By Michele Kambas NICOSIA, Jan 7 - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy sought progress on EU membership talks and tougher sanctions on Russia, making his case on Wednesday as Cyprus took over the European Union's rotating presidency.

The United Kingdom and France have agreed to deploy forces in Ukraine if it strikes a peace deal with Russia, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said, in a renewed push by Western leaders to guarantee Kyiv’s post-war security and deter Moscow from further aggression.

The southeastern regions of Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia were almost entirely without power, officials said.

Russian strikes late on Wednesday knocked out power supplies almost entirely in two regions of southeastern Ukraine, the energy ministry said.

Russia launched a sweeping attack on the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv on Jan. 5. The Kremlin’s latest salvo comprised nine missiles and 165 Shahed-type drones, 137 of which were intercepted, according to Ukraine’s Air Force. Still, impact sites were recorded across 10 locations, with debris falling in nine others.

Ukrainian drone strikes killed two people and wounded two others, including a 4-year-old child, in Russia’s Belgorod and Kursk regions on Sunday, officials said, ahead of peace talks in Paris this week.

President Donald Trump went off on NATO on Wednesday morning for being cheap, ineffective and weak without the USA leading it

Fiona Hill said Russian officials had suggested a "swap arrangement" based on the principles of the Monroe Doctrine.