Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said a peace deal to end the war with Russia was “90 percent ready” in a New Year’s speech that largely focused on resistance to Moscow’s all-out invasion.
Prime Minister Zelenskyy said the remaining 10 percent who agreed to end the nearly four-year conflict “will decide the fate of peace, the fate of Ukraine and Europe.”
“We believe in you and in our victory,” Russian President Vladimir Putin told the troops in his New Year’s address.
Earlier on Wednesday, Moscow released evidence that Ukraine had used drones to target President Putin’s private home on Lake Valdai in northwestern Russia, a charge strongly denied by Kiev.
It included a map showing the drone was launched from Ukraine’s Sumy and Chernihiv regions and a video of the crashed drone lying in a snow-covered forest. A soldier standing next to the wreckage claims it was a Ukrainian Chaklun drone.
The BBC has not been able to verify the footage, nor has it been able to locate the filming location.
Russia will review its position on ongoing peace negotiations as a result of the incident, the Kremlin said.
But EU diplomat Kaza Kalas described Russia’s claims on Wednesday as “deliberate obstruction” and an attempt to derail the peace process.
In a 20-minute address to the nation, Prime Minister Zelenskyy said Ukraine did not want peace “at any cost,” adding, “We want an end to the war, not the end of Ukraine.”
He said Ukraine’s withdrawal from the eastern Donbas region would mean “everything will end.” This was a reference to Russia’s maximalist demand that Moscow secure full control of its industrial areas in any peace deal.
Moscow currently controls about 75% of the Donetsk region and about 99% of the neighboring Luhansk region. The two regions are collectively called Donbas.
Russia’s fate has been a major obstacle throughout the negotiations, with Russia continuing to be reluctant to compromise on its goal of taking full control of Donbas.
In his speech, Prime Minister Zelenskyy thanked leaders for their support of Ukraine but said “the intention must be security guarantees and therefore ratification.”
After a meeting between Zelenskyy and US President Donald Trump in Florida earlier this week, the Ukrainian leader said the US had offered 15 years of security guarantees, but the timing for implementation was not yet clear.
“Signing a weak agreement only encourages war,” Zelensky said in his speech. “Either the world will stop Russia from going to war, or Russia will drag the world into war.”
In comparison, Putin’s New Year’s address was much shorter.
Speaking about the war in Ukraine, which Moscow describes as a “special military operation,” Putin said: “We strive to spread joy and warmth by caring for people who need support and, of course, support our heroes – the participants in the special military operation – in both words and deeds.”
Separately, North Korean State Affairs Commission Chairman Kim Jong-un used his New Year’s address to praise the “invincible alliance” between Pyongyang and Moscow while also praising the soldiers fighting in “foreign lands.”
North Korea has sent thousands of troops to aid Russia’s invasion and also has missiles and long-range weapons, South Korean officials said.
According to South Korean government estimates, at least 600 of these soldiers died.
Prime Minister Zelenskyy has expressed hope that peace talks involving both U.S. and European officials will resume and accelerate this month.
French President Emmanuel Macron said European countries and allies scheduled to meet in Paris on January 6 “will make concrete commitments to protect Ukraine and ensure a just and lasting peace on the European continent.”
On Wednesday, Trump’s advisers held talks with Zelensky and national security advisers from Britain, France and Germany about ending the war in Ukraine.
U.S. Special Envoy Steve Wittkoff said they discussed “strengthening security guarantees and developing effective conflict resolution mechanisms to end wars and ensure they do not start again.”
But any deal would ultimately require Russia’s consent, which is unlikely to materialize and may have been put further away by the drone incident at Putin’s residence.
