Russia has accused Ukraine of killing at least 27 people in a drone strike on a New Year's party in a hotel and cafe in the Russian-occupied southern Kherson region.

President Donald Trump engaged Ukraine, Russian leaders throughout 2025 in unprecedented diplomatic push to end the war, including Alaska summit and Mar-a-Lago meetings.

Russia's battlefield gains in Ukraine last year were the highest since 2022, an AFP analysis showed, as Kyiv was set to host security advisers from allied states on Saturday despite Moscow's unrelenting strikes.

If the aim of Vladimir Putin’s attacks on Ukraine’s energy system was to cripple the country’s will to fight, it did not seem to have worked. “I wish Putin would die,” said Alla, an elegant pensioner in a fur hat,

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in his New Year address to the nation, said late Wednesday that Kyiv wanted the war to end, but not at any cost, adding he would not sign a "weak" peace agreement that would only prolong the war.

Speculation is growing over whether a secret geopolitical bargain may have taken place between former U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin — one that could have quietly reshaped power dynamics in both Venezuela and Ukraine.

Drones have turned the front line into a kill zone, and made casualty evacuation extremely difficult and dangerous.

Three drones struck a cafe and hotel in the resort town of Khorly on the Black Sea coast, the region’s Moscow-installed leader said.