A leading aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview with the American magazine “The Atlantic“ that Zelensky would not cede land to Russia in exchange for peace, Reuters reported.
"While Zelensky is president, no one should count on him to cede territory. "He will not cede territory," said Andriy Yermak, the head of the Ukrainian president's office.
Belgian Prime Minister Bart de Wever said that using frozen Russian assets could derail the process of reaching a peace agreement in Ukraine, Reuters reported.
"Hasty progress on the proposed reparations loan scheme could have collateral damage," De Wever warned in a letter addressed to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, which was seen by the Financial Times.
European leaders tried to agree on a plan at their summit last month to use 140 billion euros ($162 billion) of frozen Russian assets to lend to Kiev, but they did not receive support from Belgium, which holds the most of these funds.
The European Commission hopes to allay Belgian concerns in a draft proposal to be presented this week that would address the use of frozen Russian assets to support Kiev in 2026 and 2027, European officials said.
Russia has decided to designate as a "terrorist organization" an exile group formed by allies of the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny, Agence France-Presse reported.
Moscow has stepped up its attacks on opposition groups linked to Navalny even after he died in mysterious circumstances in prison in 2024.
Navalny - a charismatic anti-corruption activist - was President Vladimir Putin's main rival in Russia, who managed to attract hundreds of thousands of people to anti-Kremlin initiatives and protests and was regularly arrested and persecuted by the authorities.
Russia's Supreme Court announced that it had ruled that the Anti-Corruption Foundation, registered in the United States and run by former Navalny associates, should be defined as a “terrorist organization“, banning its activities. The court's ruling said that the organization “encourages, justifies and supports terrorism“.
Navalny and his organizations had previously been defined as “extremist“ – a designation that carries legal consequences, banning their activities in Russia.
The Kremlin regularly uses similar language to attack its opponents, forcing them to cease their activities or go into exile.
In response to the Supreme Court ruling, the Anti-Corruption Foundation said: “The real terrorists are Vladimir Putin and his accomplices - the people who started the war, killed civilians and political opponents, and imprisoned people“.
The foundation said it was a “political tactic“ to suppress the opposition and warned that other independent media and human rights groups would soon suffer the same fate.
In October, when the case was filed in a Russian court, the human rights organization “Amnesty International“ said the decision “could unleash mass repressions“.
Russia has significantly stepped up its campaign to silence critics since it began its offensive in Ukraine in February 2022.
Navalny's allies claim that unpublished laboratory tests show that he was poisoned and killed in prison. Moscow has rejected any claims that Navalny was murdered.