Ukraine has said Vladimir Putin “needs to come back to reality” in response to the Russian president’s claim that he is ready to negotiate.
On a day which saw Russia launch rocket attacks on dozens of frontline towns, Mr Putin had told state broadcaster Rossiya 1 that the Kremlin was “ready to negotiate with everyone involved about acceptable solutions”.
“But that is up to them – we are not the ones refusing to negotiate, they are,” he claimed.
Ukrainian officials have dismissed Mr Putin’s comments, as the Russian president’s forces spent Christmas Day bombarding more than 25 towns along the Kupiansk-Lyman frontline, and nearly 20 in Zaporizhzhia.
At least 10 rocket attacks also struck the Kupiansk district in the Kharkiv region.
Moscow claimed to have killed about 60 Ukrainian servicemen the previous day.
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‘Russia tries to avoid responsibility’
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukraine‘s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, wrote on Twitter: “Putin needs to come back to reality.
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“Russia single-handedly attacked Ukraine and is killing citizens. There are no other ‘countries, motives, geopolitics’.
“Russia doesn’t want negotiations, but tries to avoid responsibility.”
It came as Russian officials sought to downplay an incident at the Engels air base in the Saratov region.
Three servicemen were killed after UAV debris fell at the site, said the Russian defence ministry, which specified the aircraft was not damaged after a Ukrainian drone attack.
Earlier, local governor Roman Busargin had described reports of an incident as “false information”.
“There is absolutely no threat to the residents,” he wrote on Telegram.
“All the stories about the evacuation of the city are blatant lies created far beyond the country’s borders. There has been no damage to civilian infrastructure.”
Image: Ukrainian troops endured intense shelling on Christmas Day at the frontline in Bakhmut
‘Russia has lost everything it could this year’
It is 10 months since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
And, with no serious peace talks for months, there is little end in sight.
Millions of people in Ukraine are without electricity, due to Russian attacks on the country’s infrastructure.
Mr Zelenskyy has warned his people that Moscow will try to make the last days of 2022 dark and difficult.
He said: “Russia has lost everything it could this year.
“I know darkness will not prevent us from leading the occupiers to new defeats.
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Zelenskyy’s Christmas message
‘Defending our national interests’
Ukraine says it will not negotiate until every Russian soldier is gone from its territory, while Russia says it will keep fighting until it achieves its aims.
Mr Putin said on Sunday that he believes he is “defending our national interests…protect(ing) our citizens”.
Mr Putin also blames Kyiv and its Western backers for a lack of progress on peace talks, but has made clear that any negotiations must be on his terms.
Ukraine says this would be unacceptable, as it would mean bowing to Russian demands and accepting Mr Putin’s annexation of four Ukrainian regions.
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Pope calls for end to ‘senseless’ Ukraine war
‘Posturing’
The US State Department has not commented on Mr Putin’s latest talks offer, but after a similar speech from Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov in October, spokesman Ned Price dismissed Russia’s approach as “posturing”.
“We do not see this as a constructive, legitimate offer to engage in the dialogue and diplomacy that is absolutely necessary to see an end to this brutal war of aggression,” he added.
The Trump-Putin summit is pitched as “transparent” but it’s difficult to find any path to peace right now.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has reduced it to a “listening exercise” where Donald Trump will seek a “better understanding” of the situation.
There isn’t much to understand – Russia wants territory, Ukraine isn’t ceding it – but Ms Levitt rejects talk of them “tempering expectations”.
It’s possible to be both hopeful and measured, she says, because Mr Trump wants peace but is only meeting one side on Friday.
It’s the fact that he’s only meeting Vladimir Putin that concerns European leaders, who fear Ukraine could be side-lined by any Trump-Putin pact.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy claims Mr Putin wants the rest of Donetsk and, in effect, the entire Donbas region in eastern Ukraine.
He’s ruled out surrendering that because it would rob him of key defence lines and leave Kyiv vulnerable to future offensives.
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‘Steps have been taken to remedy the situation’ in Pokrovsk
European leaders – including Sir Keir Starmer – will hold online talks with Mr Zelenskyy twice on Wednesday, on either side of a virtual call with Mr Trump and US Vice President JD Vance.
Their concerns may be getting through, hence the White House now framing the summit as a cautious fact-finding exercise and nothing more.
The only thing we really learned from the latest news conference is that the first Trump-Putin meeting in six years will be in Anchorage.
A White House official later confirmed it would be at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, a US military facility.
Any agreement between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin when they meet on Friday could leave Ukraine in an impossible position after three years of brutal, grinding war for survival.
There has been speculation the two leaders could agree a so-called ‘land for peace’ deal which could see Ukraine instructed to give up territory in exchange for an end to the fighting.
That would effectively be an annexation of sovereign Ukrainian territory by Russia by force.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyysaid on Tuesday evening that MrPutin wants the rest of Donetsk – and in effect the entire eastern Donbas region – as part of a ceasefire plan.
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Sky’s Michael Clarke explains in more detail what territories are under possible threat.
But the Ukrainian leader said Kyiv would reject the proposal and explained that such a move would deprive them of defensive lines and open the way for Moscow to conduct further offensives.
Russia currently occupies around 19% of Ukraine, including Crimea and the parts of the Donbas region it seized prior to the full-scale invasion in February 2022.
In this story, Sky News speaks to experts about what the highly-anticipated meeting between the Russian and American presidents could mean for the battlefield.
Image: Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are set to meet in Alaska. Pic: Reuters
A ceasefire along the frontline?
The range of outcomes for the Trump-Putin meeting is broad, with anything from no progress to a ceasefire possible.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, for instance, said this week that he has “many fears and a lot of hope” for what could come out of it.
Military analyst Michael Clarke told Sky News that the summit “certainly won’t create peace, but it might create a ceasefire in place if Putin decides to be flexible”.
“So far he hasn’t shown any flexibility at all,” he added.
A ceasefire along the frontline, with minimal withdrawals on both sides, would be “structurally changing” and an “astonishing outcome”, he said.
However he doubts this will happen. Mr Clarke said a favourable outcome could be the two sides agreeing to a ceasefire that would start in two weeks time (for instance) with threats of sanctions from the US if Russia or Ukraine breaks it.
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President Zelenskyy: ‘Path to peace must be determined together’
Will Ukraine be forced to give up territory to Russia?
While President Trump’s attitude to Ukrainian resistance appears possibly more favourable from his recent comments, it’s still possible that Kyiv could be asked to give up territory as part of any agreement with Russia.
Moscow has been focussed on four oblasts (regions) of Ukraine: Luhansk and Donetsk (the Donbas), Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.
President Putin’s forces control almost all of Luhansk, but about 30% of the others remain in Ukrainian hands and are fiercely contested.
“Russian rates of advance have picked up in the last month, but even though they are making ground, it would still take years (three or more) at current rates to capture all this territory,” Matthew Savill, director of military sciences at the RUSI thinktank, told Sky News.
He says it “wouldn’t be surprising” if Russia tried to acquire the rest of the Donbas as part of negotiations – something that is “highly unattractive” for Ukraine that could leave them vulnerable in future.
This would include surrendering some of the ‘fortress belt’ – a network of four settlements including Kramatorsk and Sloviansk – that has held back Russian forces for 11 years.
Michael Clarke said this might well satisfy President Putin “for now”, but many believe that he would return for the rest of Ukraine – possibly after President Trump leaves office.
It’s unclear if President Volodymyr Zelenskyy could accept such a painful concession – or indeed, survive it politically – or if the wider Ukrainian public would support it in return for a pause in the fighting.
Would Russia have to return any territory to Ukraine?
The White House appears to have been briefing that it might, though the situation is very unclear.
Mr Savill added: “The Ukrainians might want to even up the situation in the north, by removing Russian incursions into Sumy and near Kharkiv, but of greater importance would be getting the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant back under Ukrainian control, given how much it would contribute to Ukrainian power needs.”
It’s also possible that Russia could be willing to withdraw from the areas of Kherson region that it controls.
It’s “plausible” they could get the power plant back, Mr Clarke said, but Russia would likely insist on maintaining access to Crimea by land.
This would mean that cities Mariupol and Melitopol – would remain in Russian hands, with all that that entails for the people living there.
Settlements are illegal under international law and have been condemned by the UN. They are, however, authorised by the Israeli government.
As well as official, government-approved settlements, there are also Israeli outposts.
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Israeli settlers attack Palestinian villages
These are established without government approval and are considered illegal by Israeli authorities. But reports suggest the government often turns a blind eye to their creation.
Israel began building settlements shortly after the 1967 Six-Day War.
The Etzion Bloc in Hebron, which was established that year, now houses around 40,000 people.
According to the Israel Policy Forum, the settlement programme is intended to protect Israel’s security, with settlers acting as the first line of defence “against an invasion”.
The Israeli public appears divided on the effectiveness of the settlements, however.
Image: A Palestinian man walks next to a wall covered with sprayed Hebrew slogans. Pic: Reuters
A 2024 Pew Research Centre poll found that 40% of Israelis believe settlements help Israeli security, 35% say they hurt it, and 21% think they make no difference.
Why are they controversial?
Israeli settlements are built on land that is internationally recognised as Palestinian territory.
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The activists trying to stop Israeli settlers
Sky News has spoken to multiple Palestinians who say they were forced out of their homes by Israeli settlers, despite having lived there for generations.
“They gradually invade the community and expand. The goal is to terrorise people, to make them flee,” Rachel Abramovitz, a member of the group Looking The Occupation In The Eye, told Sky News in May.
Settlers who have spoken to Sky News say they have a holy right to occupy the land.
American-born Israeli settler Daniel Winston told Sky’s chief correspondent Stuart Ramsay: “God’s real, and he wrote the Bible, and the Bible says, ‘I made this land, and I want you to be here’.”
Settlers make up around 5% of Israel’s population and 15% of the West Bank’s population, according to data from Peace Now.
How have things escalated since 7 October 2023?
Since the Hamas-led attacks on 7 October 2023 and Israel’s subsequent military bombardment of Gaza, more than 100 Israeli outposts have been established, according to Peace Now.
In May, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government approved 22 new settlements, including the legalisation of outposts that had previously been built without authorisation.
Settler violence against Palestinians has also increased, according to the UN, with an average of 118 incidents each month – up from 108 in 2023, which was already a record year.
The UN’s latest report on Israeli settlements notes that in October 2024, there were 162 settler attacks on Palestinian olive harvesters, many of them in the presence of IDF soldiers.
Of the 174 settler violence incidents studied by the UN, 109 were not reported to Israeli authorities.
Most Palestinian victims said they didn’t report the attacks due to a lack of trust in the Israeli system; some said they feared retaliation by settlers or the authorities if they did.