Ukraine-Russia warfare newest: Zelensky meets JD Vance at Vatican forward of essential Trump name with Putin | EUROtoday

Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky and US vp JD Vance have been seen shaking arms on the inauguration of latest Pope Leo XIV on Sunday.

It was the primary assembly of the pair following the notorious White House conflict earlier this yr, which noticed President Zelensky leaving after a shouting match with Donald Trump and Mr Vance.

The pair smiled as they shook arms within the temporary alternate. Mr Zelensky later met with Mr Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the sidelines of the mass, a supply within the Ukrainian delegation informed Reuters.

Our correspondent Rebecca Thomas has the complete report:

Ukraine’s army has reported one other day of heavy preventing alongside the entrance line, with at the very least 70 clashes between Ukrainian and Russian forces reported to this point.

Once once more, the heaviest preventing was within the course of Pokrovsk, in response to Ukraine’s army, with Vladimir Putin’s forces making 25 makes an attempt to dislodge Ukrainian troops from their positions in settlements close to the Donetsk metropolis, which has been central in Moscow’s sights for months now.

In its day by day replace, the overall employees of Ukraine’s armed forces mentioned Ukrainian troops had already repelled 22 assaults on the Povkrovsk axis, with three extra confrontations ongoing.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has mentioned that he, Sir Keir Starmer, France’s Emmanuel Macron and Poland’s Donald Tusk are aiming to talk with Donald Trump forward of the US president’s deliberate name with Vladimir Putin tomorrow.

Mr Merz mentioned he had mentioned the difficulty with US secretary of state Marco Rubio whereas the 2 males have been attending the inaugural mass of Pope Leo XIV within the Vatican. Mr Merz mentioned he additionally spoke at size on the Vatican with Ukraine’s[residentVolodymyrZelenskiy[residentVolodymyrZelenskiy

“I spoke with Marco Rubio, including about the call tomorrow. We agreed that we will speak again with the four state leaders and the US president in preparation of this conversation,” the German chancellor informed reporters.

Volodymyr Zelensky mentioned he met Pope Leo following the brand new pontiff’s inaugural Mass on the Vatican, including that Kyiv was prepared for talks in any format to get actual leads to ending the warfare with Russia.

The Ukrainian president mentioned on Telegram that he was grateful to the Vatican for its readiness to host direct talks between Ukraine and Russia and “for its clear voice to defend just and lasting peace”.

The pair smiled as they shook arms within the temporary alternate. Mr Zelensky later met with Mr Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the sidelines of the mass, a supply within the Ukrainian delegation informed Reuters.

Both Mr Vance and Mr Rubio are Catholics, although the previous clashed with the late Pope Francis over the Trump administration’s hard-line immigration insurance policies.

Russia desires western sanctions lifted however is sceptical that they are going to be lifted quickly.

Even if the U.S. lifted sanctions, EU and different Western sanctions – reminiscent of these imposed by Australia, Britain, Canada and Japan – might stay for years to return.

Ukraine desires the sanctions to stay in place.

Reuters has reported that the U.S. authorities is finding out methods it might ease sanctions on Russia’s power sector as a part of a broad plan to allow Washington to ship swift aid if Moscow agrees to finish the Ukraine warfare.

Moscow controls a few fifth of Ukraine and says the territory is now formally a part of Russia, a place most nations don’t settle for.

Russia annexed Crimea in 2014. Russian forces management virtually all of Luhansk, and greater than 70% of the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson areas, in response to Russian estimates. Russia additionally controls a sliver of Kharkiv area.

In Putin’s most detailed public proposals for peace, outlined in June 2024, he mentioned Ukraine must withdraw from the whole lot of these areas – so even from areas not presently underneath Russian management. His negotiators restated these calls for within the May 16 Istanbul talks, the Ukrainian supply mentioned.

According to Alexander Kots, a warfare correspondent for Russia’s Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper, the negotiators additionally informed their Ukrainian counterparts that Kyiv would want to drop all claims to the 4 areas and Crimea.

Under a draft peace plan crafted by the Trump administration, the U.S. would de jure recognise Russian management of Crimea, and de facto recognise Russian management of Luhansk and components of Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Kherson.

Kyiv’s army intelligence company mentioned Russia was planning to conduct a “training and combat” launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile late on Sunday to intimidate Ukraine and the West.

The GUR company mentioned in a press release on the Telegram app that the launch was ordered to be applied from Russia’s Sverdlovsk area, including that the flight vary for the missile was greater than 10,000 kilometers (6,200 miles).