Ukraine-Russia war live: Trump says ‘strong words’ exchanged in call with European leaders

Donald Trump’s plan for peace in Ukraine includes proposals to restore Russian energy flows to Europe, major US investment in Russian rare earths and energy, and tapping frozen Russian sovereign assets, the Wall Street Journal has reported.

The plans were detailed in appendices to peace proposals handed to European counterparts over recent weeks, the WSJ reported.

Trump’s peace pitch includes a plan for US financial firms and other businesses to tap $200bn of frozen Russian sovereign assets for projects in Ukraine, including a major new data center powered by the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant now controlled by Russian forces, the paper said.

He has also offered that US companies would invest in Russian strategic sectors such as rare-earth extraction and oil drilling in the Arctic, while Russian energy flows to Western Europe and the world would be restored, it added.

The paper said one unidentified European official compared the proposed US-Russian energy deals to an economic version of the 1945 Yalta conference.

A combination of factors have seen the flow of military aid to Ukraine reduced this year at a time when Russia is ramping up its war efforts.

Primary among those is the Trump administration’s decision to cut off supplies to Kyiv unless they are paid for by other Nato countries.

European aid has continued but those flows are more inconsistent and vary significantly across the continent.

Foreign military help for Ukraine fell sharply over the summer, and that trend continued through September and October, a German body that tracks international help for Ukraine said yesterday.

Average annual aid, mostly provided by the US and Europe, was about €41.6bn ($48.4 billion) between 2022 and 2024. But so far this year, Ukraine has received just €32.5bn ($37.8bn), the Kiel Institute said.

This year, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden have substantially increased their help for Ukraine, while Germany nearly tripled its average monthly allocations, and France and the UK both more than doubled their contributions, the Kiel Institute said.

On the other hand, it said, Spain recorded no new military aid for Kyiv in 2025 while Italy reduced its low contributions by 15 per cent compared with 2022-2024.

Donald Trump says he and European leaders exchanged “pretty strong words” on a call discussing his proposal to end the Ukraine war.

Sir Keir Starmer, France’s Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s Friedrich Merz spoke with Trump late on Wednesday, and said afterwards that it was a “critical moment for Ukraine, its people and for shared security across the Euro-Atlantic region”.

Trump also said Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky “has to be realistic” about his country’s position on a peace plan, and said the US will “make a determination depending on what they come back with”.

As tension builds around a US forced push for a settlement, the leaders of Germany, Britain and France spoke to Trump by phone and requested a meeting this weekend with the US and Ukraine.

Washington’s goal of a swift compromise to stop the fighting that followed Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022 is reducing Kyiv’s room for manoeuvres.

Zelensky is walking a tightrope between defending Ukrainian interests and showing Trump he is willing to compromise, even as Moscow shows no public sign of budging from its demands.

Volodymyr Zelensky has been told by Donald Trump that Ukraine has until Christmas to accept his deal to end the war with Russia.

The latest deadline was relayed to the Ukrainian president by Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner during a two-hour phone call, reported The Telegraph.

The Trump administration has resumed its efforts to pressure Ukraine into ceding territory to Russia in exchange for undefined security guarantees, Ukrainian officials were quoted as saying.

Ukrainian negotiators have said they feel like they have not been offered sufficient details about potential security guarantees from Washington in order to decide on the matter of giving up territory, which they have always held as a non-negotiable in the peace talks.

Russia’s civil aviation authority Rosaviatsia says operations have been suspended at all airports in the Moscow area.

At least 31 drones en route to Moscow were shot down on Wednesday evening and overnight, the city’s mayor said.

Pulkovo airport in St Petersburg, Russia’s second-largest city, said on Telegram it was handling flights diverted from the capital.

Several airports in central Russia also suspended arrivals and departures.

Russian air defences shot down at least 31 drones en route to Moscow on Wednesday evening and overnight, the city’s mayor said.

The drones were downed over a period of about three and a half hours, said mayor Sergei Sobyanin. One drone was downed in the afternoon, he said.

Sobyanin said emergency crews were dispatched to examine debris on the ground. He gave no indication of any damage or injuries.

Moscow typically only confirms how many Ukrainian drones it has downed, and does not provide the total number fired.

A British soldier killed on duty in Ukraine has been named by the Ministry of Defence.

Lance Corporal George Hooley, 28, of the Parachute Regiment, died in a “tragic accident” while observing Ukrainian forces testing a new defensive capability on Tuesday morning.

Paying tribute at Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, Sir Keir Starmer said: “Lance Corporal Hooley was injured in a tragic accident away from the front lines while observing Ukrainian forces testing a new defensive capability.

“His life was full of courage and determination. He served our country with honour and distinction around the world in the cause of freedom and democracy, including as part of the small number of British personnel in Ukraine.”

A Russian mechanised attack took place inside the eastern city of Pokrovsk yesterday, Kyiv’s military said.

“The Russians used armoured vehicles, cars, and motorcycles. The convoys attempted to break through from the south to the northern part of the city,” Ukraine’s 7th rapid response corps said in a statement on Wednesday morning’s assault.

It comes as part of Moscow’s campaign to seize the entire industrial Donbas region, in which Russian troops have pushed forward in small infantry groups for months to capture of former logistics hub.

Russia has claimed it has full control of Pokrovsk, but Kyiv maintains that it holds the northern part of the city, where fierce urban battles have raged.

Ukrainian sea drones hit and disabled a tanker involved trading Russian oil as it sailed through the Black sea in Ukraine’s exclusive economic zone on its way to the Russian port of Novorossiysk, a Ukrainian official reported.

This marks the third sea drone in two weeks on vessels which form Russia’s “shadow fleet” of unregulated ships which Kyiv says are helping Moscow export oil and fund its war.

Insurance costs for ships sailing to the Black sea have peaked as the conflict spills into sea lanes.