Ukraine-Russia latest: Zelensky says ‘unpredictable’ Trump could help end war

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said he was preparing to re-establish diplomatic ties with Syria, less than a month after the overthrow of the Russia-backed government in Damascus.

Zelensky spoke after a visit to Syria by his Foreign Minister, Andrii Sybiha, and by Agriculture Minister Vitaliy Koval who said earlier Ukraine had already sent a shipment of food aid.

“We are preparing to resume diplomatic relations with Syria and cooperation in international organisations,” Zelenskiy said.

Ukraine cut diplomatic ties with Syria in June 2022 after the then government in Damascus said it recognised the “independence” of the Russia-occupied territories in Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

Since rebels overthrew Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad last month, Ukraine has been moving to build ties with the new Islamist rulers there. Russia, which invaded Ukraine in 2022, was a staunch ally of Assad and has given him political asylum.

Moscow has also said it is in contact with the new administration in Damascus, including over the fate of Russian military facilities in Syria.

Russian forces gained 4,168sq km of land, largely fields and small settlements in Ukraine and the Kursk region, in 2024 but suffered over 420,000 casualties in the process, an American think tank monitoring the war has claimed.

The Institute for the Study of War cited Ukrainian army chief Oleksandr Syrskyi’s remarks last week that Russian forces suffered 427,000 casualties in 2024.

“ISW has observed geolocated evidence to assess that the Russian forces advanced 4,168 square kilometers in 2024, indicating that Russian forces suffered approximately 102 casualties per square kilometer of Ukrainian territory seized,” it said in an assessment released on Wednesday.

Russian forces made 56.5 per cent of their 2024 territorial gains between September and November period, it added.

Volodymyr Zelensky has said Ukraine is preparing to re-establish diplomatic ties with Syria.

“We are preparing to resume diplomatic relations with Syria and cooperation in international organisations,” Mr Zelensky said after hearing the report from Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha’s visit to Syria on Monday.

Volodymyr Zelensky has said stabilising the frontline was critical as Russian forces have captured village after village on the eastern front in their fastest advance since the February 2022 invasion.

“They are putting pressure on our boys, who are exhausted and that is a fact. We will do everything to at least stabilise the front in January,” he said.

Mr Zelensky, elected in 2019, repeated that new elections could not be held as long as a wartime state of emergency remained in place, but said he would consider running again once conditions permitted.

“I don’t know how this war will end,” he said. “If I can do more than I am able, then I will probably view such a decision (seeking a new term) more positively. For now this is not an objective for me.”

President-elect Donald Trump could be decisive in the outcome of the 34-month-old war with Russia and help stop Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin, Volodymyr Zelensky said.

Mr Zelensky, facing advances by Russian forces in eastern Ukraine, said in an interview with Ukrainian television that Mr Trump had told him he would be one of the first to visit Washington after the presidential inauguration this month.

The Ukrainian president also said a priority was to stabilise the frontline early in the new year. Mr Putin, he said, feared negotiations as they would be tantamount to a defeat for Russia.

“He’s very strong and unpredictable, and I would really like to see President Trump’s unpredictability apply to Russia. I believe he really wants to end the war,” he said. “Trump can be decisive. For us, this is the most important thing,” he said in a televised interview.

“His qualities are indeed there,” Mr Zelensky said of Mr Trump. “He can be decisive in this war. He is capable of stopping Putin or, to put it more fairly, help us stop Putin. He is able to do this.”

Russian investigators have determined that an oil spill from two tankers in the Black Sea last month was smaller than initially thought, the transport ministry said.

The oil leaked from two ageing tankers that were hit by a storm on 15 December. One sank and the other ran aground.

More than 10,000 people have been working to shovel up viscous, foul-smelling fuel oil from sandy beaches in and around Anapa, a popular summer resort. Environmental groups have reported deaths of dolphins, porpoises and sea birds.

The ministry said experts had established that approximately 2,400 metric tons of oil products had spilled into the sea.

“This is significantly less than the initial estimate, which was based on the account of one of the tanker captains,” it said.

When the disaster struck, state media reported that the stricken tankers, both more than 50 years old, were carrying some 9,200 metric tons (62,000 barrels) of oil products in total.

Currently, Russian forces are advancing in the east, slowly but surely, and they are shrinking Ukraine’s partial hold of the border region of Kursk.

That the Russians haven’t been more successful is a testament, above all else, to the resilience of Ukraine’s troops on the ground, many of whom have been fighting continuously for years. Dysfunction in the Russian military, with Mr Putin as its de facto commander-in-chief, is another.