Ukraine-Russia war latest: Zelensky says peace ‘10% away’ but won’t sign ‘weak’ deal in New Year address

In his New Year’s Eve address, Volodymyr Zelensky said that Ukraine wanted the war to end, but not at any cost, adding he would not sign a “weak” peace agreement.

“What does Ukraine want? Peace? Yes. At any cost? No. We want an end to the war but not the end of Ukraine.

“Are we tired? Very. Does this mean we are ready to surrender? Anyone who thinks so is deeply mistaken.”

Zelensky said any signature “placed on weak agreements only fuel the war.”

“My signature will be placed on a strong agreement. And that is exactly what every meeting, every phone call, every decision is about now,” he said.

Ukraine’s energy ministry has reported that 170,000 people have been left without power after Russian strikes on energy infrastructure in the Odesa region.

In a statement, it said that emergency repairs were ongoing.

Four apartment buildings were damaged in the bombing. Six people were injured including three children.

Oleh Kiper, the regional head said the attacks “are further evidence of the enemy’s terror tactics, which deliberately target civilian infrastructure.”

Vladimir Putin called the ongoing war “a struggle for Russia’s homeland” in his New Year’s address as he signalled determination to press ahead despite international condemnation for his invasion of Ukraine.

“We believe in you and our victory,” Putin said in remarks broadcast nationwide and released by the Kremlin yesterday. Addressing troops directly, he congratulated “all our soldiers and commanders” and pledged continued support for what Moscow calls its “special military operation.”

In a separate message, ex-president Dmitry Medvedev, Putin’s security council deputy, said of victory in Ukraine: “I sincerely believe that it is near.” Echoing Putin, he spoke of “our great and invincible Russia.”

The EU foreign policy chief on Wednesday dismissed the Kremlin’s claim that Ukraine recently targeted key government sites in Russia, calling it a “deliberate distraction.”

“No one should accept unfounded claims from the aggressor who has indiscriminately targeted Ukraine’s infrastructure and civilians since the start of the war,” Kaja Kallas wrote on US social media company X.

She argued that Moscow seeks to “derail real progress towards peace by Ukraine and its Western partners.”

Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine was “10 per cent” away from a deal to end the war with Russia, but cautioned that the last remaining issues were the most important.

In his New Year’s Eve address, Zelensky said his country wanted an end to the war but not at “any cost”, and that any agreement needed strong security guarantees to deter Russia from invading again.

“The peace agreement is 90 per cent ready. Ten per cent remains. And that is far more than just numbers,” Zelensky said in the address, posted on his Telegram account.

President Zelensky would gain more in diplomatic goodwill from the White House by signing a deal – any deal – than he would lose in Ukrainian security, and he should accept the US guarantee – and press his more loyal allies in Europe to take on the role of the real guarantors of Ukraine’s borders.

Video footage presented by Russia as evidence of an alleged Ukrainian drone attack on Vladimir Putin’s residence earlier this week was laughable, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s foreign ministry has said.

Russia’s defence ministry released video footage on Wednesday of what it said was a downed drone.

It showed a Russian serviceman standing next to fragments of a device said to be a downed Ukrainian Chaklun-V drone carrying a 6kg explosive device that had not detonated.

The ministry did not explain how it knew what the device’s target was.

Heorhii Tykhyi, of Kyiv’s foreign ministry, told Reuters: “This is laughable – both the fact that it took them two days to produce this, and the fact that the things they try to present as evidence basically shows that they are not serious even about fabricating the story.”

“We are absolutely confident that no such attack took place.”

More than 2,300 Ukrainian civilians were killed and more than 11,000 were injured from January to November this year, according to the United Nations.

That was 26 per cent higher than in the same period in 2024 and 70 per cent higher than in 2023, it said.

Moscow has this year escalated its long-range attacks on urban areas of Ukraine. In recent months, as Russia’s invasion of its neighbour approaches its four-year milestone in February, it has also intensified its targeting of energy infrastructure, seeking to deny Ukrainians heat and running water in the bitter winter months.