White House official confirms Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff will meet with Zelenskyy and European leaders this weekend. What we know on day 1,390

Donald Trump’s special envoy will meet with Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other European leaders in Berlin this weekend, the White House said, as Washington presses for a plan to end the war. Germany said earlier on Saturday that it would host US and Ukrainian delegations over the weekend for talks on a ceasefire, before a summit involving European leaders and Zelenskyy in Berlin on Monday. Zelenskyy also confirmed that he will personally meet with Donald Trump’s Steve Witkoff in the series of meetings: “Most importantly, I will be meeting with envoys of President Trump, and there will also be meetings with our European partners, with many leaders, concerning the foundation of peace – a political agreement to end the war,” Zelenskyy said in an address to the nation late on Saturday.

Kremlin foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov reaffirmed Friday that Moscow will give its blessing to a ceasefire only after Ukraine’s forces have withdrawn from parts of the Donetsk region that they still control. Ushakov told the business daily Kommersant that Russian police and national guard troops would stay in parts of eastern Ukraine’s Donbas even if they become a demilitarised zone under a prospective peace plan – a demand likely to be rejected by Ukraine.

Russia attacked five Ukrainian regions overnight, targeting the country’s energy and port infrastructure, according to Zelenskyy, who said the attacks involved more than 450 drones and 30 missiles. With temperatures hovering around freezing, Ukraine’s interior minister, Ihor Klymenko, said more than a million people were without electricity.

An attack on Odesa caused grain silos to catch fire at the coastal city’s port, Ukrainian deputy prime minister and reconstruction minister Oleksiy Kuleba said. Two people were wounded in attacks on the wider region, according to regional head Oleh Kiper.

Germany has said it will send a group of soldiers to Poland to help with a project to fortify the country’s eastern border as worries mount about the threat from Russia. Poland, a strong supporter of Ukraine in its fight against Moscow, announced plans in May last year to bolster a long stretch of its border that includes Belarus and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. The main task of the German soldiers in Poland will be “engineering activities,” a spokesperson for the defence ministry in Berlin said late Friday.

About 480 people were evacuated Saturday from a train traveling between the Polish city of Przemysl and Kyiv after police received a call concerning a threat on the train, Karolina Kowalik, a spokesperson for the Przemysl police, said. Nobody was hurt and she didn’t elaborate on the threat. Polish authorities are on high alert since multiple attempts to disrupt trains on the line linking Warsaw to the Ukrainian border, including the use of explosives in November, with Polish authorities saying they have evidence Russia was behind it.

Ukraine’s navy accused Russia of deliberately attacking a civilian Turkish vessel carrying sunflower oil to Egypt with a drone on Saturday, a day after Moscow hit two Ukrainian ports: “Russia delivered a targeted strike using a drone against the Turkish vessel ‘VIVA’, which was en route to Egypt carrying sunflower oil,” Ukraine’s navy said on social media. None of the 11 crew were wounded and the ship was able to continue its journey, it added.

Ukraine received 114 prisoners released by Belarus on Saturday, Kyiv’s PoW coordination centre said. The centre’s statement said that the released captives would receive medical attention, and those Belarusian citizens who so wished would subsequently be transported to Poland or Lithuania.

US Central Command reports an ambush on Saturday, the first attack to inflict US casualties since fall of Bashar al-Assad

Two US army soldiers and one American civilian interpreter have been killed and several other people wounded in an ambush on Saturday by the Islamic State group in central Syria, the Pentagon said.

The attack on US troops in Palmyra is the first to inflict casualties since the fall of the former Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, a year ago.

The seizure of the Skipper on Wednesday marked the first US capture of Venezuelan oil cargo since sanctions were imposed in 2019

Venezuelan oil exports have reportedly fallen sharply since the US seized a tanker this week and imposed fresh sanctions on shipping companies and vessels doing business with Caracas, according to shipping data, documents and maritime sources.

The US seizure of the Skipper tanker off Venezuela’s coast on Wednesday was the first US capture of Venezuelan oil cargo since sanctions were imposed in 2019 and marked a sharp escalation in rising tensions between the Trump administration and the government of Nicolás Maduro.

Conflict monitors say the junta has increased airstrikes year-on-year since the start of Myanmar’s civil war

Dozens have been killed in a military strike on a hospital in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state, according to an aid worker, a rebel group, a witness and local media reports, as the junta wages a withering offensive ahead of elections beginning this month.

“The situation is very terrible,” said on-site aid worker Wai Hun Aung. “As for now, we can confirm there are 31 deaths and we think there will be more deaths. Also there are 68 wounded and will be more and more.”

British government also rejects president’s claims on sovereignty over Falkland Islands as he suggests wanting to make Argentina a ‘world military power’

The British government has denied it is engaged in negotiations to lift a ban on selling arms to Argentina that has been in place since the Falklands war.

Javier Milei, the president of Argentina, told the Daily Telegraph his government had begun speaking to the UK about the restrictions.

The 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) carries $8bn more than the funding Trump requested in May

The US House has approved a sweeping defence bill that bolsters Europe’s security, in what appears to be sharp rebuke to Donald Trump’s mounting threats to downgrade Washington’s ties to traditional allies and Nato.

The bipartisan vote came just days after the publication of a White House national security strategy that said Europe faced “civilisational erasure” and made explicit Washington’s support for Europe’s nationalist far-right parties – rattling EU leaders and opening up a seismic shift in transatlantic relations.

Space agency is investigating after Maven abruptly stopped communicating to ground stations over the weekend

Nasa has lost contact with a spacecraft that has orbited Mars for more than a decade, though the US space agency said it was trying to re-establish a communications link.

Maven abruptly stopped communicating to ground stations over the weekend. Nasa said this week that the spacecraft had been working fine before it went behind the red planet. When it reappeared, there was only silence. “Telemetry showed all subsystems working normally before it orbited behind [Mars],” Nasa said in a statement.