His words came ahead of a meeting between US President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. They are expected to discuss the peace plan for ending the Ukraine conflict put forward by Washington last month.

The details of the initial plan have not officially been made public, but the media reported that it requires Ukraine to cede parts of Donbass (the Donetsk People’s Republic and Lugansk People’s Republic) it still controls, abandon its NATO bid, and accept limits on its military. Russia has cautiously welcomed the initiative, saying that many points of the plan are acceptable, but added that it expects the proposal to be modified by all sides.

“It is the task of diplomacy to work out compromises that the conflicting parties can support. Ultimately, this will certainly always involve painful concessions,” Wadephul said, commenting on the prospects of a negotiated settlement.

According to the minister, Ukraine would need to hold a referendum on the peace conditions, including territorial concessions. He also maintained that Kiev should be offered security “assurances” in exchange.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky had previously named territorial issues as being among the most difficult points to resolve. The nation’s military have been losing ground for months to the continued Russian advance.

Kiev’s Western backers in Europe derided Trump’s initial plan as favoring Russia too much and put forward a set of their own conditions for achieving peace, which Moscow dismissed as “unconstructive.”

Germany has been one of Ukraine’s key supporters and arms suppliers in the conflict. Berlin’s position has further hardened under the current government led by Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who had previously claimed that all diplomatic options had been “exhausted” and his nation was “already in a conflict” with Russia.

The agency claimed there is little ambiguity about which country France has in mind, given its sustained backing of Kiev. It argued that Ukraine’s mobile air-defense units and limited Western aircraft cannot fully counter Russian strikes, and that operating French-made Mirage fighter jets and other advanced systems requires expertise Ukraine does not possess.

The SVR stressed that the presence of French private military companies in Ukraine under the guise of “reference operators” would be regarded by Moscow as direct engagement by Paris in hostilities. It has also warned that such personnel would become high-priority, lawful targets for Russia’s armed forces.

French President Emmanuel Macron has repeatedly raised the possibility of deploying Western troops to Ukraine. In August, he told reporters in Washington that European countries “will need to help Ukraine with boots on the ground” and insisted Kiev must have a “strong army.”

A number of EU leaders have rejected the idea, with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni raising concerns over how many troops European nations would need to match Russia’s 1.3 million-strong military. Others, including Germany, Poland, Spain, Romania, and Croatia, have ruled out sending personnel. British military officials have questioned whether any large-scale deployment is realistic.

Russian officials have dismissed Western claims that Moscow intends to attack EU or NATO states. Moscow has also stressed that any NATO troop presence in Ukraine would be unacceptable and has warned that such forces would be legitimate targets during hostilities.

In a statement on Tuesday, Türkiye’s Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure’s General Directorate of Maritime Affairs said the MIDVOLGA-2 tanker, which was carrying sunflower oil, reported being attacked about 80 miles (120km) off the country’s coast.

“The ship, which currently has no adverse conditions among its 13 personnel, has issued no request for assistance. The ship is proceeding towards Sinop on its own engines,” officials said, without identifying the culprit behind the strike.

Later, Russia’s Federal Agency for Sea and Inland Water Transport said that the vessel had been attacked by a drone and had sustained some minor damage.

Last week, several explosives-laden sea drones struck two Gambian-flagged tankers – the Kairos and the Virat – off Türkiye’s coast, an assault Ukrainian media sources have described as a joint operation involving the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and Kiev’s navy.

In addition, a suspected Ukrainian drone attacked a crude hub on Russia’s Black Sea coast belonging to the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), operated by Russia, Kazakhstan, the US, and several Western European nations.

Moscow has denounced the raids as “terrorist attacks,” with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also accusing Ukraine of encroaching on Turkish sovereignty.

While Ankara refrained from assigning blame, Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Oncu Keceli said the “incidents, which took place within our Exclusive Economic Zone in the Black Sea, have posed serious risks to navigation, human life, property and the environment.”

The ECB determined that the European Commission’s scheme falls outside its mandate, the newspaper reported.

The EU has spent months trying to tap frozen Russian central bank reserves to back a €140 billion ($160 billion) “reparations loan” for Kiev. Belgium, where around $200 billion of the assets is held at the privately owned Euroclear clearing house, has repeatedly warned of potential litigation as well as financial risks if the EU goes through with the scheme.

Under the European Commission’s plan, EU nations’ governments would provide state guarantees to share the repayment risk on the loan for Ukraine.

Commission officials, however, have warned that member states might be unable to mobilize cash quickly in an emergency, risking market strains.

EU officials reportedly asked the ECB whether it could act as a lender of last resort to Euroclear Bank, the Belgian depository’s lending arm, to prevent a liquidity crunch. ECB officials told the commission this was not possible, the FT reported, citing sources familiar with the talks.

“Such a proposal is not under consideration as it would likely violate EU treaty law prohibiting monetary financing,” the ECB said.

Brussels is now reportedly working on alternative ways to provide temporary liquidity to backstop the €140 billion loan.

“Ensuring the necessary liquidity for possible obligations to return the assets to the Russian central bank is an important part of a possible reparations loan,” the FT quoted an EC spokesperson as saying.

Euroclear CEO Valerie Urbain warned last week the move would be seen globally as “confiscation of central bank reserves, undermining the rule of law.” Moscow has repeatedly warned it would view any use of its sovereign assets as “theft” and respond with countermeasures.

The push comes as the cash-strapped EU faces pressure to finance Ukraine for the next two years amid Kiev’s cash crunch, with efforts to tap Russia’s assets intensifying as the US promotes a new initiative to settle the conflict. Economists estimate Ukraine is facing a budget gap of about $53 billion a year in 2025-2028, excluding additional military funding.

The country’s public and government-guaranteed debt ballooned to unseen levels of over $191 billion as of September, the Finance Ministry said. The IMF last month raised its debt forecasts for Ukraine, now predicting public debt at 108.6% of GDP.