Zelensky says 2025 will decide who wins Ukraine war

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday that 2025 will be decisive in determining who wins the war, in an address to parliament on the 1,000th day of the Russian invasion. Zelensky, presenting a "resilience plan" to Ukraine with the war at a decisive moment, spoke after Washington gave Kyiv a long-awaited approval to fire US missiles into Russian territory.

"In the decisive moments -- and they are coming next year -- we must not allow anyone in the world to doubt the resilience of our entire state. And at this stage, it is being decided who will prevail," Zelensky told Ukrainian lawmakers. "This battle is not only about Pokrovsk, Kupiansk or any other city, town or village, not only about this or that region of ours. This battle is about the whole of Ukraine, the battle is about the whole of Europe, about order or chaos for the whole world," he said.

Moscow has significantly ramped up aerial attacks on Ukrainian cities ahead of winter, and received more than 10,000 combat troops from North Korea to put into battle. On the diplomatic front, talk of a possible peace deal to end the fighting is growing following Donald Trump's election in the United States.

Amid uncertainty over American aid, Zelensky said Kyiv should not let anybody else decide the country's future. "This is a war that decides the fate of the entire nation. And no one should or can decide it for us," he said. Statements from Trump saying he aimed for a quick deal to end the war have raised fears that Washington may force Kyiv into accepting territorial concessions.

Zelensky said Kyiv may have to wait for the end of Vladimir Putin's rule in Russia to reclaim its full internationally recognised territory. "Perhaps Ukraine will have to outlast someone in Moscow to achieve all its goals... Perhaps to restore the full integrity of the state," Zelensky said in an address to Ukraine's parliament.