Despite Moscow’s relentless bombings, Kyiv was scheduled to meet security experts from partner governments on Saturday. According to an AFP analysis, Russia’s battlefield gains in Ukraine last year were the biggest since 2022.
According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, some fifteen nations will participate in the negotiations, along with members from NATO and the European Union. A US delegation will also join the meeting via video link.
The negotiations are the most recent in a flurry of attempts to put an end to the almost four-year conflict, as is a summit of leaders from the so-called coalition of the willing scheduled for next week in France.
Zelensky said in a New Year’s Eve address that a US-brokered peace deal was “90 percent” ready, though the important issue of territory remains unresolved.
The diplomatic push comes as Russia presses its advantage against outmanned and outgunned Ukrainian troops on the battlefield.
The Russian army captured more than 5,600 square kilometres (2,160 square miles), or nearly one percent, of Ukrainian territory in 2025, according to an analysis of data from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), which works with the Critical Threats Project.
This includes areas that Kyiv and military analysts say are controlled by Russia, as well as those claimed by Moscow’s army.
The land captured is more than in the previous two years combined, though far short of the more than 60,000 square kilometres Russia took in 2022, the first year of its all-out invasion.
