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US and Russian officials draft plan to end Ukraine war based on capitulation from Kyiv

US and Russian officials have quietly drafted a new plan to end the war in Ukraine that would require Kyiv to surrender territory and severely limit the size of its military, it was reported on Wednesday as Russian drone and missile strikes killed at least 25 people in the city of Ternopil. The draft plan, which was reportedly developed by Donald Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, and the Kremlin adviser Kirill Dmitriev, would force draconian measures on Ukraine that would give Russia unprecedented control over the country’s military and political sovereignty. The plan is likely to be viewed as surrender in Kyiv. The two men have formed an important but unofficial backchannel between Moscow and Washington, and it was unclear whether the Trump administration had formally backed the plan. The Financial Times and Reuters reported that the proposal would require Ukraine to cede territory it controls in the east of the country and halve the size of its military, conditions that the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has in the past called non-starters. Other conditions include limiting US military assistance and categories of armaments used by the Ukrainian military. The existence of the 28-point plan, which appears to be inspired by a similar proposal the Trump administration developed to end the war in Gaza, was first reported by Axios. The White House did not immediately respond to a Guardian request for more detail on the proposal. Washington has repeatedly suggested that it is close to a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, but the proposals have failed because they would have granted Russia most of its demands while requiring Kyiv to make painful concessions. The leaked reports came as Russia launched a massive attack in western Ukraine targeting several multi-storey buildings in the city of Ternopil, as well as energy facilities in Ivano-Frankivsk and Lviv. Russia is engaged in a systematic campaign to destroy Ukraine’s civilian power infrastructure ahead of winter. Oleg Hrytsyshyn, who lives on the sixth floor of one of the damaged apartment blocks in Ternopil, said that the smoke instantly cut off evacuation routes, leaving him trapped in his home. “There were several loud explosions. When I tried to get dressed, there was thick black smoke in the entrance. It was burning,” he said. “It was impossible to get out, although I tried twice. The windows in the apartment were not broken. I knocked on the neighbors’ doors but no one answered.” The man was rescued and doctors treated him for high blood pressure. A video clip on social media appeared to show the moment a missile hit the building. Ukraine’s interior ministry said 25 people, including three children, had been killed in the strike, with another 73 injured, among them 15 children. A witness, Yaroslav Teslyuk, said the strike happened at about 5.30am, when most people were asleep. “I heard a loud rumble. It was followed by the noise of ‘shaheeds’ and several more rockets, and then explosions,” he said. “A fire started. I was told some people burned alive in their apartments because the strike happened when everyone was still asleep. The bodies were covered up. Some have already been taken away.” Zelenskyy, who met the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, on Wednesday in what he described as an effort to “reinvigorate negotiations” and secure a “just peace” for Ukraine, urged Kyiv’s allies to intensify pressure on Russia to end its nearly four-year invasion, including by providing more air-defence missiles. “Every brazen attack against ordinary life shows that the pressure on Russia is insufficient,” Zelenskyy wrote on X. “Effective sanctions and assistance to Ukraine can change this.” Potential peace talks have largely stalled in recent months as a result of Russia’s maximalist demands. Zelenskyy is expected to meet a senior delegation of US military officials on Thursday. The US army secretary, Daniel Driscoll, arrived in Kyiv on Wednesday to hold talks with Ukrainian officials and “discuss efforts to end the war,” the US Embassy said in a statement. Kyiv and Moscow have not held direct negotiations since the summer, and efforts to revive a diplomatic track have largely frozen since the last meeting between Trump and Vladimir Putin in Alaska in August. Despite Kremlin claims that it is open to talks on ending the war, Moscow has shown no willingness to scale back its far-reaching demands. Zelenskyy finds himself in an increasingly difficult position at home and on the battlefield. Russian forces have recently advanced into the strategically important city of Pokrovsk and are pressing forward elsewhere along the front, while a widening corruption scandal in the energy sector has erupted into Ukraine’s most serious political crisis since the start of the war. The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, denied on Wednesday that any significant progress had been made. “So far there are no innovations on this that can be reported to you,” he said. Russia’s foreign ministry also said it was unaware of any new US peace proposal. Its spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, said Moscow had not received any draft agreement on Ukraine “of such a level” from Washington. “If the American side had come up with proposals, they would have been communicated through the established diplomatic channels between our two countries,” she said.

Death toll from Russian attack rises to 25 as Ukraine says it will raise issue at UN – as it happened

Thanks for joining us today. As we close the blog, here’s a quick summation of what we know so far: Sources are telling both Reuters and the Financial Times that the US is pushing Kyiv to accept a peace plan that was drafted by a mix of Trump administration and Russian officials. The plan, according to those familiar with the matter, is heavily favorable toward Russia and would require Ukraine to cede territory and weaponry and cut its armed forces in half, moves that would potentially leave the country vulnerable to future attacks by Russia. Meanwhile, Russian strikes on Ukraine continue, with an overnight attack on Ternopil killing 25 and injuring 73. Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha said that Ukraine would bring up the overnight Russian attacks at Thursday’s UN security council meeting. And in Russia, Vladimir Putin is passing sweeping laws to bolster defences at home against Ukrainian drone strikes and sabotage operations, reflecting the Kremlin’s expectation of a protracted war. This comes as Poland responds to the alleged sabotage of its rail infrastructure. Prosecutors have drafted formal charges for two Ukrainians suspected of “sabotage of a terrorist nature” on behalf of Russia over the last weekend’s rail incidents. The army is also working on plans to deploy 10,000 soldiers to protect critical infrastructure across the country to “counteract acts of diversion and raise the level of security for Polish citizens”, said Polish defence minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas addressed the alleged sabotage incidents at a press conference on Wednesday, condemning “increasingly brazen” Russian attacks on EU infrastructure as she called for military mobility. “Military mobility is a critical insurance policy for European security. You hope you never have to use it full capacity, but having it ready ensures more credible deterrence and defence,” she said. The bloc’s “Military Schengen,” formally proposed on Wednesday, seeks to address some of these issues by removing regulatory obstacles, and working on the resilience of key infrastructure. Elsewhere in Europe, Social Democrats in Denmark suffer sweeping election losses and the Netherlands has suspended it seizure of the Chinese owner chip maker Nexperia. Nexperia was at the heart of a bitter six-week battle between the EU and China that threatened to halt car production.

US charges ex-Olympic snowboarder turned drug kingpin with murder of witness

US authorities have charged a fugitive former Canadian Olympic snowboarder turned drug kingpin with the murder of a witness who was prepared to testify against him. The attorney general, Pam Bondi, said on Wednesday that Ryan Wedding was accused in a newly unsealed indictment of tracking down a witness in Colombia who was then murdered before he could give evidence. Wedding, also known as “El Jefe”, “Giant” and “Public Enemy”, is alleged to have overseen the transport of hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Colombia, through Mexico and southern California, and into Canada, as part of what Bondi called “one of the most prolific and violent drug-trafficking organizations” in the world. “We are coming for you. We will find you. And you will be accountable and held to justice for your crimes,” she said. Authorities also announced the arrest of the Ontario lawyer Deepak Paradkar, who allegedly advised Wedding to murder the FBI witness, Jonathan Acebedo-Garcia, a Canadian citizen who was shot dead in a restaurant in Medellín in January. Bill Essayli, first assistant US attorney at the central district of California, told reporters that Paradkar was one of a dozen individuals who were recently arrested in an “international takedown”. He said the well-known Brampton lawyer told Wedding: “If you kill this witness, the case will be dismissed.” Police in Canada also arrested Atna Onha, a Montreal man, and charged him with murder conspiracy in the killing of Acebedo-Garcia, a former member of Wedding’s organization. “Make no mistake about it: Ryan Wedding is a modern-day iteration of Pablo Escobar,” the FBI director, Kash Patel, said. “He’s a modern-day iteration of El Chapo Guzmán.” The state department also increased its reward for Wedding’s capture and conviction from US$10m to $15m. Wedding, 43, grew up in Thunder Bay, Ontario, and competed for Team Canada in the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic games, where he placed 24th in the parallel giant slalom event. Four years after the Games, Ryan Wedding was named in a search warrant investigating a marijuana-growing operation in British Columbia, but was never charged. In 2010, Wedding was convicted of drug trafficking after attempting to buy cocaine from a US government agent and was sentenced to four years in prison. Described by media at the time as a 2010 “Olympic hopeful”, Wedding sought to dismiss the charges, alleging “outrageous conduct” by US authorities, suggesting they used a “violent former KGB agent” as an undercover operative. But in the years since, he has emerged as a powerful and ruthless transnational narcotics trafficker. The RCMP commissioner, Mike Duhame, was also present at the press conference and told reporters that seven Canadians have been arrested. Duheme said Wedding’s organization probably makes more than $1bn a year. On Wednesday, the US treasury department also announced sanctions on Ryan Wedding and nine other people linked to his criminal organization.

Rome decries ‘Italian-sounding’ pasta sauces on sale in EU parliament store

Italy’s agriculture minister, Francesco Lollobrigida, has called for an immediate investigation after coming across what he claimed were jars of “Italian-sounding” pasta sauce on the shelves of the European parliament’s supermarket. Lollobrigida, of Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party, was particularly vexed by a carbonara sauce made with “Italiaanse pancetta” – the classic Roman pasta dish is made with a different cured meat, guanciale – and a tomato sauce containing “oignons de Calabria”, or onions from Calabria. “Ignoring the pancetta in carbonara … all these products represent the worst of ‘Italian sounding’,” he wrote on Facebook about his discovery. “It is unacceptable to see them on the shelves of the European parliament supermarket. I have asked for an immediate investigation.” Italy has long tried to fight against the huge global market in “Italian-sounding” products – that is, food items that give the impression they are made in Italy when they are not. The own-label sauces Lollobrigida referred to are sold by the Belgian supermarket chain Delhaize and have an Italian flag on their packaging. Under EU regulations, a food product could be deemed to be misleading consumers if its labelling distorts its actual country of origin. Reports in Brussels said the sauces were not claimed to be made in Italy and did include Italian ingredients. The Guardian has asked Delhaize to comment. The episode comes as Italy eagerly awaits the outcome of its application for Italian cuisine to be included in Unesco’s intangible cultural heritage list. A decision is expected in early December. Italy’s biggest agribusiness association, Coldiretti, said the “scandal of fake Italian products” cost the country €120bn (£106bn) a year. “Paradoxically, the biggest counterfeiters of Italian excellence are industrialised countries,” Coldiretti said. “Due to the so-called ‘Italian sounding’ phenomenon, more than two out of three Italian agrifood products worldwide are fake, with no production or employment link to our country.” It claimed the biggest offender was the US. The association also regularly battles against the use of mafia terms to sell a variety of food and drink products around the world, from Cosa Nostra whisky to Chilli Mafia hot sauces.

Christie’s withdraws rare ‘first calculator’ from auction after French court halts export

A rare example of the first functioning calculating machine in history looks likely to stay in France after Christie’s withdrew it from auction pending a definitive ruling from a Paris court on whether or not it can be exported. La Pascaline, developed by the French mathematician and inventor Blaise Pascal in 1642, when he was just 19, and billed as “the most important scientific instrument ever offered at auction”, had been expected to fetch more than €2m (£1.8m). But the auction house withdrew the ebony-inlaid instrument from sale on Wednesday after the Paris administrative court, responding to an urgent appeal by scientists and researchers, provisionally suspended its authorisation for export late on Tuesday. “Given its historical and scientific value, La Pascaline is likely to be classified as a ‘national treasure’ … which prevents the issuance of an export certificate,” the court said, adding its provisional decision “prohibits it from leaving the country”. Christie’s said it was suspending the sale, part of an auction of the library of the late collector Léon Parcé, given the court’s decision, pending its final ruling – which could take several months – and “in accordance with the instructions of our client”. The instrument, in private hands since 1942, is one of only eight authentic Pascalines in existence. Christie’s described the machines as “nothing less than the first attempt in history to substitute the work of a machine for that of the human mind”. Pascal developed the instruments, the first attempt to “mechanise mental calculation”, to simplify the work of his father, who was in charge of a court tasked with restoring order to tax revenue collections in northern France, Christie’s said. The philosopher devised several models, each using different units for a specific purpose, such as calculating decimals, commercial transactions or taxes. This one, for surveyors, calculates in units of measurement including feet, inches and fathoms. The group of eminent scientists and researchers, including the 2021 Nobel physics laureate Giorgio Parisi, asked the administrative court last week to block La Pascaline’s potential export, arguing it should be classified a “national treasure” and remain in France. La Pascaline was “the origin of modern computing” and had made France “the cradle of the computing adventure: a revolution that transformed our understanding of the world”, they said in an impassioned op-ed published by Le Monde. It was “one of the key jewels in France’s intellectual and technological heritage”, they said, accusing the state of committing an “astounding blunder” in granting Christie’s export authorisation rather than giving French institutions time to mount a bid. “What a sad admission of disinterest in our scientific heritage,” the scientists wrote. “What a misunderstanding of Pascal, engineer, mathematician, philosopher, writer, a personality like no other, whose 400th birth anniversary we celebrated in 2023.” The fact that five Pascalines were already in French public collections – the other two are in Germany – did not diminish this one, they said, because all have their own characteristics and this one was little known to the scientific community. “It is vital that it enter a public collection so that it can be studied,” they added, describing La Pascaline as “a shining symbol of a unique alliance of history, science and technology” that reflected “a philosophy of learning that honours France”. The culture ministry said an export certificate had been issued last May following standard procedures, with two experts – one from the National Centre of Arts and Crafts and the other from the Louvre museum – approving the decision.

European Commission accused of ‘massive rollback’ of digital protections

The European Commission has been accused of “a massive rollback” of the EU’s digital rules after announcing proposals to delay central parts of the Artificial Intelligence Act and water down its landmark data protection regulation. If agreed, the changes would make it easier for tech firms to use personal data to train AI models without asking for consent, and try to end “cookie banner fatigue” by reducing the number times internet users have to give their permission to being tracked on the internet. The commission also confirmed the intention to delay the introduction of central parts of the AI Act, which came into force in August 2024 and does not yet fully apply to companies. Companies making high-risk AI systems, namely those posing risks to health, safety or fundamental rights, such as those used in exam scoring or surgery, would get up to 18 months longer to comply with the rules. The plans were part of the commission’s “digital omnibus”, which tries to streamline tech rules including GDPR, the AI Act, the ePrivacy directive and the Data Act. After a long period of rule-making, the EU agenda has shifted since the former Italian prime minister Mario Draghi warned in a report last autumn that Europe had fallen behind the US and China in innovation and was weak in the emerging technologies that would drive future growth, such as AI. The EU has also come under heavy pressure from the Trump administration to rein in digital laws. The EU’s economy commissioner, Valdis Dombrovskis, said: “Europe has not so far reaped the full benefits of the digital revolution and we cannot afford to continue to pay the price for failing to keep up with a changing world.” He added that the measures would save business and consumers €5bn in administrative costs by 2029. They are part of the bloc’s wider drive for “simplification”, with plans under way to scale back regulation on the environment, company reporting on supply chains and agriculture. Like these other proposals, the digital omnibus will need to be approved by EU minsters and the European parliament. European Digital Rights (EDRi), a pan-European network of NGOs, described the plans as “a major rollback of EU digital protections” that risked dismantling “the very foundations of human rights and tech policy in the EU”. In particular, it said that changes to GDPR would allow “the unchecked use of people’s most intimate data for training AI systems” and that a wide range of exemptions proposed to online privacy rules would mean businesses would be able to read data on phones and browsers without asking. European business groups welcomed the proposals but said they did not go far enough. A representative from the Computer and Communications Industry Association, whose members include Amazon, Apple, Google and Meta, said: “Efforts to simplify digital and tech rules cannot stop here.” The CCIA urged “a more ambitious, all-encompassing review of the EU’s entire digital rulebook”. Critics of the shake-up included the EU’s former commissioner for enterprise, Thierry Breton, who wrote in the Guardian that Europe should resist attempts to unravel its digital rulebook “under the pretext of simplification or remedying an alleged ‘anti-innovation’ bias. No one is fooled over the transatlantic origin of these attempts.” The commission’s vice-president in charge of tech policy, Henna Virkkunen, pushed back against suggestions that Brussels was responding to US pressure. “We want to support our start ups, our SMEs to scale up their businesses to innovate in the EU,” she said. “We are not so much here looking at big industries or the very big tech companies … They have also the resources to comply with different rules.” She also rejected claims that the AI Act was being watered down, saying that action was needed to prevent European start-ups from moving to other jurisdictions. Michael McGrath, the EU commissioner responsible for the GDPR, said most of the feedback on the proposals had come from companies in the EU. He said the commission was introducing “targeted amendments to GDPR” that clarified existing concepts and principles while “ensuring a high level of data protection across the EU”. EU officials said users would remain in control of their data on the internet, but new rules on cookies – the internet files that are stored on a user’s device so a website can remember them – would make life simpler by ensuring one-click consent. “I think we can all agree we have spent too much of our time accepting or rejecting cookies,” Virkkunen said.

Plan to speed tanks and armies across Europe in case of war with Russia

The EU executive has pledged to ease red tape to speed up the movement of European armies and tanks across the continent, describing it as “a critical insurance policy for European security”. A military mobility plan announced by the European Commission on Wednesday is part of an effort to ensure Europe is ready to defend itself by 2030, in line with warnings from security services that Russia could be able to attack an EU member state within five years. If an army sought today to move from a western European port to the EU’s eastern border with Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, it would encounter significant obstacles and delays, say EU officials. They point to bridges that cannot bear the weight of tanks, railway tunnels that are too small and track gauges too narrow to accommodate military vehicles, as well as EU paperwork on working time and customs. At least one EU member state requires 45 days’ notice for cross-border troop movements, in contrast to the objective of a three-day border procedure pledged by EU countries in 2024. According to the EU’s auditors, another unnamed member state once denied entry to a convoy of tanks because they violated weight limits in local road traffic laws. “If a bridge cannot carry a 60-tonne tank, we have a problem. If a runway is too short for a cargo plane, we cannot resupply our crews,” said the EU foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, who described the 45-day permission rule as “not good enough” 11 years after Russia’s annexation of Crimea. She said the latest EU proposals would underpin, rather than duplicate, Nato’s defence planning. “Military mobility is a critical insurance policy for European security; you hope you never have to use it to the full capacity, but having it ready ensures more credible deterrence and defence,” she told reporters. The commission wants to create a “military Schengen” zone, meaning armies can move through the EU’s border-free travel area as easily as civilians. It has proposed an emergency system for cross-border military transport that would give military convoys priority on the transport network. In an emergency situation, armies would get exemptions from usual EU rules such as mandatory rest periods for drivers of heavy goods vehicles, as well as faster customs procedures for hardware and military supplies, including food, arriving at the EU’s external border. EU officials have identified a priority list of 500 bridges, tunnels, bridges, roads, ports and airports that need to be strengthened or adapted to handle heavy military traffic, at a cost of about €100bn (£88bn). A tenfold increase in spending on military mobility of €17.6bn has been earmarked in the proposed EU long-term budget for 2028-34, although the overall €2tn plan faces opposition from many member states hoping to scale back spending. EU member states are typically required to co-fund the bloc’s infrastructure projects. Most EU countries are members of Nato and pledged in June to spend 5% of their GDP on defence, including 1.5% to protect critical infrastructure and ensure defence preparedness. EU officials said countries could use existing EU funds for infrastructure to ensure their transport networks were well adapted to military needs, as well as a new €150bn defence loans programme.

Denmark announces one of the world’s most ambitious climate targets, while the rest of the EU looks away

To little fanfare and few international headlines, Denmark just announced one of the world’s most ambitious climate targets. The unusually wind-powered and cycle-friendly Nordic nation – whose ruling Social Democrats suffered a setback in elections on Tuesday – promised on Monday to cut planet-heating pollution by at least 82% by 2035 from 1990 levels. The goal inches past the UK’s landmark 81% target for that year and races ahead of the EU’s rather wide goal of 66.3% to 72.5%. Those numbers may seem strange to celebrate given that most countries the UN classifies as developed have already promised to reach net zero emissions by the middle of the century. But climate scientists have long warned that the path to a clean economy matters as much as the exact end date. Delay too much action till the 2040s, as cash-strapped governments are wont to do, and even those who go fully green by 2050 will risk having already pumped out too much pollution. Despite these warnings, announcements such as Denmark’s are a rarity among the European ministers attending the Cop30 climate summit in Brazil this month. Governments across the continent have attacked green rules with increasing ferocity over the past two years, rolling back existing policies and watering down new ones – all while professing their commitment to existing climate targets. The EU, meanwhile, is energetically “simplifying” (read: rolling back) ambitious climate policies under the banner of increasing the bloc’s competitiveness. The beating that Europe’s famous Green Deal is taking at home has begun to undermine its pleas for urgent climate action on the world stage. European countries are some of the biggest historical polluters of greenhouse gas, but have long championed stronger action at UN summits. Last week, as negotiators converged on the Amazonian city of Belém, situated on the edge of the beleaguered rainforest, the European parliament voted to weaken a law to stop deforestation in supply chains and to restrict the scope of its green business rules. The blow to the corporate sustainability directive – the first of several “omnibus” deregulation packages pushed by the commission – attracted anger from green groups for removing an obligation on companies to create climate transition plans. These would force firms to explain how they are aligning business practices with the 1.5C global heating target, which countries agreed at a landmark climate summit in Paris 10 years ago. Adding fuel to the fire, the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) voted with the far-right – who centrists have traditionally shunned – to win the vote. The surprise breakdown of the EU firewall comes one month after the fraying cordon sanitaire gave way in France, and in a year in which Germany’s Brandmauer has been chipped. Alberto Alemanno, a law professor and founder of the Good Lobby, which last week launched a tracker to monitor centre-right collaborations with the far-right, said the vote “not only dismantles the Green Deal, but also redefines the political majority governing Europe from now until 2029”. “For the first time in EU history, the pro-EU centrist parties that have built and governed the EU since its inception are being sidelined,” he said. “And they bear responsibility for their own demise.” The positions adopted last week will still need to be negotiated with the 27 EU governments and the commission before final versions of the laws come into force. And while the political firewall may be cracking, Europe has not abandoned its efforts to stop heating the planet. The EU’s new climate target, also voted through by lawmakers last week, is ambitious enough for diplomats to brag about in Brazil. It aims for a 90% drop in greenhouse gas emissions by 2040 from 1990 levels – the minimum that its scientific advisers recommend – though it leaves the door open for 5% of those cuts to come from foreign carbon credits that scientists and journalists have repeatedly found to be junk. The inclusion of such “flexibilities” – a compromise to win over member states reluctant to sign off on a high headline figure – meant that the EU did not turn up to Cop30 empty-handed. That in itself puts it ahead of other big polluters such as China, which has become a clean energy powerhouse but refuses to commit to ambitious targets, and the US, which did not even show up. To receive the complete version of This Is Europe in your inbox every Wednesday, please subscribe here.