Ukraine-Russia warfare newest: Zelensky asks for Putin summit to kickstart peace talks as EU lastly approves main €90b mortgage

Germany set out a military strategy on Wednesday that sticks with a target of 260,000 active troops despite demands by senior military officials to raise total troop numbers more drastically in response to a widely perceived growing threat from Russia.

Speaking to reporters in Berlin, German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said Berlin aimed for a military of 460,000 soldiers, a target set in 2025 that includes 200,000 reservists, while describing the strategy as a “living document”.

“It is clear that automation and artificial intelligence will continue to impact our planning, how many troops we will need and with what qualifications”, he noted. “Our ambition is and must be…to be Europe’s strongest conventional military.”

The country reintroduced a form of military service in January, which aims to rapidly increase the number of personnel by the mid-2030s.

The Bundeswehr had some 184,000 serving soldiers at the end of 2025.

The long-awaited 90bn euro loan to Ukraine has finally been approved by EU ambassadors, after Hungary removed its opposition.

The presidency of Cyprus made the announcement on Wednesday.

Hungary’s outgoing prime minister Viktor Orban signalled earlier this week he would be willing to lift his veto on the loan before leaving office if Ukraine was able to restore the flow of Russian oil to Hungary disrupted by damage to the Druzhba pipeline.

Hungary’s MOL Group oil and gas company said today it expects shipments to resume by Thursday at the latest.

A woman and child were killed in the Russian city of Syzran after a Ukrainian drone attack caused their apartment building to partially collapse, the regional governor said on Wednesday.

Vyacheslav Fedorishchev, governor of the Samara region, said that two apartment buildings had been hit in the attack, something he called a crime against the civilian population.

“Two people – an adult woman and a child – have died in Syzran following an attack by an enemy drone,” he said in a statement. “They were pulled from the rubble of the destroyed building’s entrance. This is a tragedy we all share,” said Fedorishchev.

Twelve people were injured in the attack, the governor said.

There was no immediate comment from Ukraine. Both sides deny deliberately targeting civilians.

The most serious cyber threats facing the UK are now being carried out by hostile states including Russia, Iran and China, according to Richard Horne, head of the National Cyber Security Centre.

In a speech, Horne is set to warn that Britain is living through a “seismic geopolitical shift”, with the risk of large-scale cyberattacks rising sharply, particularly in the event of an international conflict.

Horne will say the NCSC is currently dealing with around four nationally significant cyber incidents each week.

While criminal activity such as ransomware remains common, the most serious threats stem from state-linked operations.

He is expected to highlight China’s highly sophisticated cyber capabilities, Iran’s use of cyber tools to target perceived opponents abroad, and Russia’s expansion of tactics developed during the war in Ukraine into wider operations across Europe.

Officials across Europe have already raised alarms over attacks on critical infrastructure, including power plants, dams and water systems in countries such as Sweden, Poland, Denmark and Norway.

Horne will warn that, unlike ransomware attacks, businesses may not be able to recover by paying off attackers in a conflict scenario, urging organisations to strengthen defences and fully assess their exposure before it is too late.

Ukraine has asked Turkey to host a meeting between President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin, its top diplomat said, as Kyiv seeks to reinvigorate stalling peace talks.

“We asked the Turks about it, we asked some other capitals,” Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said in comments to reporters.

He added that Ukraine would be ready to consider any place other than Belarus or Russia for a meeting with Putin, which Zelensky has long sought to try to hasten a resolution of the more than four-year war.

Belarus is a close ally of Russia and allowed Moscow to use Belarusian territory to launch its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Sybiha did not say how Ankara had responded to the proposal.

“We addressed the Turks specifically,” he said. “But if another capital, besides Moscow and Belarus, organises such a meeting, we will go.”

The measures, announced on Tuesday by the European Council, target media platform Euromore and the Foundation for the Support and Protection of the Rights of Compatriots Living Abroad (Pravfond).

The Council stated that Pravfond’s “legal and analytical output is systematically used to reinforce key Kremlin disinformation points.”

Russia has repeatedly launched drones and missiles on a flight path near the disused Chernobyl nuclear plant during attacks on Ukraine, elevating the risk of a major accident, Ukraine’s top state prosecutor told Reuters.

Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko detailed the previously unreported Russian military activity near Ukrainian nuclear sites in written remarks, as Ukraine prepares to mark Sunday’s 40th anniversary of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

Apart from the decommissioned ⁠Chernobyl power station, Ukraine has four nuclear power plants, including Europe’s largest, which lies in the southern Zaporizhzhia region and has been occupied by Russian forces since soon after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Both the Chernobyl site and western Ukraine’s two-reactor Khmelnytskyi nuclear plant have been on the flight path of Russian hypersonic Kinzhal missiles since the invasion, Kravchenko said.

Thirty-five Kinzhals have been detected at various distances within around 20 km (12 miles) of the Chernobyl facility or the Khmelnytskyi plant, he said. Of those, 18 passed within around 20 km of both sites on the same flight, he added.

“Such launches cannot be ⁠explained by any military considerations. It is evident that the flights over the nuclear facilities are carried ​out ⁠solely for the purpose of intimidation and terror,” he said.

The International Atomic Energy Agency watchdog said it frequently reported about military activity in the vicinity of nuclear power plants and attacks on electrical substations that are key to nuclear safety.

“IAEA Director ⁠General (Rafael) Grossi has repeatedly expressed deep concern about the risks and dangers of these military activities for nuclear safety and security,” it said.

“The DG has also repeatedly ​called for maximum ⁠restraint near nuclear facilities to avoid the danger of a nuclear accident.”

Ukrainian officials suggested renaming a section of the disputed Donbas region “Donnyland” to appeal to President Donald Trump’s ego and to get him “more on their side,” according to a report.

The moniker was suggested in an “attempt to convince the Trump administration to push back more against Russia’s territorial demands,” and was first mentioned “partly in jest” by a Ukrainian translator, according to The New York Times, citing four people familiar with the negotiations.

Donnyland, which is about 50 miles long and 40 miles wide, would appear to be a nod to the president’s fondness for putting his name on everything from federal buildings and skyscrapers to bank accounts and commemorative coins.

Ukraine asked Turkey to host a meeting between president Volodymyr Zelensky and Vladimir Putin, its top diplomat said, as Kyiv seeks to reinvigorate stalled peace talks.

Foreign minister Andrii Sybiha said Ukraine would be ready to consider any place other than Belarus or Russia for a meeting with Putin aimed at resolving the war.

Sybiha did not say how Ankara had responded to the proposal, in comments at a meeting with reporters on Tuesday that were cleared for release on Wednesday.

The Kremlin previously said it is willing to host Zelensky in Moscow, where the Ukrainian leader has said he will not go.