The Department of Justice (DOJ) has charged a Ukrainian woman with helping to carry out dozens of cyberattacks on critical U.S. infrastructure, working with Russian-backed hackers, according to newly unsealed indictments.

The State Department’s Rewards for Justice program is also offering up to $10 million for information leading to others tied to one of the pro-Russia hacking groups she was allegedly affiliated with.

Victoria Eduardovna Dubranova, 33, was arraigned Tuesday on a second federal indictment after being extradited to the U.S. earlier this year.

Dubranova, also known as Vika, Tory and SovaSonya, pleaded not guilty to charges related to her alleged work with two Russian-backed operations, CyberArmyofRussia_Reborn (CARR) and NoName057(16).

Prosecutors say both groups receive backing from Russian government bodies to push Russian geopolitical interests.

According to the DOJ, CARR was founded and funded by Russia’s military intelligence agency, the GRU, and operated a popular Telegram channel with more than 75,000 followers.

Officials allege the group’s attacks caused real-world harm, including damage to public water systems that spilled hundreds of thousands of gallons of drinking water.

They also cited a November 2024 breach at a Los Angeles meat processing plant that spoiled thousands of pounds of product and released ammonia.

‘Today’s actions demonstrate the Department’s commitment to disrupting malicious Russian cyber activity — whether conducted directly by state actors or their criminal proxies — aimed at furthering Russia’s geopolitical interests,’ said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg. 

‘We remain steadfast in defending essential services, including food and water systems Americans rely on each day, and holding accountable those who seek to undermine them.’

NoName057(16) is described as a Russia-linked hacktivist group responsible for more than 1,500 attacks between March 2022 and June 2025.

Its targets included government agencies, telecommunications firms, the military, financial institutions and transportation authorities across Ukraine, Estonia, Finland, Lithuania, Norway, Poland and Sweden.

The group also claimed responsibility for cyberattacks on Dutch infrastructure ahead of and during the 2025 NATO Summit in The Hague.

These groups ‘are actively engaging in opportunistic, low-sophistication malicious cyber activity to gain notoriety and create mayhem,’ said Chris Butera, CISA’s acting deputy executive assistant director for cybersecurity.

Dubranova faces up to five years in the NoName case and as many as 27 years in the CARR matter. Trials are set for February and April 2026.

Rewards for Justice announced its $10 million reward with a pointed message aimed at other NoName participants: ‘They call themselves ‘NoName.’ But maybe YOU can name some names,’ it said.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the DOJ for further comment.

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado appeared in public Thursday for the first time in 11 months in Norway as her daughter accepted the Nobel Peace Prize award on her behalf.

Machado had been in hiding since Jan. 9, when she was briefly detained after joining supporters in Venezuela’s capital, Caracas. Her recognition came after mounting a peaceful challenge to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s government.

The crowd chanted, ‘Freedom!’ as Machado stepped onto the hotel balcony in Oslo, Norway, and waved to her supporters before joining them in singing Venezuela’s national anthem.

In an audio recording of a phone call published on the Nobel website, Machado said she wouldn’t be able to arrive to Oslo in time for the award ceremony, but that many people had ‘risked their lives’ to get her there.

‘I am very grateful to them, and this is a measure of what this recognition means to the Venezuelan people,’ she said.

Her daughter, Ana Corina Sosa, accepted the Nobel Prize in her place, saying that her mother ‘wants to live in a free Venezuela’ and ‘will never give up on that purpose.’ 

‘That is why we all know, and I know, that she will be back in Venezuela very soon,’ Sosa added.

Outside the hotel, Machado interacted and hugged people in the crowd, as they snapped pictures and sprinkled her with chants of ‘President! President!’

‘I want you all back in Venezuela,’ Machado said.

Machado’s appearance came after President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced the U.S. seized a Venezuelan oil tanker, a move that could further strain relations with Maduro’s government, which already is subject to extensive U.S. sanctions targeting the country’s oil sector.

Since September, U.S. military strikes have targeted alleged narcotraffickers near Venezuela at least 22 times, killing 87 people. Trump has also recently said Maduro’s ‘days are numbered’ and refused to rule out a ground operation in Venezuela. 

Steve Yates, senior research fellow for China and national security policy at The Heritage Foundation, said on ‘Fox News @ Night’ on Wednesday thatMachado’svisitoverseaswas an opportunity to get ‘greater international support’ for her cause, adding that Trump might benefit from having more of America’s allies in Europe support a ‘non-invasion’ approach.

The Venezuelan opposition leader has previously been outspoken in her support for the Trump administration’s actions against Maduro’s regime and the country’s narcotrafficking network.

After the award was announced in October, the newly minted Nobel Peace Prize winner dedicated the award to both Trump and the ‘suffering people of Venezuela.’

Machado said during a ‘Fox & Friends Weekend’ interview last month that Venezuela was standing at the ‘threshold of freedom,’ highlighting her new ‘freedom manifesto’ that envisions a future without the Maduro regime.

Fox News Digital’s Morgan Phillips and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

There are two Obamacare proposals destined for failure on Thursday as the deadline to extend Biden-era subsidies inches closer, and both Senate Republicans and Democrats hope that a bipartisan path forward can be paved after the dust settles.

Senate Democrats are going full speed ahead with their three-year extension of the Obamacare enhanced premium subsidies, which Republicans are expected to block over a lack of reforms in a plan that they have nearly all charged as unserious.

And the GOP’s plan, which would abandon the subsidies altogether in favor of health savings accounts (HSAs), is expected to be blocked by Senate Democrats over the inclusion of anti-abortion restrictions and concerns that healthcare premium prices would still skyrocket.

But lawmakers on both sides of the aisle hope that once the plans go down in flames, they can begin the work of crafting a bipartisan solution.

‘I think the question would be, are there the Democrats who, outside of their leadership, are actually interested in the solution, and not just an issue? You know, who want to work with some Republicans,’ Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told Fox News Digital.

‘I can’t predict what’s going to happen, but there’s still a fairly high level of interest among members on our side, and I think some on the Dem side too,’ he continued. ‘But I think that, at least for now … I’m guessing they’ve been asked to stand down, you know, let them, let them get their messaging vote on it, and we’ll see what happens.’

Bipartisan negotiations have been ongoing in the background, but both sides have opted to go with partisan plans instead. Should both fail, it leaves them little time to address the issue before Congress leaves Washington, D.C., next week until the New Year. 

‘I would hope that we could still negotiate in the near term,’ Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., said. 

Republicans argue that the subsidies are riddled with fraud and have drawn a red line on more stringent enforcement of the Hyde Amendment, which prevents taxpayer dollars from funding abortions.

Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, who has been working with Republicans on a plan, said that the Hyde Amendment argument was ‘not going to happen’ with his Democratic caucus colleagues.

‘Their insistence on that, and maybe that will go away, but their insistence on that basically means these premium increases are going to hammer the American people, and frankly, I don’t understand why — this should be a bipartisan,’ King said. ‘Let’s get together and figure this thing out.’

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital he hoped that the failed votes ‘brings everybody to the negotiating table, and then we’ll get serious about a bipartisan solution.’

But Cornyn believed that it would likely be a problem that lawmakers would deal with in January, after the subsidies expire.

Meanwhile, Senate Republicans argue that Schumer and Senate Democrats are using their plan as a political cudgel, painting the GOP into a corner on a position that they won’t support, and then using it down the line in the 2026 midterms should the subsidies expire.

‘There’s a very simple solution for them. If they really believe that is the Democratic strategy, they can defeat it by simply voting for this measure,’ Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., told Fox News Digital.

President Donald Trump pushed back on a rumor that he was looking to replace Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and told reporters that he believes she has been ‘fantastic.’

‘I read a story recently that I’m unhappy with Kristi — I’m so happy with her… We have a border that’s the best border in the history of our country. Why would I be unhappy? She’s fantastic, actually,’ Trump told reporters during a roundtable with business leaders on Wednesday.

The president’s remarks follow a recent report from MS Now stating that a White House official said that Noem was on ‘very thin ice.’ The report claimed that Trump was looking to replace Noem as early as January, and that White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller was leading the push to replace her.

According to the report, Miller and other White House officials were frustrated with Noem because they were displeased with the pace at which she was working to build new detention centers. Additionally, the report claimed that several governors had called Trump to voice complaints about Noem’s handling of FEMA and disaster relief funds.

On Monday, the White House firmly denied the report and accused MS Now of running a false narrative.

‘Everything about this is total Fake News. Secretary Noem is doing a great job implementing the President’s agenda and making America safe again. MS Now continues to beclown themselves by inventing narratives that simply are not true,’ White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in a statement.

DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin also weighed in on the report in an exclusive statement to Fox News Digital, saying, ‘I can’t speak for the president, but I’ve seen more credible reporting on Big Foot.’

During the roundtable on Wednesday, Trump also shut down rumors that he was dissatisfied with War Secretary Pete Hegseth over the controversial U.S. military strikes on alleged drug smuggling boats. Trump said his feelings about Hegseth’s work were ‘very much the opposite’ of what was being reported and he called the war secretary ‘phenomenal.’

Trump joked that he would ‘have to think about’ Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, who was sitting at the table, before going on to praise him. The president similarly praised Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Education Secretary Linda McMahon.

Fox News Digital’s Anders Hagstrom, Preston Mizell and Bonny Chu contributed to this report.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is facing her first major test before the House of Representatives on Thursday.

Noem is appearing before the House Homeland Security Committee for a hearing on worldwide threats, an event that is meant to be annual but has not happened in multiple recent years.

She’s set to testify alongside National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent and Michael Glasheen, Operations Director of the FBI’s National Security Branch.

‘I’m sure she’ll talk about border, I’m sure she’ll talk about drugs, I’m sure she’ll talk about China, hopefully an update on what’s happening with cybersecurity. I mean it’s a very important hearing. I’m glad she’ll be there,’ House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y., told Fox News Digital.

It’s Noem’s first major national security-focused hearing before the House of Representatives since taking charge of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) earlier this year.

It comes as lawmakers on Capitol Hill warn about the potential for hostile countries like Venezuela, Iran and China exploiting U.S. vulnerabilities in national security. 

‘I’m always concerned about that. I’ve been concerned about that for years. I mean, thousands of known and suspected terrorists came across the southern border over the last four years. Luckily, it’s been closed up, but they’re still here,’ Garbarino said.

‘I’m gonna look forward to hearing from the FBI, you know, what’s being done, what they’re doing to track down the people that are already here.’

Meanwhile, on the Democratic side, lawmakers will likely grill Noem about the activities of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents carrying out President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration.

‘We don’t get much information, in the interim, from the administration. You write letters, and what you get back is an acknowledgment of the letter, but very little facts,’ said Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the top Democrat on the committee. ‘Obviously, the administration’s stand on immigration is not one that we agree with, especially how they’re doing it.’

He accused ICE agents of treating people with ‘total disrespect’ because they ‘look Hispanic.’

‘I think that she has to address it,’ Thompson said.

Noem’s appearance comes hours after Axios reported that she and border czar Tom Homan had a falling out behind the scenes, though the outlet also reported that neither are in danger of losing their positions any time soon.

Senate Democrats have tried to tie the looming expiration date for Obamacare subsidies to the affordability issues slamming households, but Senate Republicans argue that their counterparts are manufacturing it to score political points next year.

The phrase ‘sticker shock’ became a common rallying cry from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., during and after the government shutdown that he used to illustrate what Americans could experience if the Biden-era credits were to expire.

‘Our bill is the only bill that will prevent this crisis from happening,’ Schumer said. ‘It’s the last train out of this station. We urge our Republican colleagues, for the sake of the American people, to get on that train.’

But Senate Republicans contend that Democrats’ proposal to extend the subsidies for another three years is designed to fail and provide the party with a political weapon entering into the 2026 midterm election cycle.

‘I think the Democrats politically embrace this affordability issue, and then them asking for a three-year extension does nothing but throw gasoline on the fire of affordability of healthcare,’ Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., told Fox News Digital.

Marshall is one of several Senate Republicans who have put together an alternative plan to Schumer’s strategy. His ‘Marshall Plan’ marries Democrats’ desire to extend the subsidies for a year with Republicans’ demands that the credits be done away with in favor of health savings accounts (HSAs).

Republicans are instead running with a plan from Sens. Bill Cassidy, R-La., and Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, the chairs of the Senate health and finance panels, that would abandon the enhanced subsidies in favor of HSAs. That proposal is also expected to fail, leaving the Senate with little time to move ahead with an alternative before the subsidies expire.

Still, there are ongoing talks between both sides of the aisle to find a compromise. Republicans contend that Schumer is acting as a roadblock to those talks, instead sidelining members reaching across the aisle in favor of a workable solution.

Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., told Fox News Digital that Republicans were equally concerned about ‘sticker shock,’ and he argued that Cassidy and Crapo’s plan would go a long way to keeping prices low for Americans.

But he acknowledged the political reality that Democrats wanted to use healthcare as a cudgel in the coming months.

‘I think that’s the concern that a lot of us have on our side of the aisle, is that there’s a group of Democrats that don’t want to fix this problem, and they want to use it as a political product,’ he said. ‘I think there’s a group of us on our side of the aisle that really would like to fix it, along with some Dems. I just don’t know if there’s enough Dems to come along and to take what we think is a reasonable approach on this.’

Other Republicans told Fox News Digital that the subsidies, which were passed and then enhanced during the COVID-19 pandemic under former President Joe Biden, are just another addition to a 15-year-long affordability crunch brought on by the passage of Obamacare.

Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., told Fox News Digital that Obamacare has ‘always been pricey,’ and that Democrats were attempting to inject $83 billion in taxpayer money directly to insurance companies with their proposal.

‘Democrats have always tried to hide that fact by sending more and more money to insurance companies during COVID,’ he said. ‘They did it again with these Biden COVID bonus subsidies, and they set an expiration date, which is coming up at the end of this month. That’s what this is all about.’

Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., told Fox News Digital that healthcare ‘has been an ongoing train wreck since Obamacare,’ and that Democrats jammed the subsidies through Congress without Republican input and set up the fast-approaching cliff.

‘I mean, they’re just doubling down on the stupid,’ Schmitt said.

President Donald Trump will be deployed on the campaign trail next year ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles indicated during an appearance on ‘The Mom VIEW.’

Wiles said that ‘so many of those low-propensity voters are Trump voters,’ and that she had not ‘quite broken it to him yet, but he’s going to campaign like it’s 2024 again,’ for the individuals he assists.

While Trump does not help everyone, ‘for those he does, he’s a difference maker,’ she said, adding that the president is ‘a turnout machine.’

‘The president started raising money for the midterms the day after the election. And he’s sitting on a huge war chest to help these people,’ she said, noting that ‘he’ll use it.’

Trump took office earlier this year after Republicans in 2024 clinched a trifecta, winning the White House back, maintaining their House majority and taking back control of the Senate.

But the GOP’s political power will be on the line in 2026 since Republicans could potentially lose their majority in one or both chambers.

In the 2018 midterm elections during Trump’s first term, Republicans expanded their majority in the Senate but lost their House majority.

Liz Truss, the former British prime minister who staked her brief tenure on tax cuts and deregulation, is warning Americans about New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s socialist agenda will mirror the high-tax, high-regulation model she fought in the U.K.

‘I’ve seen what’s happened with Mamdani being elected,’ former U.K. Prime Minister Liz Truss told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview. ‘We have characters like that in Britain. They are never satisfied. They keep putting up taxes. They keep putting up more regulations. We have seen in Britain appalling development of antisemitism. That’s what I fear for New York.’

Mamdani plans to pay for his ambitious campaign promises, including fast and free buses, universal childcare and city-run grocery stores, by raising taxes on corporations and the top 1% of New Yorkers. As the 34-year-old mayor-elect prepares to move into Gracie Mansion, critics have compared his agenda to European-style social welfare programs.

The British conservative served just 49 days as prime minister of the U.K. in 2022 before resigning amid market turmoil over her administration’s dramatic attempt to implement a pro-growth economic agenda. Now that the dust has settled, Truss has launched a private club for ‘pro-growth leaders,’ the Leconfield, and a YouTube show, ‘The Liz Truss Show.’

‘The Leconfield is about economic growth,’ Truss said. ‘It’s about prosperity. It’s about building that network of senior business executives, entrepreneurs, political leaders to create new opportunities in Britain and around the world. We need to see economic growth. That is the most important thing.’

Truss said her new members-only club will unite business leaders in Mayfair in co-working spaces and executive suites. The Times reported that Truss has requested £500,000 from each of the 700 Leconfield founding members for the lifetime membership.

‘This will bring together people in real-life to exchange those ideas, but it will also provide a space in London where people can do business. Currently, people end up in hotel lobbies. They are trying to work in clubs that maybe ban laptops or mobile phones. This will have boardrooms, executive space where people can get business done,’ Truss said.

According to a 2025 analysis by Henley & Partners, a global investment-migration consultancy, the United Kingdom is losing millionaires and billionaires faster than any country in the world.

‘Our taxes are too high,’ Truss explained. ‘Our regulation is too high, and our energy prices are also sky-high. This has meant people leaving, businesses leaving. It’s difficult to build new buildings because of all the regulations, and even though we’re sitting on masses of oil and gas, fracking is banned, so our energy prices are high, and it’s not surprising that that makes us uncompetitive.’

While Truss briefly lifted a ban on fracking in the U.K. in 2022 in an attempt to unleash energy production, her successor, Rishi Sunak, reinstated the moratorium that ended support for new fracking projects.

Like Truss, President Donald Trump has moved to reverse key Biden-era climate regulations as part of his key campaign promise to ‘unleash American energy,’ signing the One Big Beautiful Bill Act in July, which includes rollbacks on clean-energy incentives and repeals green energy mandates.

As Trump’s sweeping second-term agenda reshapes U.S. and global markets, his reciprocal and retaliatory tariffs have pushed some countries to reopen trade talks amid heightened market tensions.

Asked about Trump using tariffs to pressure the U.K. and the rest of Europe to pay more for certain goods, including U.S. medicine, Truss offered a surprisingly complimentary view of his strategy.

‘I was trade secretary in Britain, and I signed 60 trade deals as trade secretary, and I know that in order to get deals done you have to negotiate and you have to use leverage, and it’s exactly what I did as trade secretary, so I know that is how you get the deals done,’ Truss told Fox News Digital.

Her stance is a sharp departure from Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who has urged Trump to scale back tariff measures that could hurt the British economy.

Truss told Fox News Digital that her new YouTube channel, ‘The Liz Truss Show,’ will be a ‘free speech’ platform for exploring British and Western politics outside the mainstream media bubble.

Mamdani’s transition team did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. 

Beijing escalated its war of words with Tokyo after Japan said Chinese fighter jets aimed a fire-control radar at Japanese F-15s flying near Okinawa, an action Tokyo called ‘dangerous’ and ‘extremely regrettable.’

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his German counterpart Johann Wadephul in Beijing that ‘Japan is threatening China militarily,’ a stance he called ‘completely unacceptable,’ after the radar incident, Reuters reported.

Wang accused Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi of ‘trying to exploit the Taiwan question — the very territory Japan colonized for half a century, committing countless crimes against the Chinese people — to provoke trouble and threaten China militarily. This is completely unacceptable,’ Wang said, according to China’s official Xinhua News Agency. He added that Japan, as a World War II ‘defeated nation,’ should act with greater caution.

China expert Gordon Chang told Fox News Digital, ‘China, with Saturday’s radar-lock incidents against Japan and other belligerent acts recently, looks like it wants to start a war. In any event, these incidents could easily spiral into war, especially because China cannot act constructively or deescalate.’

Japanese officials say the confrontation unfolded Dec. 6, when Chinese J-15 fighter jets operating from the aircraft carrier Liaoning twice aimed radar at Japanese F-15s over international waters near Japan’s Okinawa islands.

‘These radar illuminations are a dangerous act that goes beyond what is necessary for the safe flight of aircraft,’ Takaichi told reporters, adding that Japan had lodged a protest with China and calling the incident ‘extremely regrettable,’ Reuters reported.

Japan’s government later said the Self-Defense Force fighters ‘were maintaining a safe distance during their mission’ and denied China’s accusation that its jets obstructed Chinese operations, according to comments by Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara, according to The Associated Press.

The radar clash came on the heels of remarks by Takaichi that have already put relations on edge. In early November, she told parliament that a Chinese attack on Taiwan could amount to a ‘survival-threatening situation’ for Japan and potentially trigger a military response under Japan’s 2015 security laws, Reuters reported. Beijing condemned those comments as ‘egregious,’ accused Tokyo of severe interference in its internal affairs and warned of ‘serious consequences’ if they were not retracted.

Chinese officials and state media have since portrayed Takaichi as hyping up an external threat to justify Japan’s military buildup and closer alignment with Taiwan. In parallel, Chinese spokespeople have accused Japan of ‘hyping up’ the radar incident itself and ‘deliberately making a false accusation’ to build tension, according to official statements carried by People’s Daily and other Chinese outlets.

Chang said, ‘China has not been able to get Prime Minister Takaichi to back down, so its choices are to accept its humiliation or ramp up the crisis. It will ramp up. China is now proving Takaichi right: Beijing is creating a ‘survival-threatening situation’ for Japan.’

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday that Kyiv is nearly ready to present a refined peace plan to the United States after days of talks with European partners, even as he maintains that Ukraine cannot give up any territory to Russia.

Zelenskyy said he reviewed the results of negotiations held in London with European national security advisors and that Ukraine and its European partners had further developed their components of potential steps toward ending the war. He said Kyiv is prepared to share the updated documents with Washington and is in ‘constant contact’ with the United States as the process moves forward.

‘We are working very actively on all components of potential steps toward ending the war,’  Zelenskyy posted on X. ‘The Ukrainian and European components are now more developed, and we are ready to present them to our partners in the U.S. Together with the American side, we expect to swiftly make the potential steps as doable as possible.’ 

‘We are committed to a real peace and remain in constant contact with the United States,’ he wrote. ‘And, as our partners in the negotiating teams rightly note, everything depends on whether Russia is ready to take effective steps to stop the bloodshed and prevent the war from reigniting. In the near future, we will be ready to send the refined documents to the United States.’

The update came one day after Zelenskyy insisted his country cannot cede territory to Russia, complicating earlier peace proposals. 

‘Under our laws, under international law — and under moral law — we have no right to give anything away,’ Zelenskyy told reporters Monday, per The Washington Post. ‘That is what we are fighting for.’

Zelenskyy on Tuesday is in Brussels to meet with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, after meeting in London with British, French and German leaders.

The Ukrainian leader is under growing pressure from the U.S. to accept a framework to end the war after close to four years of fighting with Russia.

An initial draft of the 28-point plan, brokered by White House envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, spooked Ukrainian and European leaders who said it was too deferential to Russia’s demands. Ukrainian officials met with Witkoff and whittled the plan down. 

Zelenskyy told reporters that in European talks the ‘obvious anti-Ukrainian points were removed.’ 

Trump on Sunday accused Zelenskyy of not keeping up with the latest on peace talks.

‘I’m a little bit disappointed that President Zelenskyy hasn’t yet read the proposal, that was as of a few hours ago,’ Trump told reporters at the Kennedy Center in D.C. Sunday. ‘His people love it, but he hasn’t.’

‘Russia, I guess, would rather have the whole country when you think of it, but Russia is, I believe, fine with it, but I’m not sure that Zelenskyy is fine with it,’ Trump added.

Leaked versions of the initial deal had offered Russia swaths of Ukrainian territory, both lands it has occupied throughout the war and the Donbas region, which it has yet to seize in full.

It offered Ukraine no path to NATO but Europe and U.S.-backed security guarantees that were not definitive. 

Ukraine views NATO membership as essential to preventing a Russian attack — seeking a path to NATO is enshrined in its constitution. 

Ukraine is entering one of the hardest stretches of the nearly four-year war, giving new urgency to the negotiations. Russian troops are pushing forward in the east as Kyiv struggles with shortages of ammunition and manpower. Meanwhile, Moscow’s continued strikes on Ukraine’s power grid have left the country facing rolling blackouts and widespread outages at the start of the winter months. 

Zelenskyy said in the past week alone, Russia launched more than 1,600 drones, roughly 1,200 guided aerial bombs, and nearly 70 missiles of various types against Ukraine.

And talks are heating up in tandem with a brewing scandal in Ukraine that has already pushed out Andrii Yermak, Zelenskyy’s former chief of staff and powerful gatekeeper who was leading negotiations, along with his justice and energy ministers. 

Rustem Umerov, the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, has taken over negotiations, but is rumored to be caught up in the corruption investigation. 

Fox News’ Ashley Carnahan contributed to this report.