Washington Proposes Three-Way Ukraine Talks; EU Frees $7.5bn
Kyiv and Moscow both confirmed an American proposal to relaunch trilateral negotiations, with the United Arab Emirates floated as host. “We are awaiting a proposal from the United States regarding the date,” Mr Zelensky said. He also said Mr Trump had told him Ukraine would be allowed to manufacture Patriot missiles, though a licence would still leave more than a year before systems entered service. European Union states agreed to release $7.5bn for joint procurement of Ukrainian equipment.
No date, no confirmed venue and no agenda — this is a proposal, and the Kremlin’s confirmation that a meeting “could come soon” is the most Moscow has conceded all week on any format. It arrives alongside the harder currency: European money, and a manufacturing licence that matters far more to Kyiv’s winter than any communiqué. The war did not pause to accommodate the diplomacy. Ukraine shot down 267 of 295 drones overnight, five people were killed in Kyiv and thirty-one injured, and a Ukrainian strike forced Russia’s Novoshakhtinsk refinery to suspend operations. Kaja Kallas framed the European answer to the hybrid campaign: “Moscow’s hybrid attacks try to intimidate Europe into scaling back its support for Ukraine. Europe is doing the opposite.” Watch for a date.