Ukraine lines up several high-level meetings for next week as fighting ramps up

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday said that Kyiv will be holding several high-level meetings in the coming week as both countries engage in crossfire.

In a post on X, Zelenskyy said that his Defence Minister Rustem Umerov is in close contact with key partners, including the US and Europe, to line up meetings. The agenda of these meetings will include discussing the situation on the ground, bolstering support and coordinating strategy in ongoing peace efforts.

Russia and Ukraine accused each other of targeting civilians over the New Year, with Moscow reporting a deadly strike on a hotel in territory it occupies in southern Ukraine while Kyiv said there had been another broad attack on its power supplies.

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When will the meetings be held?

The first meeting is set for Saturday, with Ukraine’s national security advisers and cabinet officials expected to take part. European representatives will attend in person, while US officials are expected to join via video link.

Zelenskyy wrote, “On 3 January, a meeting of national security advisors will take place in Ukraine. This is the first such meeting in Ukraine and it is focused on peace.”

“European representatives will attend, and we expect the American team to join online. Fifteen countries have confirmed their participation, along with representatives of European institutions and NATO,” he added.

This meeting will be followed by another local meeting with high-level defence and military officials to be held in Kyiv, where officials will discuss security guarantees. “Next, on 5 January, there will be a meeting of the military chiefs of general staff. The main issue is security guarantees for Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said.

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The Ukrainian leader also said the “Coalition of the Willing” plans to hold its first leaders’ meeting of the year in France, as European countries look to strengthen Ukraine’s defences against Russian attacks and coordinate strategy for ongoing peace talks.

Politics over attack on Putin’s residence

Russia has provided supposed evidence containing part of a Ukrainian drone that was allegedly used to hit Russian President Vladimir Putin’s residence earlier this week.

The handover involved a senior Russian official and a US military attache. Russia has accused Ukraine of targeting Putin’s residence in Russia’s northern Novgorod region with 91 long-range attack drones, effectively changing the terms of the ongoing negotiations to end the war between the two countries.

A video posted on the Russian Defence Ministry’s Telegram channel showed Admiral Igor Kostyukov, head of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of Russia’s Armed Forces, handing to the US attache what he described as the controlling mechanism of a drone found among downed fragments.

“The decryption of the content of the memory of the navigation controller of the drones carried out by specialists of Russia’s special services confirms without question that the target of the attack was the complex of buildings of the Russian president’s residence in Novgorod region,” Kostyukov said.