Zelenskyy to discuss peace plan with US envoy in Berlin

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and US envoys arrived in Berlin on Sunday for another round of talks intended to negotiate an end to the conflict in Ukraine. 

The delegations were greeted by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz at the chancellery ahead of negotiations over a US-backed peace plan.

Zelenskyy was joined by senior Ukrainian negotiator Rustem Umerov, while US President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and envoy Steve Witkoff both arrived in the German capital for talks.

The Ukrainian leader also emphasized the need for his country to receive firm guarantees that are legally binding from the United States and European allies which protect Ukraine and be similar to those offered to NATO members. 

He said he hadn't yet received any response from the US to Ukraine's latest proposals on the peace plan.

NATO membership  

Britain, France and Germany have been working to refine the US proposals, which, in a draft disclosed last month, called for Kyiv to cede more territory, abandon its ambition to join NATO and accept limits on its armed forces.

European allies have described this as a "critical moment" that could shape Ukraine's future, and sought to shore up Kyiv's finances by leveraging frozen Russian central bank assets to fund Kyiv's military and civilian budget.

Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted Witkoff and Kushner at a meeting earlier in December that the Kremlin praised as "constructive", although no major breakthroughs were reached.

Recent attacks 

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.

Friday's attacks by Russian forces targeted Chornomorsk and Odesa ports in Ukraine's southwestern Odesa region on the Black Sea. 

Belarus prisoner release 

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko freed 123 prisoners on Saturday including Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski and leading opposition figure Maria Kalesnikava in a deal brokered by an envoy for US President Trump.

It was not immediately clear where many of the group of 123 freed prisoners were heading after their release.

Officials told Reuters that nine of the released prisoners left Belarus for Lithuania and 114 were taken to Ukraine.