Wednesday 26 / November / 2025
US President Donald Trump has adopted yet again an optimistic tone regarding peace plans in Ukraine, saying the only deadline he saw for reaching a peace deal "is when it's over."
Meanwhile, Ukraine's ambassador to the US Olga Stefanishyna told DW Ukrainian teams were headed to Moscow to resume the talks.
Trump's hopes to get Ukraine's Zelenskyy to sign his peace plan before Thanksgiving later this week however seem less likely to materialize. The US president said his envoy Steve Witkoff was going to Moscow next week to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Russian identity must be consolidated in seized Ukrainian territories — Putin
The Russian language and identity must be bolstered in parts of Ukraine seized by Russian forces, according to a decree signed by President Vladimir Putin that was published on Tuesday.
The document, entitled "Strategy of Russia's national policy in the period to 2036," calls for measures to ensure that 95% of the population identify as Russian by 2036.
It said it was vital "to adopt additional measures to strengthen overall Russian civic identity," to ensure the use of Russian and to act against "efforts by unfriendly foreign states to destabilize interethnic and interconfessional relations and create a split in society."
Although many Ukrainians previously felt a close affiliation with Russia and most speak both Ukrainian and Russian, since Moscow launched its invasion in 2022, such sympathy has largely vanished.
The Russian language is also much less used, surveys show.
When launching the full-scale invasion, Putin said Russia's aim was to "demilitarize and de-Nazify" Ukraine and free Russian-speakers in the east from what the Kremlin described as blatant discrimination.
Although Ukrainian has been the sole state language since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, authorities in Kyiv deny that Russian-speakers have been subject to any form of discrimination.
More work needed on US peace proposal — NATO chief
Sean Sinico Editor
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte has said a US framework for peace in Ukraine contains some promising aspects but still requires further rounds of diplomacy.
Rutte described meetings held between US, Ukrainian and European delegations in Geneva on Sunday to discuss a 28-point plan put forward by the US Trump administration as productive.
But he said they were only an initial step toward structured US-Ukraine talks.
Rutte's remarks to the German RND media group and Spanish daily EL Pais come as US President Donald Trump said only a few points in it remained disputed.
Officials from Kyiv and other European capitals, however, have said the plan heavily favors Russian demands, foreseeing as it does major territorial concessions they say would amount to a reward for Moscow's military aggression
Rutte also said Russia has lost 20,000 soldiers each month while gaining little ground, with some 1 million Russian troops killed or severely wounded since Moscow's full-scale invasion was launched in February 2022.
He said Moscow had captured only about 1% of Ukrainian territory this year while advancing just a few meters a day.
https://p.dw.com/p/54Gq1
