As the war between Russia and Ukraine persists, Russian President Vladimir Putin said his nation's "troops are advancing," The Associated Press reported.

European Union countries have agreed to allocate $105.5 billion in aid to Ukraine for 2026 and 2027. EU governments had spent months debating whether to use 210 billion euros of frozen Russian assets.

The decision of the European Union (EU) countries to provide Ukraine with another loan in the amount of €90 billion is madness. This was announced on December 19 by the leader of the Dutch Freedom Party Geert Wilders.

European Union leaders will try to overcome staunch resistance to both a funding plan for Ukraine and a massive trade deal with South America during a summit in Brussels starting Thursday — insisting that the bloc’s reputation is on the line.

The European Commission has proposed that the leaders use some of the frozen assets — totaling 210 billion euros ($246 billion) — to underwrite a 90 billion-euro ($105 billion) “reparations loan” to Ukraine. The U.K., Canada and Norway would fill the gap.

Ukraine peace talks up their pace. Ukraine peace talks are showing new signs of progress. US and European negotiators emerged from meetings in Berlin yesterday agreeing to provide

Negotiators solved probably “90% of the issues between Ukraine and Russia ,” the U.S. official told reporters, and Trump “believes he can get Russia to accept” the “NATO-like” guarantee and European Union membership for Ukraine.

As European leaders vowed to protect Ukraine against Russia in the future, including via military means, Zelenskyy hailed progress with the US in talks about security guarantees – but disagreements over territory remain.