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Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, doubled down on the maximalist demands and territorial designs that are preventing a solution while saying recent discussions with American negotiators about ending the war with Ukraine were “very useful.”

Putin confirmed to Kremlin reports that no agreement had been reached during the day’s discussions with US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in advance of a trip to New Delhi on Thursday. He stated in advance of his planned for a trip to New Delhi on Thursday that he would take control of Ukraine’s eastern Donbass region by force.

In remarks made by him in the interview that were released by the state news agency Tass on Thursday, he said, “Either we will liberate these territories by force or Ukrainian troops will leave these territories and stop fighting there.”

After eight years of fighting between Ukrainian troops and Russian-backed separatists in the Donbass, which includes the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, Putin sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022.

His renewed resolve to conquer the area appeared to contradict US President Donald Trump’s earlier claim that Witkoff and Kushner believed the Russian leader wanted to “end the war.”

Trump said, “They had a very strong impression that he wanted to make a deal.”

According to reports, Putin made the comments as a follow-up to the five hours of talks that took place on Tuesday in Moscow. Special envoy Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Kushner will meet with Rustem Umerov in Florida on Thursday.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the embattled leader of Ukraine, claims he does not have the authority to annex Ukraine and that Russia should never be compensated for its invasion. Zelenskyy has been embroiled in a domestic corruption scandal and has been hampered by Russia’s advance. The Ukrainian Constitution also forbids territory ceding.

Plan with 28 points is still in effect.

Russia has stated repeatedly in discussions with the US about the possible terms of a peace deal to end the conflict that Washington should formally acknowledge Moscow’s control of the entire Donbass.

When Trump released his 28-point plan to end the war, which initially envisaged giving up on NATO, restricting the size of its military, and giving in to the Kremlin narrative, it appeared to be in ascendancy.

However, during discussions in Geneva, Switzerland, Ukrainian negotiators pushed for revisions after receiving harsh criticism for what many perceived as a Moscow wish list, cutting back the draft to 19 points.

Following the discussions in Moscow, it wasn’t known what version of the draft had been discussed. Yury Ushakov, Putin’s advisor, claimed that several documents were being discussed.

Tass cited Putin’s remarks to India Today as saying that the 28-point plan was “still in discussion and being discussed” and was based on agreements reached at the Russia-US summit in Alaska in August.

“They simply divided these 28 or 27 points into four packages,” they said. And they suggested we have them talk about these four packages. They are actually the same points, Tass claims, though.

Yulia Shapovalova, a journalist from Moscow, reported on Al Jazeera that Moscow was unlikely to cross its “red lines.” Putin claimed that Russia won’t sign any agreements until its interests are respected, and that it will pursue its objectives on the battlefield.

Senior correspondent Jonah Hull in Kyiv reported that there had been a “breakup based on a clash of red lines that is, at this point, insurmountable.” He characterized recent discussions, which have seen the US moving between parties, as a “round Robin of “It’s not us, it’s them”

The government of Ukraine does consider this procedure to be valuable, he said. Now that Ukraine’s interests have been heard and included, and as long as pressure is maintained on Russia, they believe it can produce results.

Russian attacks continue.

Russian assaults on Ukrainian civilian areas continued into Thursday night.

According to city administrator Oleksandr Vilkul, a ballistic missile struck Kryvyi Rih on Wednesday night, injuring six people, including a three-year-old girl.

Vilkul claimed that Zelenskyy’s hometown of the city, which has more than 40 residential buildings, a school, and domestic gas pipes, was the target of the attack.

After being struck by Russian artillery the day before, a six-year-old girl died in Kherson, a southern port city.

According to Oleh Kiper, head of the regional military administration, Russia also struck Odesa with drones, injuring eight people and damaging the region’s infrastructure.

Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, claimed that Ukraine had harmed peace talks by attacking the Caspian Pipeline Consortium terminal in Novorossiysk and oil tankers in the Black Sea on Thursday.

According to the Reuters news agency, Russia currently controls 19.2% of Ukraine, including Crimea, which it annexed in 2014, plus all of Luhansk, more than 80% of Donetsk, about 75% of Kherson and Zaporizhia, and slivers of the regions of Kharkiv, Sumy, Mykolaiv, and Dnipropetrovsk.

The northern portion of Donetsk, according to the army chief of Ukraine, is still under Ukrainian control, according to the country’s ambassador to Ukraine on Thursday.

Bahrain’s foreign minister Abdullatif Alzayani stated that member states are “shoulder-to-shoulder” against any threat to the GCC at its first annual meeting since Israel’s September bombing of Qatar that resulted in the death of six people.

Just days before the country’s first anniversary of Bashar al-Assad’s ousting, a UNSC delegation made its first-ever visit to Syria, according to state media.

According to state news agency SANA, the UNSC delegation “is scheduled to meet a number of Syrian officials” and members of civil society who arrived via the Jdeidet Yabous border crossing between Lebanon and Syria on Thursday.

The delegation was later informed that it was traveling to Jobar, Damascus’s severely damaged suburb, in the capital.

Before making a Friday and Saturday visit to neighboring Lebanon, the diplomats will meet with President Ahmed al-Sharaa and the new Syrian government.

Assed Baig, a journalist for Al Jazeera from Damascus, reported that the UNSC delegation would also visit some of Damascus’s historical sites.

As the country moves into the first stages of post-civil war reconstruction, “This gives them]the UNSC delegation] the opportunity to look at Syria away from the political and military dynamics,” says the UNSC delegation.

According to Baig, the UNSC visit has been “very well” received in Syria.

It merely explains to everyone that Syria is working to reestablish itself on the international stage and is attempting to establish diplomatic relations with the UN. It enjoys the support of Arab regional and neighboring nations. The United States backs it, in fact.

According to Baig, the country’s humanitarian situation will also be covered during the visit because “many people are still internally displaced in the country” and “many parts of the country continue to be affected by the destruction caused by the civil war.”

The council recently lifted sanctions against al-Sharaa, a former rebel fighter whose forces led the lightning offensive that ended Bashar al-Assad in December, as the UN works to reestablish itself in Syria.

The multiethnic nation has been urged by the UN to have an inclusive transition. The government has been attempting to stop sectarian violence because international legitimacy is one of its top priorities.

The killing of a Bedouin couple south of Homs, the third-largest city in the country, last month was expected to cause sectarian conflict similar to those that occurred in Suwayda in July and in coastal areas in March. However, security forces from the interior and defense ministries traveled to the area and calmed the tension in a partnership with some tribal leaders.

Despite claims made by al-Sharaa’s government that it is not planning to hostiliate Israel, the nation that has been devastated by 14 years of bloody civil war has also had to contend with more vicious, frequent, and violent Israeli military incursions since it has occupied southern Syria recently.

Most recently, 13 people were killed in a recent Israeli raid in Beit Jinn, southwest of Damascus, on Wednesday.

Following the 1967 conflict, Israel seized control of the Syrian Golan Heights and has held it ever since. However, Israel violated a 1974 accord and once more invaded its neighbor’s territory, occupying more land along the border as a “buffer zone,” including the strategically located Jabal al-Sheikh, a mountain that looms over northern Israel and southern Syria.

Israeli-Syria has been in talks for months over a security deal, but it seems like nothing has changed in recent weeks.

The UN’s first official visit to the Middle East in six years, according to Slovenian UN ambassador Samuel Zbogar, who spoke at a press conference on Monday.

Slovenia currently serves as the UNSC’s rotating president.

Zbogar noted the new authorities’ efforts to transition Syria and a year-old ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, both of which are “at a crucial time for the region” and “for both countries,” according to Zbogar, noting the trip’s “events that we see daily that is being challenged.”

The visit is crucial for “sharing our support and solidarity with both countries, learning about the challenges, conveying the messages, and also, conveying the messages that the council would like to see in both countries,” he continued.

He noted that “we try to break into the UN-Syria relationship with this visit by a little bit of trust.”

According to Baig, “both sides are looking to take advantage of this visit.”

The [Syrian] government wants to talk about the humanitarian aid coming to the country and reconstruction, according to the UN, but they also want support and solidarity.

On the other hand, the UN “wants to talk about the country’s] politics going forward, how this country is going to rebuild itself, and how Ahmed al-Sharaa’s government will have an inclusive government that will represent all the various factions, ethnicities, and people in Syria.”

In the coming days, Israel claims that only Palestinians who leave Gaza will cross the Rafah crossing. Egypt says it will only cooperate if both entry and exit is permitted, and the UN is calling for a full reopening of Rafah.

As China, the US, and Europe compete for power, Africa’s minerals and young workforce are piqued by the world’s attention.