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The Kremlin said it would welcome Witkoff to Moscow on Thursday, after Zelensky was reportedly forced to miss a planned summit with Trump
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Donald Trump has said that Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky would have to be “stupid” not to agree to a peace deal, as he spoke at Davos.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, Trump affirmed that he would be meeting with Zelensky later today, despite comments from Zelensky yesterday that he would miss Davos in order to oversee efforts to restore power and heating in Kyiv as Russia scales up its attacks on energy infrastructure.
“I believe that they can come together and get a deal,” said Trump. “If they don’t, they are stupid – that goes for both of them.”
Zelensky said that 60 per cent of Kyiv was still without power on Wednesday, and thousands of homes were still without heating. A major Russian strike overnight yesterday left more than a million households in the capital without power, he reported.
Meanwhile, US special envoy Steve Witkoff said he would meet with Putin on Thursday at the request of the Russian side.
German prosecutors on Wednesday arrested a German-Ukranian woman accused of spying for Russia by gathering information on drones meant for Ukraine at political events and through befriending former defence ministry staff, according to a statement.
Ilona W, whose surname was not shared due to German privacy laws, is accused of maintaining intelligence contacts with the Russian embassy in Berlin since at least November 2023.
Security services across Europe have warned of a growing threat from Russian intelligence agencies seeking to deter Western powers from backing Ukraine against Russia’s full-scale invasion launched in February 2022.
Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff said he planned to discuss peace efforts with Russian President Vladimir Putin and would meet with Ukrainians later, without giving a specific date.
“We plan to discuss peace, and Ukraine and Russia,” Witkoff told reporters at Davos, adding that Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner would join the discussions on Thursday. “I’m hopeful… we need a peace.”
Witkoff told CNBC that the Russian side had requested the meeting, adding: “I think that’s a significant statement on their part.”
The Kremlin confirmed that Putin would meet Witkoff in Moscow on Thursday.
Donald Trump said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that he would meet Mr Zelensky on Thursday.
“I want to stop it,” Mr Trump said of the fighting. “It’s a horrible war.”
US special envoy Steve Witkoff told The Associated Press on Wednesday that he plans to discuss peace proposals with Russian President Vladimir Putin as well as hold talks with a Ukrainian delegation.
“We need a peace,” Mr Witkoff said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Some 4,000 buildings in Kyiv remained without heating on Wednesday, and nearly 60 per cent of the Ukrainian capital was without power, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said, after days of Russian bombardment of Ukraine’s power grid.
With temperatures falling as low as minus 20C in Kyiv, Ukraine is seeing one of the coldest winters in years, deepening the hardship of Ukrainians almost four years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion.
Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff said he planned to discuss peace efforts with Russian President Vladimir Putin and would meet with Ukrainians later, without giving a specific date.
“We plan to discuss peace, and Ukraine and Russia,” Witkoff told reporters at Davos, adding that Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner would join the discussions on Thursday. “I’m hopeful… we need a peace.”
Witkoff told CNBC that the Russian side had requested the meeting, adding: “I think that’s a significant statement on their part.”
The Kremlin confirmed that Putin would meet Witkoff in Moscow on Thursday.
European leaders gathered at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Wednesday for a discussion on whether Europe was ready to defend itself.
Mark Rutte, the secretary general of Nato, was cautious to stress the importance of the trans-Atlantic relationship and hailed Trump’s efforts to encourage greater defence spending in Europe.
Alex Stubb, the Finnish president, said that Europe “unequivocally” could defend itself against a Russian attack. Asked whether the alliance was fractured and on its way out, he said: “No, not at all.
“I think actually we’re in the process of creating a stronger Nato since we have seen since the end of the Cold War. This is pretty much Nato 3.0.”
He pointed to Nato’s borders growing with new allies, including Finland, while Russia has stagnated economically, failed to make major gains in Ukraine and decreased its sphere of influence.
“And here we are asking ourselves, shaking, are we able to defend ourselves? My answer is: yes we are.”
German prosecutors say they have arrested a Russian and a German national on suspicion of supporting the foreign terrorist organisations “People’s Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk.”
They claim that the two suspects had organised deliveries of supplies, medical products and drones to pro-Russian militia groups in eastern Ukraine since 2016.
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