Overview
- U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner arrived in Berlin as Zelensky began talks with them and European leaders on a roughly 20‑point peace framework.
- Zelensky said the plan will require compromises and emphasized that any security guarantees must be legally binding, with U.S. congressional backing, as an alternative to NATO membership.
- Ukraine reported more than one million households without electricity after intensive Russian drone and missile attacks on energy infrastructure, including damage to 20 substations in Odesa, with water and heating disruptions in multiple regions.
- Kyiv said its drones struck Russia’s Afipskiy oil refinery in Krasnodar and a fuel depot in Uryupinsk, Volgograd, while Moscow claimed to have downed large numbers of Ukrainian drones, reflecting sharply divergent tallies.
- Key disputes persist over territorial conditions and demilitarized zones, with Kyiv rejecting troop withdrawals from parts of Donetsk, the Kremlin declaring Crimea off the table and NATO entry impossible, and Washington yet to answer Ukraine’s proposed amendments.