Zelenskiy Says Russia’s Actions Bear Signs of Genocide, Rejects Talks in Belarus

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy - AFP
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy - AFP
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Zelenskiy Says Russia’s Actions Bear Signs of Genocide, Rejects Talks in Belarus

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy - AFP
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy - AFP

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged the world on Sunday to scrap Russia's voting power at the UN Security Council and said Russian actions verged on "genocide."

"This is terror. They are going to bomb our Ukrainian cities even more, they are going to kill our children even more subtly. This is the evil that has come to our land and must be destroyed," Zelenskiy said on a short video message.

"Russia's criminal actions against Ukraine bear signs of genocide," he added, Reuters reported.

Also, an adviser to Zelenskiy told Reuters on Sunday that Ukraine wants only "real" negotiations with Russia over its military offensive, without ultimatums, calling Moscow's decision to send a delegation to Belarus for talks "propaganda".

Earlier the Kremlin said a Russian delegation had arrived in Gomel in neighboring Belarus and was waiting for the
Ukrainians.

Zelenskiy rejected talks in Belarus, accusing it of allowing Russian troops through its territory to invade. However, he left the door open for negotiations elsewhere.

"They arrived in Gomel knowing that it was pointless. And now they say - 'we are waiting,'" adviser Mykhailo Podolyak told Reuters.

"Zelenskiy's position remains unchanged: only real negotiations, no ultimatums."

For his part, Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko called on Kyiv on Sunday to sit down and hold talks with Russia so that Ukraine does not lose its statehood, Russia's RIA news agency reported.



Zelensky Says Has Had Talks on Ukraine with US Envoys

This handout photograph taken on December 23, 2025 and released by the Ukrainian Presidential Office on December 24, 2025 shows Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky during a meeting with journalists in Kyiv. (Handout / Ukrainian Presidential Office/ AFP)
This handout photograph taken on December 23, 2025 and released by the Ukrainian Presidential Office on December 24, 2025 shows Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky during a meeting with journalists in Kyiv. (Handout / Ukrainian Presidential Office/ AFP)
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Zelensky Says Has Had Talks on Ukraine with US Envoys

This handout photograph taken on December 23, 2025 and released by the Ukrainian Presidential Office on December 24, 2025 shows Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky during a meeting with journalists in Kyiv. (Handout / Ukrainian Presidential Office/ AFP)
This handout photograph taken on December 23, 2025 and released by the Ukrainian Presidential Office on December 24, 2025 shows Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky during a meeting with journalists in Kyiv. (Handout / Ukrainian Presidential Office/ AFP)

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday he had had "very good" talks with US President Donald Trump's envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, focused on ending the "brutal Russian war".

"We discussed certain substantive details of the ongoing work," he said in a post on social media.

"There are good ideas that can work toward a shared outcome and the lasting peace," he added.

Zelensky thanked the two envoys for their "constructive approach, the intensive work, and the kind words."

"We are truly working 24/7 to bring closer the end of this brutal Russian war against Ukraine and to ensure that all documents and steps are realistic, effective, and reliable," he added.

They had also agreed during the conversation that Ukrainian negotiator Rustem Umerov would speak with the two envoys again Thursday.

Zelensky's post came a day after having said that Ukraine had won some limited concessions in the latest version of a US-led draft plan to end the Russian invasion.

The 20-point plan, agreed on by US and Ukrainian negotiators, is being reviewed by Moscow. But the Kremlin has previously not shown a willingness to abandon its territorial demands for full Ukrainian withdrawal from the east.

Zelensky conceded on Wednesday that there were some points in the document that he did not like.

But he said Kyiv had succeeded in removing immediate requirements for Ukraine to withdraw from the Donetsk region or that land seized by Moscow's army would be recognized as Russian.


King Charles Calls for More Compassion in Christmas Speech

Britain's King Charles, along with members of the royal family, arrives to attend the Royal Family's Christmas Day service at St. Mary Magdalene's church, as the royals take residence at the Sandringham estate in eastern England, Britain, December 25, 2025. REUTERS/Hannah McKayg Rights
Britain's King Charles, along with members of the royal family, arrives to attend the Royal Family's Christmas Day service at St. Mary Magdalene's church, as the royals take residence at the Sandringham estate in eastern England, Britain, December 25, 2025. REUTERS/Hannah McKayg Rights
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King Charles Calls for More Compassion in Christmas Speech

Britain's King Charles, along with members of the royal family, arrives to attend the Royal Family's Christmas Day service at St. Mary Magdalene's church, as the royals take residence at the Sandringham estate in eastern England, Britain, December 25, 2025. REUTERS/Hannah McKayg Rights
Britain's King Charles, along with members of the royal family, arrives to attend the Royal Family's Christmas Day service at St. Mary Magdalene's church, as the royals take residence at the Sandringham estate in eastern England, Britain, December 25, 2025. REUTERS/Hannah McKayg Rights

Britain's King Charles III called for "compassion and reconciliation" at a time of "division" across the world in his annual Christmas Day message broadcast on Thursday.

The 77-year-old monarch said he found it "enormously encouraging" how people of different faiths had a "shared longing for peace".

In the year of the 80th anniversary of end of World War II, the king said the courage of servicemen and women and the way communities came together back then carried "a timeless message for us all".

"As we hear of division both at home and abroad, they are the values of which we must never lose sight," Charles said in a pre-recorded message from Westminster Abbey, broadcast on British television at 1500 GMT.

"With the great diversity of our communities, we can find the strength to ensure that right triumphs over wrong. It seems to me that we need to cherish the values of compassion and reconciliation the way our Lord lived and died."

In October, Charles became the first head of the Church of England to pray publicly with a pope since the schism with Rome 500 years ago, in a service led by Leo XIV at the Vatican.

A few days earlier Charles met survivors of a deadly attack on a synagogue and members of the Jewish community in the northern English city of Manchester.

This is the second time in succession that the king has made his festive address from outside a royal residence.

Last year he spoke from a former hospital chapel as he thanked medical staff for supporting the royal family in a year in which he announced his cancer diagnosis.


Lebanon Says 3 Dead in Israeli Strikes

A photograph shows the wreckage of a vehicle targeted by an Israeli airstrike on the road linking the southern Lebanese border village of Odeisseh to Markaba, on December 16, 2025. (AFP)
A photograph shows the wreckage of a vehicle targeted by an Israeli airstrike on the road linking the southern Lebanese border village of Odeisseh to Markaba, on December 16, 2025. (AFP)
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Lebanon Says 3 Dead in Israeli Strikes

A photograph shows the wreckage of a vehicle targeted by an Israeli airstrike on the road linking the southern Lebanese border village of Odeisseh to Markaba, on December 16, 2025. (AFP)
A photograph shows the wreckage of a vehicle targeted by an Israeli airstrike on the road linking the southern Lebanese border village of Odeisseh to Markaba, on December 16, 2025. (AFP)

Lebanon said Israeli strikes near the Syrian border and in the country's south killed three people on Thursday, as Israel said it targeted a member of Iran's elite Quds Force and a Hezbollah operative. 

Despite a November 2024 ceasefire that was supposed to end more than a year of hostilities between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah group, Israel has kept up strikes on Lebanon and has maintained troops in five areas it deems strategic. 

"An Israeli enemy strike today on a vehicle in the town of Hawsh al-Sayyed Ali in the Hermel district killed two people," the health ministry said, referring to a location in northeast Lebanon near the Syrian border. 

It later reported one person was killed in an Israeli strike in Majdal Selm, in the country's south. 

Separately the Israeli military said it killed Hussein Mahmud Marshad al-Jawhari, "a key terrorist in the operational unit of the Quds Force", the foreign operations arm of the Revolutionary Guards. 

It said he "was involved in terror activities, directed by Iran, against the state of Israel and its security forces" from Lebanon and Syria. 

The Israeli military also said it killed "a Hezbollah terrorist" in an area near Majdal Selm. 

Under heavy US pressure and fears of expanded Israeli strikes, Lebanon has committed to disarming Hezbollah, starting with the south. 

Lebanon's army plans to complete the disarmament south of the Litani River -- about 30 kilometers (19 miles) from the border with Israel -- by year's end. 

Israel has questioned the Lebanese military's effectiveness and has accused Hezbollah of rearming, while the group itself has rejected calls to surrender its weapons. 

More than 340 people have been killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon since the ceasefire, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry reports. 

The NNA also reported Thursday that a man wounded in an Israeli strike last week south of Beirut had died of his injuries. 

It identified him as a member of Lebanon's General Security agency and said "he happened to be passing at the time of the strike as he returned from service" in the capital. 

The health ministry had said that strike targeted a vehicle on the Chouf district's Jadra-Siblin road, killing one person and wounding five others. 

On Tuesday, Lebanon's army said a soldier was among those killed in a strike this week and denied the Israeli military's accusation that he was a Hezbollah operative. 

Lebanese army chief Rodolphe Haykal told a military meeting on Tuesday "the army is in the process of finishing the first phase of its plan".