Donald Trump has launched a withering attack against Europe’s “weak” leaders, saying the Russian president has the “upper hand” in peace negotiations. Elsewhere, a member of the UK armed forces has died in Ukraine after a “tragic accident”. Follow the latest below.
Tuesday 9 December 2025 23:02, UK
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It’s been a busy day of updates in the Ukraine war, with diplomatic efforts to end the war moving quickly.
Before we pause our live updates, here’s a brief rundown of everything that’s been happening…
Watch: Trump calls European leaders ‘weak’
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been moving nearly non-stop over the last 48 hours as he held meetings with European allies over a US-proposed peace deal in London and Brussels on Monday and in Rome on Tuesday.
Zelenskyy tends to take journalists’ questions in person while trotting the globe. But this week, he didn’t have time to hold a traditional news conference – so he improvised.
On Monday, the Ukrainian president used a WhatsApp group chat to plant the message that Ukraine would not surrender land to Russia.
While flying between London and Brussels, he answered questions from Ukrainian and international reporters by sending audio clips – a very rare method for a world leader.
Associated Press reported that the low drone of the aircraft was clearly audible on the recordings and that Zelenskyy sounded “hoarse and tired”.
On Tuesday, on his way back from Rome, Zelenskyy repeated the audio briefing, as he talked about elections and mused about an energy ceasefire (see our posts at 19.46 and 20.36).
Sky News has been speaking to Brett Bruen, a former diplomat and foreign policy advisor at the Obama White House, about Donald Trump’s Politico interview.
The US president’s derogatory comments on Ukraine’s defence efforts and Europe’s situation were mostly a negotiation strategy, Bruen said.
He told Sky News international editor Dominic Waghorn:
“What he’s trying to do is undermine Brussels, undermine London so as to get more concessions in the old New York real estate negotiation process that is so tried and true with Trump.”
Europe needs to take the initiative now to lay out what they consider an acceptable peace agreement, Bruen said, including what Ukraine not giving up land means to them.
On the plus side, he observed, Trump’s hostility was giving European governments “air cover” to take long overdue political decisions to upgrade its defence.
Watch Bruen’s full comments in the video…
Away from ongoing peace diplomacy, the situation on key parts of the battlefield remains difficult for Ukraine.
An important tug-of-war is taking place over the strategic town of Pokrovsk in the east, nicknamed “the gateway to Donetsk” in Russian media.
Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, has today provided an update on Pokrovsk, which Russia claimed to have taken last week.
He told journalists Ukrainian troops have made some gains in Pokrovsk since mid-November and still hold the north.
But he added:
“I gave an order a few days ago to withdraw our troops from about 5 to 7km from Pokrovsk, where they had remained.
“Rotation was no longer possible and the enemy was slipping through. There was no point in keeping them there any longer.”
The situation remained difficult, Syrskyi said.
Earlier, we reported that Ukraine has introduced emergency power cuts in most regions to avoid uncontrolled blackouts after recent Russian attacks on its energy sector (see 14.10 post).
The situation in Kyiv is among the most difficult, the Ukrainian energy ministry said.
Half of Kyiv’s residents are without power at any one time as hourly outage schedules are in effect, leaving parts of the capital in darkness.
Light came from headlights as cars kept driving through the darkness.
This delivery courier used his bike light during a quick break.
By Siobhan Robbins, Europe correspondent
Donald Trump’s bruising assessment of Europe as “weak” and “decaying” is a bitter blow to nations already reeling from the release of his national security strategy.
At the end of the 45-minute interview with Politico, EU leaders might be forgiven for thinking, with friends like these, who needs enemies?
“Europe doesn’t know what to do,” Trump said, “They want to be politically correct, and it makes them weak.”
On the contrary, I would imagine some choice words were being uttered in European capitals as they waded through the string of insults…
Peace for Ukraine is closer than at any time since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Alexander Stubb, the Finnish president, has said.
“We’re quite close to an agreement,” he said at an event in Helsinki, according to Bloomberg.
He also revealed that negotiations between US, Ukrainian and European officials currently involve the following separate documents:
This aligns with comments that Volodymyr Zelenskyy later made to reporters about the state of the negotiations.
Stubb has been one of the European leaders that serve as intermediaries in talks between the US and Ukraine.
The former semi-professional golfer and staunch Ukraine supporter had bonded with Trump over a round of golf in Florida earlier this year.
We can now bring you a bit more on the comments Volodymyr Zelenskyy made to reporters this evening (see our post at 19.46).
Aside from discussing the possibility of elections, he also said Ukraine is ready for an “energy ceasefire” if Russia agrees to the same.
Both sides have exchanged increasing strikes on energy infrastructure targets in recent months.
Ukraine says it targets Russia’s energy sites – including oil refineries, gas terminals and fuel depots – to hurt Moscow’s war machine, which uses energy exports to help fund its military campaign.
Analysts say Russian strikes on Ukraine’s energy sector – targeting power plants, gas production and transmission lines – are aimed at eroding public resolve, denying Ukrainians access to electricity, heat and water amid freezing winter temperatures.
For context: A previous energy ceasefire was laid out in March this year following a phone call between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, with Moscow reportedly agreeing to stop attacking Ukrainian energy infrastructure for one month.
Russian officials claimed it had abided by the ceasefire immediately, with Ukraine claiming it had begun a week later after the publication of a joint US-Ukraine statement on 25 March.
Despite this, Ukraine accused Russia of striking civilian infrastructure almost every night from 18 March, with eight strikes against energy infrastructure, without detailing the damaged facilities.
The ceasefire ended on 18 April and was not renewed.
By Deborah Haynes, security and defence editor
The death in Ukraine of a serving member of the British armed forces shines a rare light on the little-discussed work of the UK military inside the country.
The government has previously acknowledged the presence of a small number of service personnel in Ukraine who are helping the Ukrainian military as well as providing security for the British ambassador and other diplomats at the embassy in Kyiv.
There are also British troops who have been giving medical training.
However, very little is said about the mission amid concerns that Russia could exploit the discrete UK presence to claim falsely that serving British soldiers are actively fighting against Russian troops.
Dozens of former British troops, as well as veterans from many other countries, have travelled to Ukraine to fight for the Ukrainian armed forces ever since Russia launched its full-scale war almost four years ago and a number of them have been killed in battle.
But this is the first confirmation of a serving member of the British armed forces being killed on the ground – and evidence that they too are taking significant risks.
A statement by the Ministry of Defence said the death happened on Tuesday following a “tragic accident” whilst the serviceperson was “observing Ukrainian forces test a new defensive capability, away from the front lines”.
The incident is not thought to have been the result of a Russian attack.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and John Healey, the defence secretary, both paid tribute to the individual, whose rank and service has not yet been revealed.
But the Kremlin will also likely seize of the tragedy to amplify bogus claims about NATO forces already being deployed in Ukraine, fighting directly against Russia.
Watch Haynes’ live analysis on The UK Tonight in the video…
Pope Leo has weighed in on Donald Trump’s latest interview comments, in which he said Europe was in decline and had “weak” leaders.
Asked by a journalist if he thinks the US peace plan for Ukraine is fair, the pontiff said he’d “rather not comment on that”.
But then he added:
“I think unfortunately some parts of that I have seen make a huge change in what was for many, many years a true alliance between Europe and the United States.
“The remarks that are made about Europe also in interviews recently I think are trying to break apart what… needs to be a very important alliance today and in the future.”
He went on to explicitly reference the US president:
“So, it’s a programme that President Trump and his advisers put together. He’s the president of the United States. He has the right to do that, but it has a number of things in it that I think, while perhaps many people in the United States would be in agreement, I think many others would see things in a different way.”
Watch the moment in the video…
Pope Leo’s comments came after he met with Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Italy earlier today.
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