Russia-Ukraine war updates: EU holds key summit to strengthen Kyiv’s hand

For more on the EU summit in Brussels, see our story here.

You can also check out this documentary about how Ukrainians are trying to rebuild their lives in the quiet village of Kozubivka in the country’s Poltava region.

And for all our Russia-Ukraine war coverage, check out this page.

We will be closing the live page soon. Here’s a review of the day’s main events:

• A group of 27 European leaders convened in the Belgian capital, Brussels, to discuss the war in Ukraine and whether or not to seize nearly $200bn worth of frozen Russian assets and divert them to Ukraine, a measure that has prompted concerns about legal questions and possible Russian retaliation by some EU countries.
• Negotiations dragged on all day and into the evening, with no official decision forthcoming by press time.
• Odesa governor Oleh Kiper said that a woman was killed and her three children injured in a Russian drone strike in Odesa, where Russian attacks have damaged infrastructure and caused power outages in recent days.
•  EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas urged support for the measure, saying that further pressure is necessary until Russia is willing to “seriously talk about peace”.
• US President Donald Trump said that he hopes Ukraine will “move quickly” to reach an agreement on ending the war with Russia, as Russian and US officials are expected to meet this weekend in Miami.

Ukraine’s Economy Ministry has said that a critical minerals deal with the US will take effect early in 2026.

“We are now moving from paperwork to reconstruction, developing a high-quality pipeline to deploy capital into projects that support Ukraine’s long-term growth and supply chain resilience,” Oleksii Sobolev, Ukraine’s economy minister, is quoted as saying in a report by the Ukrainian news agency Kyiv Independent.

Andrii Sybiha, the Ukrainian foreign minister, says the UN General Assembly resolution “strongly condemns Russia’s aggression, reaffirms Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and demands an immediate end to the war and withdrawal of Russian forces”.

Sybiha said the measure, which concerns Russian-occupied territory in Ukraine, including Crimea and Sevastopol, has been initiated annually by Kyiv since 2016.

“The resolution strengthens international monitoring of grave human rights and humanitarian law violations and underscores the imperative of accountability,” he wrote on X.

Army General Valery Gerasimov, chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, has said that Russia is committed to the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty but will take “appropriate retaliatory measures” if the US follows through on plans to resume nuclear weapons testing.

The Russian news service TASS also reported that Gerasimov told a group of foreign military attaches that NATO members have “significantly increased” military forces near Russia’s borders, posing a “long-term challenge” to the country’s security.

Speaking about the state of Russia’s war on Ukraine, he said that Moscow is “up against the economic and military might of the collective West” but maintains the “strategic initiative” in the war.

That’s according to political risk analyst Ben Godwin, who says despite diplomatic engagement and growing pressure for a peace settlement, talks remain stalled as Ukraine opposes territorial concessions.

See more in the video below:

Negotiations have now gone way into the evening, and that’s not unusual for the European Union.

But they knew that this [meeting] would be particular hard because using these frozen Russian assets – billions of dollars – is considered tricky, risky and also unprecedented.

What we are hearing is that since this morning most of the negotiations have been happening on the sidelines of the main conference.

There’s been a lot of bilateral talks on the sidelines. New drafts have been written and are being written as we speak. There are a lot of changes and a lot of going back and forth.

They were quite optimistic before that there would be a deal maybe in the early morning here, or this evening. But now it looks slightly less optimistic.

Russia’s Central Bank has said that it will take steps to counter the seizure of frozen assets that European countries are contemplating putting to use on behalf of Ukraine, despite strong protests from Moscow that the move would be illegal.

The bank filed a complaint last week in a Moscow Arbitration Court, but it is not clear how it would enforce a ruling in its favour or collect any potential damages.

The EU banned the enforcement of Russian court orders regarding frozen assets more than 10 years ago, but the prime minister of Belgium, where most of the frozen assets are held, has raised concerns about potential liability due to a 1989 treaty, or retaliation from Moscow.

We have more lines from Kaja Kallas, the EU’s foreign policy chief, who spoke to reporters earlier today on the sidelines of the summit in Brussels:

• Kallas said there is broad international support for efforts to reach a Ukraine-Russia peace deal, but warned that pressure remains one-sided.
• “We haven’t seen any willingness from the Russian side to move or seriously talk about peace. Even the ceasefire for Christmas was rejected. Clearly, we need to put the pressure on Russia so that they would go from pretending to negotiate, to actually come to the table and really negotiate.”
• Kallas said Russian President Vladimir Putin is “banking on” European leaders failing to reach a deal to support Ukraine amid points of disagreement over whether to use the seized Russian assets.
• Getting an agreement “is very important because it sends a strong signal to Russia that they can’t outlast us”, Kallas said. “The reparations loan is based on the principle that the one who is doing the damage has to also pay for this.”

Odesa governor Oleh Kiper has said that a woman in her car was killed and her three children injured in a Russian drone strike on Thursday.

Kiper said in a Telegram post that energy infrastructure had also been damaged, asking residents to remain indoors as authorities worked to address damage and power outages.

“As a result of enemy attacks, the energy infrastructure in Odesa region has suffered extensive damage,” Kiper said. “Power crews are working around the clock and doing everything possible to restore electricity to every home as quickly as possible.”

The Danish government says it will summon the Russian ambassador after it accused two hacker groups linked to Russia of carrying out two cyberattacks.

One of the attacks, attributed to the pro-Russian group Z-Pentest, caused pipes to explode at a Danish water treatment plant in 2024.

The other occurred on the eve of Denmark’s municipal and regional elections in November, when the websites of several political parties, municipalities, public institutions and a defence company were inaccessible due to a cyberattack claimed by the Russian hacker group NoName057.

“We are very confident that these are pro-Russian groups linked to the Russian state,” said the head of Denmark’s military intelligence agency, Thomas Ahrenkiel.

FE, Denmark’s foreign intelligence service, said in a statement that the Russian state uses both NoName057 and Z-Pentest “as instruments of its hybrid war against the West”, the goal of which is to “create insecurity in the targeted countries and to punish those that support Ukraine”.

The AP news agency is reporting that a Kremlin envoy will travel to Florida to discuss the Trump administration’s proposal to end the war with Ukraine.

Quoting an unnamed US official who spoke on condition of anonymity, AP said Kirill Dmitriev, who heads Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, is set to meet US envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, in Miami on Saturday.

The expected meeting comes after talks between US and European leaders were held earlier this week in Berlin.

Asked about the meeting in Miami, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow was preparing for contacts with the US to learn about the results of the meetings in Berlin, but didn’t give further details.

The largest Western bank still operating in Russia has been ordered to pay nearly $400m in compensation for losses incurred by Russian company Rasperia due to European sanctions.

Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) said in a statement that the sum – 339 million euros – reflected the amount frozen in Vienna and that it would appeal the ruling.

In March, RBI had already confirmed that it had to pay more than two billion euros ($2.34bn) in damages to Rasperia, an investment company.

According to Washington and Brussels, Rasperia is linked to the Russian businessman Oleg Deripaska, who has been under Western sanctions since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.

Zelenskyy has condemned Raiffeisen’s continued operations in Russia.

Amnesty International has warned of an “unprecedented emergency” as Russian attacks on Ukraine’s critical infrastructure have left millions without power in the winter.

“Large parts of Odesa and the wider region, home to over 2 million people, have been left without electricity for several days. Water supply and heating have also been disrupted for many people as temperatures plummet,” the rights group said in a social media post.

“This is not an isolated incident, but part of a pattern by Russia, clearly designed to destroy Ukraine’s critical infrastructure and cause civilian suffering,” it added.

While the Trump administration has not formally commented on today’s talks in Brussels, a group of US lawmakers has urged Belgium to embrace the plan to leverage seized Russian assets for Ukraine.

Seven US senators, led by Democrat Michael Bennet, wrote a letter to the Belgian ambassador to the US this week, stressing that the loan could help Ukraine “purchase critical defensive systems” to defend against Russian attacks.

“Putin will not stop if he wins in Ukraine but will continue testing NATO’s resolve, posing risks to our collective security,” they wrote.

“Providing additional financial support is of paramount importance for the sake of Ukraine, for a Europe that is whole and free, and one day at peace – and for the defense of democracy everywhere.”