Category World News

On Monday, December 29th, 2018, this is how things are going.

Diplomacy

Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, was met by US President Donald Trump for talks at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, where he claimed the two leaders were “getting a lot closer, maybe very close” to a resolution to end the conflict in Ukraine.
• Trump and Zelenskyy made progress on two of the peace talks’ most contentious issues: the division of eastern Ukraine’s Donbass region by Russia and the security guarantees for Ukraine.
• Regarding security guarantees, Trump claimed that the negotiations were still ongoing, while Zelenskyy claimed that the situation was 100%.
• Although the US president claimed that discussions were “moving in the right direction,” Zelenskyy and Trump both claimed that the situation in the largely Russian-occupied Donbass was still a mystery. Although the situation is still unresolved, it is getting much more complicated. That’s a very difficult problem, according to Trump.
• Although the two leaders provided no further information or a deadline for ratifying the deal, Zelenskyy claimed any peace agreement would need to be approved by the country’s parliament or be decided by a referendum.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin’s special envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, reported on X shortly after the Trump-Zelenskyy meeting that the “whole world appreciates” Trump and his team’s efforts to bring peace.
• Trump and Putin spoke on phone for more than two hours prior to the meeting with Zelenskyy. The call was described as “excellent” and “productive,” according to the US president.
• After the meeting with Zelenskyy, Trump promised to call Putin again.
• Yury Ushakov, a senior aide to the Kremlin’s foreign policy adviser, claimed Putin had informed Trump that a 60-day ceasefire, which the European Union and Ukraine had suggested, would only “prolong the war.”
• According to Ushakov, Kyiv needs to make a “bold, responsible, political decision” regarding the Donbass region and other contentious issues before the hostilities are “completely stopped.”
• At least some of the Trump-Zelenskyy meeting took place by phone, including those from Finland, France, Germany, Poland, and the United Kingdom.
• Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, stated in a statement that having ironclad security guarantees would be of “paramount” importance and that Europe was willing to continue cooperating with the US and Ukraine.
• Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, reported that the meeting had made progress in terms of security guarantees. According to Macron, the “Coalition of the Willing” nations would convene in Paris in January to finalize their “concrete contributions.”
• Zelenskyy claimed that Trump had agreed to hold another meeting with European leaders in January, possibly at the White House. Trump claimed that the meeting could take place “somewhere” in Washington, D.C.
• Sergey Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Affairs Minister, warned earlier on Sunday that any Russian forces would legitimately target any Ukrainian troops stationed there. Lavrov also accused European politicians of disregarding the citizens of Ukraine and their own countries and being driven by “ambitions” in their relations with Kyiv.

Fighting

• One person was hurt when Russian forces attacked a heating plant in Kherson, in southern Ukraine, according to the state oil and gas company Naftogaz, who claimed the facility had suffered “significant damage.”
• DTEK, the country’s top private energy company, announced the day after a significant Russian air attack caused emergency outages, that more than a million homes in and around Kyiv were restored to power.
• In a drone attack, the Ukrainian military claimed to have attacked the Syzran oil refinery in the Samara region of Russia. The army said in a statement that the strike started a fire and that damages were still being assessed.
• In contrast to earlier claims by Moscow that the town of Huliaipole had been taken, the military claimed that only a portion of the southeast’s town of Huliaipole was under Russian control. Additionally, Russia claimed it had taken control of Stepnohirsk, a second town in the southeast of Zaporizhia, and that fighting was still ongoing.
• Meanwhile, the Donetsk region’s Ministry of Defense announced in a statement that its troops had taken control of four additional settlements. They were given the names Myrnohrad, Artemivka, Rodynske, and Vilne.

Kim expressed satisfaction as the cruise missiles flew past their target, which was located above the sea west of the Korean Peninsula, according to a report from the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Monday.

Kim’s most recent event was the launch, which took place on Sunday, in preparation for a crucial party congress scheduled for early 2026. It was a flurry of activities by the North Korean leader.

A five-year development strategy will be presented at the meeting.

Kim claimed that checking the reliability and quick response of the components of “North Korea’s] nuclear deterrent” on a regular basis was “just a responsible exercise” because the nation “is facing various security threats”. He added that Pyongyang would continue to dedicate “all of their efforts” to the state nuclear combat force’s “unlimited and sustained development,” according to KCNA.

The missile launch site was not specified by KCNA.

The military of South Korea’s state news agency Yonhap reported on Monday that it had been notified that missile launches from the Sunan region close to Pyongyang had been detected.

It warned that North Korea might start conducting additional missile tests by the year’s end.

Kim also inspected a 8,700-tonne “nuclear-powered strategic guided missile submarine” that was under construction, according to the KCNA, and issued a warning that South Korea’s plan to build nuclear-powered submarines “must be countered.”

The submarine’s lower sections were mostly visible in the lower sections of the vessel, which was the first time the state media of North Korea had made them available.

Kim oversaw the testing of long-range surface-to-air missiles while being accompanied by his daughter, who might succeed him, at the Thursday event.

As the nation works to complete its “five-year plan” of development before convening the Workers’ Party of Korea’s ninth Congress in the first half of 2026, Kim has attended numerous facility openings, including factories and hotels, in the last month.

North Korea conducted a ballistic missile test in November, just one week after US President Donald Trump visited the area and expressed interest in meeting with Kim. The offer was rejected by Pyongyang.

Trump had just approved South Korea’s plan to construct a nuclear submarine at the time.

Pyongyang has repeatedly declared itself an “irreversible” nuclear state since Kim’s summit with Trump in 2019 abruptly ended due to the devastation and sanctions relief it received.