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Moscow pressures Zelensky to give in over Donetsk as talks continue in Abu Dhabi
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Around 55,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed in battle in the four years of war, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky says.
“In Ukraine, officially the number of soldiers killed on the battlefield – either professionals or those conscripted – is 55,000,” he told France 2 TV.
Russia has warned Ukraine it will not stop fighting until Kyiv makes what the Kremlin considers the right “decisions” to end the conflict.
Talks in Abu Dhabi between US, Ukrainian and Russian delegations are set to continue on Thursday.
But despite reports that the discussions were constructive, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Russian troops would continue to fight until Kyiv made the “right decisions”.
Moscow wants Kyiv to pull its troops out of the embattled Donetsk region – including a belt of highly fortified cities regarded as one of Ukraine’s strongest defences – effectively forfeiting the territory.
Shortly before the talks began, Russian forces hit a crowded market in eastern Ukraine with cluster munitions. At least seven people were killed and 15 wounded, according to Donetsk governor Vadym Filashkin.
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky says Russia exploited a US-backed energy truce last week to stockpile munitions, attacking Ukraine with a record number of ballistic missiles on Tuesday.
Mr Zelensky said it was critical for the talks to lead to real peace and not offer Russia a new opportunity to continue the war. Ukraine’s partners, he said, had to exert more pressure on Moscow.
“It must be felt now. People in Ukraine must feel that the situation is genuinely moving toward peace and the end of the war, not toward Russia using everything to its advantage and continuing attacks,” he said.
He also said Ukraine expected the talks to lead to a new prisoner exchange soon.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday accused Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky of not wanting to seal a peace deal as it would mean the end of his political career, Russia’s state RIA news agency reported.
Mr Zelensky has said he does want a deal, but is not willing to agree to Russian terms that he says amount to surrendering and is not ready to gift Moscow territory which its army has not won on the battlefield.
The last remaining nuclear arms pact between Russia and the United States, known as New START, is poised to lapse on Thursday, potentially removing all restrictions on the world’s two largest atomic arsenals for the first time in over half a century. This impending termination of the treaty has sparked fears of an unconstrained nuclear arms race.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has expressed a willingness to adhere to the treaty’s limits for another year, provided Washington agrees to do the same. However, President Donald Trump has remained noncommittal regarding an extension.
A White House official, speaking anonymously on Monday due to not being authorised to comment publicly, stated that Mr Trump has consistently indicated a desire to maintain limits on nuclear weapons and to include China in future arms control discussions. The official added that President Trump would make a decision on nuclear arms control “on his own timeline.”
Here is a guide to the treaty and why it matters.
Mark Trevelyan reports:
The number of Ukrainian soldiers killed on the battlefield as a result of the war with Russia is estimated at 55,000, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky says.
He told France 2 TV: “In Ukraine, officially the number of soldiers killed on the battlefield – either professionals or those conscripted – is 55,000.”
Mr Zelensky, whose comments were translated into French, added that on top of that casualties figure was a large number of people considered as officially missing.
In its daily update on Russian overnight air attacks earlier, the Ukrainian air force said Moscow’s forces had launched 105 Shahed, Gerbera and Italmas drones overnight since Tuesday, adding that 88 of which were downed by Ukrainian air defences.
The attack was still ongoing as of 8am local time (6am GMT).
“Hits by 17 UAVs had been recorded at 14 locations and the fall of downed aerial assets (debris) at 5 locations” across the country’s north, south and east, it added in the update on Telegram.
Drones were launched from the Russian cities of Oryol, Bryansk and Primorsko-Akhtarsk, and from occupied Donetsk and Crimea.
China’s president Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin both hailed their ties during a video call on Wednesday held in the run-up to the fourth anniversary of Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
Putin said the Moscow-Beijing relationship was an important stabilising factor at a time of growing global turbulence, in a Russian state television broadcast of the talks.
Xi, speaking via an interpreter, called for the countries to work out a “grand plan” to further bilateral relations which he said were advancing in the right direction.
He said China-Russia ties had “withstood international turbulence” and pledged to coordinate with Moscow on issues concerning their core interests.
China and Russia declared a “no limits” strategic partnership days before Putin sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022.
Since then, China has emerged as an economic lifeline for Russia by stepping up trade with the northern neighbour while Western powers piled sanctions on Moscow.
Reuters news agency is reporting that a Russian stand-up comedian was convicted of inciting hatred and jailed for nearly six years on Wednesday over a joke he made about a legless war veteran, which triggered outrage among nationalists and military bloggers.
A reporter in court said that the comedian, Artemy Ostanin, had been handed a sentence of five years and nine months and a fine of 300,000 roubles ($3,908).
It was the latest in a series of rulings which have harshly punished people judged by the authorities to have spoken rudely or falsely about the Russian army at a time when it is fighting in Ukraine.
Mr Ostanin was also convicted of offending the feelings of Christians with another off-colour joke he made about Jesus, which angered Orthodox nationalists.
Mr Ostanin, who had apologised to anyone whose feelings he had hurt, denied wrongdoing and said that the joke he made about the war veteran had made no mention of the conflict in Ukraine.
Russia’s public deficit could hit almost triple the intended target by the end of the year as a fall in Indian purchases of oil and growing oil trade discounts eat into revenues, a source close to the government told Reuters news agency.
Spending may also be higher than expected, contributing to the issue, it added.
The source cited calculations by economists from a government-linked think tank, which are not set to be published, but are the latest sign of growing strains on a Russian economy facing sanctions, high interest rates and labour shortages.
The calculations showed a possible fall in energy revenues by 18 per cent in 2026 compared to the government’s plan, along with a possible rise in spending by between 4.1 per cent and 8.4 per cent.
Total budget revenues are expected to fall by 6 per cent from the plan to 37.9 trillion roubles ($494.78 billion).
“The budget situation is sharply deteriorating. Revenues will be lower and expenditures higher,” the source said.
Pope Leo urged Russian and US leaders to renew their last arms control treaty, New START, which caps the number of strategic nuclear weapons deployed by each country.
Leo, the first US pope, said during his weekly audience at the Vatican that the current world situation “calls for doing everything possible to avert a new arms race.”
“I issue an urgent appeal not to let this instrument lapse,” said the pope. “It is more urgent than ever to replace the logic of fear and distrust with a shared ethic, capable of guiding choices toward the common good.”
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