German Chancellor Merz will host Zelenskyy, along with “many” other European and NATO leaders. Meanwhile, Turkey’s Erdogan has proposed a limited ceasefire during a meeting with Putin. Follow PasarModern.com.
Zelenskyy will be in Berlin on Monday alongside French President Macron, British Prime Minister Starmer and other European leaders Berlin says the meeting aims to discuss ‘the state of the peace talks’ During a meeting with Russia’s Putin, Turkey’s Erdogan proposed a limited ceasefire Zelenskyy has visited troops in embattled Kupiansk
Welcome to PasarModern.com’s coverage of developments in Russia’s war in Ukraine on Friday, December 12.
Zelenskyy to visit Berlin as Merz calls talks intense
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will visit Berlin on Monday for talks with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and “many” other NATO and European allies, a German government spokesperson said Friday.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron are also reportedly expected at the meeting to discuss the latest developments in a US-led plan to end the war in Ukraine.
On Friday, Merz said there is still a major need to resolve questions in international efforts to end the war and provide security guarantees for Ukraine.
“The discussions are being conducted very intensively these days,” Merz said. “We are trying to involve the US government in the talks we are having among ourselves, as well as with the Ukrainian government and the Ukrainian president.”
Merz said talks about security guarantees mainly focus on strengthening the Ukrainian military in the long run and ensuring the country can protect itself on its own.
“We are ready to make our own contributions to this. Contributions from the US side will also be needed,” Merz said, adding that the question of how and in what details this will be integrated into an overall concept remains open.
Erdogan proposes limited Ukraine-Russia ceasefire in talks with Putin
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Turkmenistan, proposing a limited ceasefire in the Ukraine-Russia war.
The plan focuses on protecting energy facilities and ports.
Erdogan’s office said the two leaders also discussed broader peace efforts and the EU’s freezing of Russian assets.
Ankara recently condemned drone attacks on tankers in the Black Sea, calling them a dangerous escalation.
On Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Turkey is working on a ceasefire plan tied to energy infrastructure and shipping. He said Kyiv supports the idea and is ready for talks.
WATCH: Munich Security chief says Ukraine peace is only first step for Europe
Wolfgang Ischinger, chairman of the Munich Security Conference, has warned that the end of the war in Ukraine would only be the start of European efforts to secure peace in Europe.
Kremlin says ceasefire only possible if Kyiv withdraws from Donbas
Kremlin foreign policy adviser Yury Ushakov said a ceasefire in Ukraine would only be possible if Kyiv’s forces fully withdraw from the Donbas region.
“A ceasefire can only happen after the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops,” the Russian newspaper Kommersant quoted him as saying.
“If not by negotiation, then by military means, this territory will come under the full control of the Russian Federation. Everything else will depend entirely on that,” Ushakov added.
Russia currently controls all of Luhansk and large parts of Donetsk, which together make up the Donbas. Ukraine, however, continues to hold several large and heavily fortified cities, including Sloviansk and Kramatorsk.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has always insisted that it would be politically, morally and constitutionally impossible for him to simply cede Ukrainian territory, said Thursday that the US had proposed some sort of demilitarized “free economic zone.”
In addition to repeating that a referendum or election would be required to allow such a move, Zelenskyy questioned who would police such a zone and called for concrete security guarantees
Zelenskyy says he visited troops in embattled Kupiansk
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he visited the frontline town of Kupiansk, where Ukrainian forces said they have been retaking territory.
In a video posted on his Telegram account on Friday, Zelenskyy appeared wearing a bulletproof vest at the city’s entrance sign.
“Today, it is extremely important to achieve results on the front lines so that Ukraine can achieve results in diplomacy,” Zelenskyy said.
Kyiv has repeatedly dismissed Russian claims of sweeping advances, saying Moscow is trying to push a narrative of Ukraine’s imminent collapse to influence peace negotiations.
Reports suggest the United States is pushing Kyiv to make major territorial concessions as part of its plan to end the nearly four-year war.
Ukraine says it retook several villages near Kupiansk
Ukraine says its forces have taken back parts of Kupiansk in the northern Kharkiv region and several nearby villages in a move that surrounded Russian troops.
“Kindrashivka, Radkivka, and their outskirts have been liberated, as well as a number of neighborhoods in northern Kupiansk,” the Khartiia army corps said on social media.
Kupiansk is a key railway hub that Russia last month claimed to control, a claim Ukraine denied. Russian forces had first seized the city in 2022, but Ukrainian troops retook the city in the fall of that year.
“Today, we can say that the Russians in the city are completely cut off. For a long time, they couldn’t understand what was happening. But now they know they are surrounded,” Ihor Obolienskyi, commander of the Khartiia Corps of the National Guard, was quoted by the Ukrainska Pravda news outlet.
Russia did not immediately comment on Kyiv’s statement.
Russia sues Euroclear over frozen assets
Russia’s central bank is suing Belgium-based financial firm Euroclear over frozen state assets in Europe.
The case, filed in a Moscow arbitration court, accuses Euroclear of unlawful actions that caused losses to the Bank of Russia.
Euroclear manages about €185 billion of the €210 billion ($247 billion) in Russian assets frozen under EU sanctions since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Anatoly Aksakov, the head of the Russian parliament’s finance committee, said the central bank will likely win the case. Recovering the money will prove more difficult.
The lawsuit comes as EU member states move to permanently block those funds and use them to support Ukraine. Currently, the freeze is renewed every six months.
US plan to end Russia’s war in Ukraine: Where it stands now
There has been a flurry of diplomatic activity between Washington, Kyiv, Moscow and European capitals to discuss a plan to end the war. But US President Donald Trump says he’s tired of talking — he wants action.
Read more on where the protracted peace talks stand and what the various stakeholders want from the negotiations.
Kremlin says it ‘may not like’ revised US proposal
Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said Russia had not yet seen the revisions the US made to a proposed deal to end the war in Ukraine.
Washington’s amendments followed talks with Ukraine and included some sort of a demilitarized “free economic zone,” according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Zelenskyy said Kyiv was “fully aligned with the American side.” But Moscow is unlikely to be on that same side, Ushakov suggested.
“We haven’t seen the revised versions of the American drafts. When we see them, we may not like a lot of things, that’s how I sense it,” he told reporters on Friday.
Ushakov also said Moscow needed to see what the outcome of the “active brainstorming session” between European and Ukrainian officials over the weekend.
Asked about how Russia viewed Zelenskyy’s suggestion that a referendum be held on any territorial concessions, Ushakov insisted that the entire Donbas region belongs to Russia.
Hungary protests EU plan to freeze Russian assets
Hungary has protested what it calls an unlawful EU plan to freeze Russian assets indefinitely using a qualified majority vote.
Prime Minister Viktor Orban said in a Facebook post on Friday warned the move would damage the EU.
“Brussels will step over the Rubicon today, with a written voting starting which will cause irreparable damage to the Union,” Orban said. “Hungary protests the decision and will do its best to restore a lawful situation.”
Hungary has been one of the only EU members to maintain ties with Russia since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Russia central bank warns EU over use of its assets
Russia’s central bank has said EU proposals to use its assets are illegal and has warned it reserves the right to use all available mechanisms to protect its interests.
In a statement on Friday, the Bank of Russia said any use of Russian assets without authorization would violate international law.
“Mechanisms of direct or indirect use of the assets of the Bank of Russia, as well as any other forms of unauthorized use of the assets of the Bank of Russia, are illegal and contrary to international law, including violating the principles of sovereign immunity of assets,” the central bank said.
The EU has moved to create a legal basis to use Russian state assets for Ukraine by majority vote, aiming to block the funds from ever being returned to Moscow.
The Danish EU presidency said the change would prevent Moscow-friendly countries such as Hungary from vetoing future decisions extending the freeze on Russian assets.
The Belgian government has so far blocked the plan, citing legal and financial risks and warning Russia could retaliate against European individuals and companies, including through expropriations in Russia.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who is hosting Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever in London, was expected to discuss the issue with him on Friday.
Putin claims capture of Siversk in eastern Ukraine
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Russian forces have captured the eastern Ukrainian town of Siversk.
Speaking on state television on Thursday alongside Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, Putin said the seizure cleared the way for further advances in the Donbas region.
He said successful attacks were now possible in other directions and added that the strategic initiative was fully in Russian hands. Putin also said operations to take the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhya regions were progressing.
Putin praised what he called the “dynamism” on the front line.
Ukraine has not issued an immediate official comment on Russia’s claims.
The Russian military has said its next objective is the town of Sloviansk, which had a pre-war population of more than 100,000 before Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022.
Ukraine peace plan: what are the key issues?
The US has been pressing Moscow and Kyiv to agree to its peace proposal, but despite intensified diplomacy in recent weeks, there has been no significant breakthrough yet. These are some of the main sticking points for any ceasefire in Ukraine:
Russia’s demands for a Ukrainian withdrawal from the eastern Donbas region, including from areas not under Russian occupation US proposals for a demilitarized “free economic zone” as a buffer area Ukraine’s insistance on firm security guarantees against any future Russian aggression
On Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has always insisted that it would be politically, morally and constitutionally impossible for him to simply cede Ukrainian territory, said the US had proposed some sort of demilitarized “free economic zone.”
In addition to repeating that a referendum or election would be required to allow such a move, Zelenskyy questioned who would police such a zone and called for concrete security guarantees.
“If one side’s troops have to retreat and the other side stays where they are, then what will hold back these other troops?” he asked, referring to the Russians. “What will stop them disguising themselves as civilians and taking over this free economic zone? This is all very serious. If you are talking about a compromise then it has to be a fair compromise.”
Will the US provide security guarantees for Ukraine?
Ukraine is particularly unwilling to give up its remaining territory in Donetsk since it contains a key belt of heavily defended “fortress cities” such as Sloviansk, Kramatorsk and the besieged town of Pokrovsk.
“If Ukraine gives up the fortress cities in the Donbas, the only security they can have is by being heavily armed and being backed by their allies in some way,” said Sky News UK’s military analyst Michael Clarke.
“The only thing that would stop Russia is deterrence: the knowledge that either European forces were sitting in Ukraine ready to fight for them, which is hard to imagine at the moment, and that they are backed up by American forces, which is even harder to imagine,” he said.
On Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a statement that “security guarantees are among the most important elements for all subsequent steps,” and his US counterpart Donald Trump suggested that Washington would be prepared to help in some form.
“We would help with security because, in my opinion, it’s a necessary factor,” he said, without giving further details.
Trump: US may attend meeting on Saturday
US President Donald Trump suggested the US may attend a potential meeting “on Saturday” to discuss a peace plan to end the war in Ukraine.
CNN reported the meeting will take place in Paris.
“We’ll see whether or not we attend the meeting,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “We’ll be attending the meeting on Saturday in Europe if we think there’s a good chance. And we don’t want to waste a lot of time if we think it’s negative.”
Earlier on Thursday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Trump was “extremely frustrated” with both Russia and Ukraine. “He is sick of meetings just for the sake of meeting,” she said.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz also said there could be another meeting in Berlin next week.
