggested the accord is inadequate and has demanded “ownership.”
The issue dominated this week’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where Trump said in a Wednesday address that he would not use military force to seize control of the Arctic landmass.
On Wednesday, Trump said during the event that a “framework” of a deal had been reached on Greenland after talks with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte. Details of the purported agreement are yet to be revealed.
Frederikson said in a Thursday morning statement that Copenhagen “cannot negotiate on our sovereignty.”
Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said at a Thursday press conference that Nuuk is “willing to do more in a NATO frame,” but also said they have some “red lines” including territorial integrity, international law and sovereignty.
In Davos on Wednesday, Trump said that Greenland’s mineral deposits are “not the reason we need it,” though also said the professed deal “puts everybody in a really good position, especially as it pertains to security and to minerals.”
Trump’s professed security concerns have prompted Danish efforts to increase military spending in the Arctic and the deployment of small contingents of NATO troops to Greenland.
But the deployments — which the eight European nations involved said were for military exercises to enhance the defense of the region — prompted Trump at the time to threaten new tariffs against the American allies starting on Feb. 1 unless the U.S. was able to acquire Greenland.
That raised the prospect of a new transatlantic trade war, though Trump said Wednesday that he would drop the tariffs citing the purported deal.
European and allied leaders have said they are open to deeper and broader cooperation with the U.S. in Greenland, to address American security concerns and to develop shared commercial opportunities across the mammoth, resources-rich territory.
For Kofod — who said his time in office saw Copenhagen and Washington forge a “path forward” despite tensions over Greenland — any deal should be twinned with a European show of force.
“The first step is power,” Kofod said. Trump may soften his attacks “if he sees that he will have all of Europe — including the U.K., France, Germany — against him, and they are ready to defend Greenland,” Kofod said, plus if he sees that European “retaliation is so massive that it will hurt the U.S. economy and interests.”
“Trump plays with all the instruments he has. Europe has to learn to play the power game,” Kofod said, and “move him to a narrower path if this is going to stop.”
The Danish and Greenlandic experience in 2019 bears striking similarities to 2026. Then, as now, Trump set off a diplomatic storm by repeatedly declaring his ambitions to take control of Greenland.
In both instances, Copenhagen and the Greenlandic government in its capital Nuuk responded by expressing openness to further collaboration, stressing the importance of sovereignty and dispatching a high-level delegation for talks in Washington.
Kofod said the de-escalation of tensions in 2019 was achieved through closer cooperation and modernization in the security sphere. “We took the security concerns of Trump very seriously,” he said.
The period spanning Trump’s first term and that of his successor, President Joe Biden, saw the U.S. reopen its consulate in Nuuk, modernize the Thule Air Base — since renamed to the Pituffik Space Base — and agree a new economic cooperation strategy in Greenland.
Copenhagen and Nuuk, Kofod said, encouraged “constructive engagement” with the U.S. in investment, education programs, tourism and other areas.
Similar measures might help ease the current round of pressure in the High North, Kofod said.
But he added that the future of the Arctic — which was long considered an area of scientific work largely free of geopolitical tensions — will be inextricably tied to security considerations.
Climate change, the subsequent melting of pack ice and the opening of new sea lanes is making the Arctic more navigable and — potentially — more lucrative. Russia’s 15,000 miles of Arctic coastline puts Moscow at the forefront in the region, while China’s declaration of itself as a “near-Arctic state” indicates Beijing’s long-term interest there.
“That’s why Trump is right on the concern about security in the future of the Arctic,” Kofod said. “Any U.S. president will find Greenland key to defending North America and the United States.”
Trump’s efforts “fit his ideology,” Kofod said, saying his bid to acquire Greenland despite broad opposition aligns with the “Donroe Doctrine” — a play on the 1823 Monroe Doctrine by which the U.S. said it would block European interference in the Western Hemisphere — which has in recent weeks been professed by members of Trump’s administration and noted by the president himself.
“There is something to that, that I think Europe hasn’t taken seriously enough,” Kofod said. “But now they are taking it seriously.”
The turbulence will undermine European, American and collective NATO security, Kofod warned.
“For the U.S. it’s also a big self-inflicted problem,” he said. “But I don’t think Trump looks at the world like that. He thinks that NATO is there, it’s important, but it’s not something you cannot live without, because you just can form another alliance.”
