Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at U.S. pressure on Ukraine, deadly clashes between Thailand and Cambodia, and Lithuania’s state of emergency.
No ‘Legal’ or ‘Moral’ Right
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is facing increasing pressure from the White House to accept major territorial concessions as part of a U.S.-proposed peace deal to end the Russia-Ukraine war. This could include Kyiv relinquishing control of its entire Donbas region to Moscow despite Ukrainian forces still holding around 14.5 percent of the territory.
Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at U.S. pressure on Ukraine, deadly clashes between Thailand and Cambodia, and Lithuania’s state of emergency.
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No ‘Legal’ or ‘Moral’ Right
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is facing increasing pressure from the White House to accept major territorial concessions as part of a U.S.-proposed peace deal to end the Russia-Ukraine war. This could include Kyiv relinquishing control of its entire Donbas region to Moscow despite Ukrainian forces still holding around 14.5 percent of the territory.
But this week, Zelensky doubled down on Ukrainian sovereignty, saying Kyiv has no “legal” or “moral” right to cede any land. “Of course, Russia insists that we give up territories,” he told reporters late Monday. “We, of course, do not want to give anything away. That is exactly what we are fighting for.”
U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly accused Zelensky of stalling peace progress and not promptly reading Washington’s latest proposal. Trump has also suggested that it is likely that Moscow will win the war.
“Russia has the … upper hand” in negotiations, Trump told Politico on Tuesday. Although Kyiv deserves “tremendous credit” for its efforts, the U.S. president added, “at some point, size will win,” referring to how much larger of a country Russia is compared to Ukraine.
According to Trump, Moscow is “fine” with the current U.S. proposal. And on Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin called the Donbas “our historical territory.”
But Zelensky remains adamant that Ukraine will not accept any deal that includes land concessions. Kyiv said it would submit a revised proposal to the United States as early as Tuesday, though it remains unclear which elements will be different from the U.S. version.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian leader continued his week of diplomatic outreach on Tuesday by meeting separately with Pope Leo XIV and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. Prior to his visit to Rome, Zelensky attended a summit in London with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz before traveling to Brussels for talks with NATO chief Mark Rutte and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
Kyiv’s European allies maintain that their involvement in negotiations is vital to securing a fair deal for Ukraine. “We have a lot of cards in our hands,” Macron said on Monday. However, the United States has excluded European delegations from many recent negotiations, prompting some to worry that Europe’s interests in the Russia-Ukraine war will not be taken into account.
Trump furthered these concerns on Tuesday when he called the continent “weak,” just days after issuing a National Security Strategy that criticized “European officials who hold unrealistic expectations for the war” between Russia and Ukraine. “They talk, but they don’t produce, and the war just keeps going on and on,” Trump said on Tuesday.
Today’s Most Read
What We’re Following
Expanded fighting. Deadly clashes between Thailand and Cambodia spread to new fronts on Tuesday, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate on both sides of their shared border. The renewed fighting, which began on Monday, risks destroying a U.S.-brokered cease-fire deal and threatens greater instability in Southeast Asia. Both Bangkok and Phnom Penh have accused each other of instigating the conflict and shelling civilian areas.
Although regional leaders have urged calm, Thailand and Cambodia have vowed to continue fighting. “We can’t stop now,” Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said on Tuesday, ruling out possible dialogue. “We’ve already given our commitment to the armed forces that they can fully carry out the planned operations.” Hun Sen, widely viewed as Cambodia’s de facto leader, has echoed Bangkok’s sentiment, writing on Facebook that “Cambodia wants peace, but Cambodia is forced to fight back to defend its territory.”
This week’s clashes are the most intense since tensions first turned deadly in July. At least 10 people have been killed so far, including three Thai soldiers and seven Cambodian civilians, and dozens more have been wounded on both sides.
Hybrid attack. Lithuania declared a nationwide state of emergency on Tuesday after accusing Belarus of repeatedly sending smuggler balloons into Lithuanian airspace, calling the incursion a “hybrid attack” that stops short of open warfare. Lithuanian officials said that over the past year, Belarus has launched at least 599 weather balloons—used to smuggle cigarettes—as well as 197 drones into Lithuania. As a result, more than 350 flights have been impacted since October, amounting to major financial losses and the temporary closure of Vilnius International Airport.
“The state of emergency is announced not only due to civil aviation disruptions but also due to interests of national security,” Lithuanian Interior Minister Vladislav Kondratovic said. Prime Minister Inga Ruginiene announced on Tuesday that Lithuania’s border checkpoints will be tightened and nightly defensive patrols will be deployed.
Vilnius maintains that the weather balloons are part of a larger campaign by Minsk to disrupt NATO’s security, and last week, von der Leyen called the worsening incursions “completely unacceptable.” However, Minsk has denied responsibility and instead accused Lithuania of sending a drone carrying “extremist material” into Belarus.
“What the Lithuanians are saying today is impossible and unrealistic,” Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said on Tuesday. “The issue is being exaggerated and politicized.” Lithuania has backed Ukraine in its war against Russia, whereas Belarus remains a close ally of Moscow.
Rising temperatures. 2025 is expected to be the second- or third-warmest year on record, according to a new report released by the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service on Tuesday—surpassed only by 2024. 2025 is also on track to conclude the first three-year period during which the average global temperature exceeded 1.5 degrees Celsius (about 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels, the threshold (set by the 2015 Paris Agreement) to avert the worst impacts of irreversible climate change.
The past 10 years have been the warmest in recorded history. Yet, at this November’s United Nations Climate Change Conference in Brazil, member states failed to agree to new measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, after major oil- and gas-producing nations—such as India, Russia, and Saudi Arabia—rejected any agreement that imposed limits on fossil fuels, the leading cause of global warming. The United States’ glaring absence from the conference further weakened the effort to take tougher action on climate change.
Extreme weather has defined much of 2025, with massive wildfires spreading across Europe, extreme drought devastating Africa, and deadly typhoons pummeling Southeast Asia.
Odds and Ends
Every December, Guatemalans set fire to an effigy of the devil to ward off evil ahead of the holiday season. On Sunday, locals chose Trump to be part of the centuries-old “Quema del Diablo” ceremony. A papier-mâché head modeled after the U.S. president was cradled within the devil’s claws and burned in the street, symbolizing the “triumph of good over evil.” The decision to include Trump comes amid Guatemala’s turbulent relationship with the United States, which has seen the Latin American country be on the receiving end of controversial deportation flights and new U.S. tariffs. The last time that Trump made an appearance on the bonfire in Guatemala was during his presidential campaign in 2016, when he vowed to crack down on undocumented migration from Latin America by building a border wall.
