Ukraine

European foreign ministers said on Thursday that any plan to end the war in Ukraine must include Ukrainians and Europeans after the U.S. floated a framework that would involve Kyiv giving up some of its land and weapons and curbing the size of its army.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has received a draft of a U.S. plan to end the war in Ukraine and expects to hold talks with U.S. President Donald Trump in coming days, the Ukrainian leader's office said on Thursday. Two sources told Reuters on Wednesday that Washington had signalled to Zelenskiy that Kyiv must accept the U.S.-drafted framework to end the nearly-four-year-old war, which includes territorial concessions and curbs on Ukraine's armed forces.

Civilian casualties in Ukraine were 27 per cent higher from January to October 2025, compared to the same period last year, according to the latest UN human rights report on the situation in the eastern European country. 

Germany plans to raise its military aid to Ukraine by three billion euros ($3.4 billion) next year to around 11.5 billion euros ($13.2 billion) to support its battle against Russia, the finance ministry said Tuesday.

North Korea has dispatched around 5,000 military construction troops and 1,000 engineers to Russia since September, according to South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS). Lawmaker Lee Seong-kweun, cited by Ukrainian state-run outlet United24, said in an NIS meeting that the North Koreans “have been moving to Russia in phases and are expected to be mobilized for infrastructure reconstruction.”

Police raided dozens of homes in Moldova and Ukraine, officials said, as part of a cross-border investigation into hundreds of people linked to Russian mercenary groups and who allegedly committed war crimes in Ukraine.

Russia forces have used drones to chase civilians from their homes near the front line in Ukraine, following them with cameras and attacking them as they sought shelter, a UN inquiry released on October 27 found. The report, which is to be presented to the UN General Assembly this week, said the attacks “amount to the crime against humanity of forcible transfer of population."

European Union leaders have stopped short of a deal to use frozen Russian state assets to fund Ukraine, after Belgium -- where most of the money is held -- raised legal and technical concerns about the proposal.

The European Union is preparing to adopt a new round of sweeping sanctions against Russian energy exports on Thursday, a day after United States President Donald Trump imposed similar measures against Moscow amid setbacks to his efforts at diplomacy with Vladimir Putin. These steps come as Russia and Ukraine are increasingly targeting each other’s energy infrastructure in an attempt to make it economically harder to wage war.

European leaders aim to endorse controversial plans to use Russian frozen assets to support Ukraine at a meeting in Brussels on Thursday. The unprecedented proposal for what the EU has dubbed a "reparations loan" - would see Kyiv receive €140bn (£121bn) worth of frozen Russian state assets currently held by Euroclear, a Belgium-based financial institution.