Zelenskyi meets with Trump’s special envoy Keith Kellogg. Russia targets Ukraine’s gas infrastructure to cut off heating to homes amid the frosty weather. The EU agrees a fresh sanctions package against Russia.
Zelenskyi meets with Trump’s special envoy Keith Kellogg
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi met in Kyiv Thursday with U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Ukraine and Russia Keith Kellogg.
The two were expected to hold a news conference after the meeting, but the Ukrainian president’s spokesperson Serhiy Nikiforov said Washington requested that the press conference be cancelled, and it was.
Later in the evening Zelenskyi said on X he had a “productive meeting” with Kellogg. “We had a detailed conversation about the battlefield situation, how to return our prisoners of war, and effective security guarantees,” he said.
Zelenskyi called for a strong relationship between Kyiv and Washington that will “benefit the entire world.” “Ukraine is ready for a strong, effective investment and security agreement with the President of the United States. We have proposed the fastest and most constructive way to achieve results. Our team is ready to work 24/7,” the Ukrainian leader said.
Earlier that day Kellogg met with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha.
“I met with [Keith Kellogg] to discuss ways toward a comprehensive, just, and lasting peace. I affirmed Ukraine’s willingness to achieve peace through strength and our vision for the necessary steps. I also reiterated that the security of Ukraine and the transatlantic is indivisible,” Sybiha said of the meeting.
On Wednesday, Kellogg had meetings in Kyiv with Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, General Oleksandr Syrskyi and head of the Office of the President Andriy Yermak.
Zelenskyi earlier invited Kellogg to visit the frontline together. It was unclear if he would take up the president’s invitation. Kellogg is in Ukraine for a three-day visit and is due to leave the country on Friday evening.
Russia targets Ukraine’s gas infrastructure to cut off heating to homes amid frosty weather
Russia has switched the focus of its missile and drone attacks on Ukraine from energy facilities to gas infrastructure in order to cut off heating to the country’s consumers in the frosty weather, the governmental Center for Strategic Communication and Information Security (Spravdi) said Thursday, citing statements by Ukraine’s Energy Ministry. The targets include underground gas storage facilities and gas production sites, it added.
Russia carried out a major missile and drone strike on Ukraine’s gas infrastructure overnight, Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko said on Thursday. “Gas production facilities among the rest were damaged,” he said in a post to Facebook. “The purpose of these criminal attacks is to stop the production of gas needed to meet the domestic needs of citizens and central heating,” he added.
Halushchenko did not say which sites had sustained damage.
Russia also continues to attack Ukraine’s electricity grid. A swarm of Russian drones targeted an energy facility of the DTEK company in Odesa for a second night in a row on Thursday. Some 89,500 consumers in the Odesa district were without power following two days of attacks, head of the regional military administration Oleh Kiper said.
A Russian drone strike damaged a thermal power plant in Mykolayiv in southern Ukraine overnight on Sunday, leaving 100,000 people without heating.
EU agrees fresh sanctions package against Russia
EU capitals have agreed a fresh sanctions package against Russia, according to the Financial Times. The new measures target Russia’s aluminum, oil exports, and banking.
The bloc’s 16th package of sanctions against Russia since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in 2022 imposes a “phased-in” ban on imports of Russian aluminum products and further tightens measures targeting its crude oil sales, said people briefed on its contents.
The sanctions target 73 so-called shadow fleet tankers Moscow uses to export crude oil in violation of western restrictions, 13 Russian banks, and scores of individuals and companies deemed to be helping the Kremlin’s war effort.
“There’s deep concern about how we [the EU] can keep up economic pressure on Russia if the US delinks its sanctions from ours,” said one EU official involved in the package. Most western sanctions imposed on Russia since 2022 have been co-ordinated by the G7 to ensure maximum impact.
Endorsement of the new sanctions package follows talks between EU capitals over the past week on adhering to the bloc’s principles towards the conflict, regardless of how Trump acts, said senior EU diplomats.
“We must continue to forge our path on Ukraine, despite what any other ally chooses to do,” said one.
The 16th package of sanctions is expected to be adopted by the bloc’s foreign ministers on Monday to mark the third anniversary of the war.
