Ukraine war briefing: Berlin says US peace proposal is ‘akin to a capitulation’ to Russia (2025)

Germany’s defence minister on Sunday said Ukraine should not cede all territory occupied by Russia in a peace deal proposed by Donald Trump, as the US president pressures Moscow and Kyiv to end fighting. “Ukraine has, of course, known for some time that a sustainable, credible ceasefire or peace agreement may involve territorial concessions,” Boris Pistorius said in an interview with the broadcaster ARD. “But these will certainly not go … as far as they do in the latest proposal from the US president,” Pistorius said. “Ukraine on its own could have got a year ago what was included in that [Trump] proposal, it is akin to a capitulation. I cannot discern any added value.”

President Donald Trump urged Russia on Sunday to stop its attacks in Ukraine while his top diplomat said the US might walk away from peace efforts if it does not see progress. Speaking to reporters in New Jersey, Trump said he was disappointed that Russia has continued to attack Ukraine, and said his one-on-one meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the Vatican on Saturday had gone well.

Trump said that his relationship with Zelenskyy had been improved by the face-to-face meeting. “Look, it was never bad. We had a little dispute, because I disagreed with something he said, and the cameras were rolling and that was OK with me.” He added, “I see him as calmer. I think he understands the picture, and I think he wants to make a deal,” Trump said of Zelenskyy.

Russia launched a sweeping drone assault and airstrikes across Ukraine early Sunday, killing at least four people, officials said. Three people died and four were wounded in airstrikes on Kostyantynivka in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, the regional prosecutor’s office said. Another person died and a 14-year-old girl was wounded in a drone attack on the city of Pavlohrad in the Dnipropetrovsk region, which was hit for the third consecutive night, Gov. Serhii Lysak said.

US secretary of state Marco Rubio said the Trump administration might abandon its attempts to broker a deal if Russia and Ukraine do not make headway. “It needs to happen soon,” Rubio told the NBC programme “Meet the Press.’” “We cannot continue to dedicate time and resources to this effort if it’s not going to come to fruition.”

Trump also said on Sunday said he thought Zelenskyy was ready to give up Crimea, in direct contradiction to the Ukrainian leader’s statements on the peninsula annexed by Russia. “Oh, I think so,” said Trump in response to a question on whether he thought Zelenskyy was ready to “give up” the territory that Russia occupied in 2014.

Zelenskyy said on Sunday Ukraine’s army was still fighting in Russia’s Kursk despite Moscow claiming the “liberation” of its western region. Kyiv had hoped it could use land in the Kursk region as a bargaining chip in future peace talks with Russia. “Our military continues to perform tasks in the Kursk and Belgorod regions – we are maintaining our presence on Russian territory,” he said in his evening address Sunday. In a statement earlier Sunday, he conceded that the situation remained difficult in many areas including Kursk.

North Korea has confirmed for the first time that it has sent troops to fight for Russia in the war with Ukraine under the orders of leader Kim Jong-un. The end of the battle in Russia’s Kursk region showed the “highest strategic level of the firm militant friendship” between North Korea and Russia, the North’s KCNA state news agency cited the ruling party as saying.

A Moscow court on Sunday ordered remanded in custody a Ukrainian citizen facing terrorism charges over the killing of a senior Russian military officer near Moscow, Russia’s Investigative Committee said. The committee, which deals with serious crimes in Russia, claimed the suspect had pleaded guilty to killing Yaroslav Moskalik in a car bomb attack on Friday and had said he was recruited by Ukraine’s security services.