Ukraine-Russia struggle dwell: Zelensky blocks drone gross sales as he waits for Trump to renew peace talks with Putin | EUROtoday

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said he was ready for the next round of trilateral peace talks to end Russia’s more than four-year-old invasion of Ukraine, but that it was up to Washington and Moscow to agree on where and when to meet.

Zelensky said the US had proposed hosting the next meeting between American, Ukrainian and Russian negotiating teams, which include US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, but Moscow had refused to send a delegation.

“We are waiting for a response from the Americans. Either they will change the country where we meet, or the Russians must confirm the US,” Zelensky mentioned in a media briefing on Saturday. “We are usually not blocking any of those initiatives. We desire a trilateral assembly to happen,” he mentioned.

The US has postponed its sponsored talks between the 2 sides because of the struggle within the Middle East. The Iran struggle, which erupted on 28 February following US-Israeli strikes on Iran and unfold throughout the area, has drawn the worldwide highlight away from Ukraine’s plight because it strives to carry again Russia’s larger military.

A Swedish court docket on Sunday ordered the detention of the Russian captain of a ship that was suspected to be crusing underneath a false flag within the Baltic Sea and was boarded by authorities final week.

The commander of the Sea Owl 1, whose identify hasn’t been launched, was arrested on Friday — the day after the Swedish coast guard boarded the vessel off Trelleborg, on Sweden’s southern coast.

Prosecutors suspect him of utilizing a false doc. They mentioned Sunday that the district court docket in Ystad ordered him held in custody in keeping with their request, Swedish information company TT reported.

The tanker was crusing underneath the flag of the Comoros, an island nation off East Africa. But the coast guard has mentioned that it suspects it is not within the transport registry there and due to this fact there is no such thing as a flag state to vouch for security on board.

Volodymyr Zelensky has mentioned the remedy from Ukraine’s European allies over the Druzbha oil pipeline is a “blackmail”.

The Ukrainian department of the Druzhba oil pipeline, which provides Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia, was severely ⁠broken by hearth after a Russian assault, Ukraine’s power minister Denys Shmyhal instructed Interfax Ukraine on Tuesday.

Zelensky mentioned Ukraine is now dealing with European strain to permit oil to stream from the pipeline which has been disconnected since an assault in January.

“If we have decided to restore Russian oil supplies, then I want them to know that I am against it. … But if I am given conditions that Ukraine will not receive weapons, then, excuse me, I am powerless on this issue; I told our friends in Europe that this is called blackmail,” Zelensky mentioned in reported remarks.

The European Commission has proposed sending a fact-finding mission to examine the harm to the Druzhba pipeline in an try to resolve the dispute.

Ukraine is ready for the US and Russian officers to proceed the following spherical of trilateral peace talks, Volodymy Zelensky mentioned.

Zelensky mentioned the US had proposed internet hosting a gathering however Russia has refused to ship a delegation to take the talks ahead.

“We are waiting for a response from the Americans,” he mentioned.

This comes at a time the US is reportedly dropping curiosity in brokering an finish to the struggle in Ukraine.

“A pause has indeed appeared in the talks. The Americans have other priorities, and that’s understandable,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov instructed the Financial Times.

Volodymyr Zelensky has mentioned international international locations and corporations prepared to purchase Ukrainian drones shouldn’t be in a position to bypass the Ukrainian authorities by speaking on to producers.

The Ukrainian war-time president mentioned a brand new system was wanted to stop this from occurring and that his administration has already reprimanded one producer for promoting interceptors with out contemplating the implications for Ukraine’s defences.

His remarks come at a time the struggle within the Middle East has put a highlight on Ukraine’s defence capabilities, honed within the persevering with struggle towards Russia, particularly towards the Iranian Shahed drones.

Zelensky has warned personal drone makers in Ukraine shouldn’t pursue direct export offers exterior of presidency oversight.

“I have never heard that the United States isn’t interested. I have heard the opposite – that the United States is very interested,” Zelensky mentioned, talking to reporters in Kyiv over the weekend.

Volodymyr Zelensky has mentioned Ukraine desires cash and know-how in return for serving to Middle Eastern nations which have sought its experience as they defend towards Iranian kamikaze drones.

The Zelensky administration has already despatched its specialists to the war-hit area as a number of of the US and Israel’s allies struggle off incoming Iranian Shahed drones, which Ukraine has gained superiority over within the greater than four-year-old struggle towards Russia.

Zelensky instructed reporters that three groups had been despatched to the Middle East to conduct professional assessments and display how drone defences ought to function. Earlier this week he mentioned groups had been despatched to Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, in addition to a US navy base in Jordan.

Kenya’s international minister is visiting Russia this week underneath strain again dwelling to persuade Moscow to cease recruiting Kenyans into its navy, however Nairobi “ like other governments in Africa“ is unlikely to take too confrontational an approach.

Reports in recent weeks revealed the scope and scale of the recruitment of Africans into Russia’s depleted forces, often via third parties offering lucrative civilian jobs, triggering anger in countries like Kenya, Ghana and South Africa.

Families want more action to bring the recruits home but African governments, wary about overtly taking sides during Russia’s war in Ukraine, have avoided angering Moscow, mindful that the recruitment scandal has not yet triggered widespread public outcry or political heat.

“We want Kenyans stopped – they should not be enlisted at all,” Musalia Mudavadi, Kenya’s minister for foreign affairs, told Reuters ahead of his trip. “We are getting a lot of pressure from some of the affected families who are now gathering more courage to come forward and speak to the issue,” he mentioned.

However, Mudavadi mentioned he was pragmatic and sensible over the difficulty, describing Russia as a superpower with which Nairobi has had a protracted relationship.

“It’s not a confrontation,” he said. “This is about speaking to issues as they are and the distress that they’re causing to the Kenyan people, and we need a joint effort to be able to resolve it,” he said.

“Mr. Nobody Against Putin,” which takes on the Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s propaganda and patriotism program for the nation’s youth after its invasion of Ukraine, has won the Oscar for best documentary feature.

“In the identify of our future, within the identify of all of our kids, cease all of those wars now,” the film’s protagonist and co-director Pavel Talankin said in Russian from the stage through a translator.

Talankin was a teacher and activities director in a small-town school in Russia who captured his students’ lessons, chants and songs promoting the war in Ukraine on video. He smuggled his hard drives out of the country to collaborate with American director David Borenstein, who lives and works in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The two men gave the night some of its most overtly political moments during their speeches. Borenstein spoke broadly about nations tipping into totalitarianism, while clearly emphasizing similarities between his country and Talankin’s.

“‘Mr. Nobody Against Putin’ is about the way you lose your nation,” Borenstein said. “You lose it via numerous small little acts of complicity,” he mentioned.

Cheers within the auditorium grew as Borenstein mentioned you lose a rustic when “we don’t say anything” when governments kill folks within the streets and oligarchs search to consolidate management over media retailers.

“We all face a moral choice, but luckily even a nobody is more powerful than you think,” Borenstein mentioned.

The struggle in Ukraine has loomed giant in Oscar documentary classes because it started. The Associated Press’ documentary “20 Days in Mariupol” received finest documentary function in 2024.

This yr’s documentary brief nominees included “Armed Only With a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud,” about an American journalist killed within the struggle.

A Russian assault on a hydropower plant has spilled into the Nistru River, threatening Moldova’s water provide and prompting an environmental alert.

In a submit on X, Moldovan president Maia Sandu wrote: “Russia’s attack on Ukraine’s Novodnistrovsk hydropower plant has spilled oil into the Nistru River, threatening Moldova’s water supply.

“We declared environmental alert and are acting to protect our people. Russia bears full responsibility.”

The US and South Korean militaries are discussing transferring a number of the American Patriot missile defence techniques based mostly in South Korea for use within the struggle towards Iran.

South Korean international minister Cho Hyun on Friday was responding to a query at a parliamentary listening to and mentioned the 2 nations had been working intently collectively. The determination on the deployment of weapons and navy personnel can be made on a case-by-case foundation, he mentioned.

But what are Patriot techniques, and why are they so vital?