EU countries’ ambassadors agree to end Russian gas imports by the end of 2027. As Trump states that Ukraine is losing the war, no reports suggest significant changes on the battlefield, CNN says. Russia and China intensify military cooperation, Zelenskyi says after hearing an intelligence report.
EU countries’ ambassadors agree to end Russian gas imports by end of 2027
European Union countries’ ambassadors on Wednesday greenlit the bloc’s plan to phase out Russian gas imports by late 2027, a spokesperson for Denmark’s EU presidency said, according to Reuters.
Coreper I (a group of EU country’s deputy permanent representatives) confirmed an accord over the final compromise text and will notify the European Parliament accordingly, the spokesperson said, as cited by Ukrainian news site European Pravda. The Parliament will vote on it next week, while EU ministers are expected to formally approve the ban early next year, Reuters said.
Under the agreement, the EU will halt Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports by the end of 2026 and pipeline gas by the end of September 2027.
The move maintains a transition period for existing contracts, particularly, for short-term supply contracts concluded before 17 June 2025, the prohibition of Russian gas imports will apply from 25 April 2026 for LNG and 17 June 2026 for pipeline gas. For long-term contracts for LNG imports, the prohibition will apply from 1 January 2027.
“As regards long-term contracts for pipeline gas imports, the prohibition will kick in on 30 September 2027, provided that member states are on track to fulfil the storage filling targets foreseen in the gas storage regulation, and at the latest on 1 November 2027,” the text reads.
As Trump states Ukraine is losing war, no reports suggest significant changes on battlefield, CNN says
Following President Donald Trump’s claim that Ukraine is “losing” the war against Russia’s ongoing invasion and that Moscow now has the “upper hand,” multiple officials told CNN there are no new US or European assessments suggesting there have been significant changes on the battlefield and they don’t see any indications President Vladimir Putin’s forces are likely to win the conflict quickly.
The assessments paint a nuanced picture, with Russia making small gains on the frontlines and now approaching key Ukrainian supply lines, but at an enormous cost in military casualties, CNN said Tuesday. The paragraphs below are quoted from the article.
“Russians are creeping in but it is not a fundamental change from what has been happening over the last several months,” a Ukrainian military official told CNN.
“The truth is that in this last year, Russia has gained less than 1% of Ukrainian territory. So that, of course, is not the winning of the war,” Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Braze told CNN Monday. “That’s not the objectives Putin and Kremlin is looking for. He wants to deny Ukraine its sovereignty. He wants to subjugate Ukraine as a country. So they are not getting that on the battlefield.”
But officials made clear the situation is challenging for Kyiv.
“Ukraine is incrementally losing strategic ground in the east through attrition and limited defensive positions,” a senior US official said.
Russia, China intensify military cooperation, Zelenskyi says after hearing intelligence report
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi said on Wednesday following a report from the head of Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Service Oleh Ivashchenko that Russia and China were taking steps to intensify cooperation. Zelenskiy said the steps involved shifts by Russia to give up aspects of its sovereignty to Beijing.
“We are tracking a growing trend of the de-sovereignization of parts of Russian territory in China’s favor – primarily through the use of resource-rich land and the sale of scarce resources to China,” he said on X.
Zelenskyi added that Russia and China were intensifying military cooperation. “Partner intelligence services have similar information,” he said.
“I instructed the Foreign Intelligence Service to monitor cooperation between Moscow and Beijing more substantively — in all aspects related to Ukraine’s national interests, as well as in all aspects related to the interests of our partners in Europe and the United States. Global security must not be undermined because Russia’s appetite for aggression remains unabated,” he stated.