Volodymr Zelenskyy has said in Washington that Vladimir Putin’s decision to seek talks with Donald Trump shows the Russian president is on the defensive. “We can already see that Moscow is rushing to resume dialogue as soon as it hears about Tomahawks,” Zelenskyy said, referring to the US president’s musings about supplying the long-range cruise missiles to Ukraine. Trump on Wednesday said he was making plans to meet Putin in Budapest, Hungary, where both the US and Russian presidents share an admirer in the form of the prime minister, Viktor Orbán.
“Putin is trying to derail the momentum toward greater pressure on Russia,” said Dan Fried, a former US state department official. “We’ll see what happens tomorrow [on Friday, with Zelenskyy due to meet Trump] but the chances of moving toward a ceasefire by pushing Russia to get serious seem to have diminished.” Trump had recently been hardening his language towards Russia until Thursday’s call with Putin which the Kremlin described as “extremely frank and trustful”.
“The planned meeting between the American and Russian presidents is great news for the peace-loving people of the world. We are ready!” said Orbán, who as the leader of an EU and Nato country has frequently played the spoiler in their attempts to aid Ukraine in the war. Orban said he had spoken by phone with Trump and preparations for a US-Russia peace summit were under way.
The European Union has set a requirement for fuel importers into the EU to prove their fuels are not made from Russian crude, according to a document published on Thursday. The document provides guidance on the EU’s upcoming ban on imports of fuels refined from Russian crude, part of its 18th sanctions package against Russia over its war in Ukraine. The ban takes effect from 21 January next year.
The market appeared to be taking into account the potential end of Indian imports of Russian oil, Reuters reported on Thursday. Some Indian refiners are preparing to cut Russian oil imports, with expectations of a gradual reduction, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. Oil prices were stable on Thursday and Tony Sycamore, a market analyst at IG, said: “This is a positive development for the crude oil price as it would remove a big buyer of Russian oil.” It came after Donald Trump claimed Narendra Modi, India’s PM, had promised him on Wednesday that India would stop the imports. India did not confirm Trump’s claim – its officials said the two leaders did not have a phone call on Wednesday, and that the priority was to safeguard India’s energy supply.
Vladimir Putin meanwhile complained of Russian oil’s struggle with “unfair” practices while claiming it remained one of the world’s leading producers. The industry is under sanctions because of Putin’s war against Ukraine. Speaking at a conference on Russian energy in Moscow, Putin said European countries had hurt their own economies by cutting sales of Russian gas and criticised western restrictions on exporting equipment to the Russian oil industry.
A massive Russian drone and missile attack hit gas facilities in eastern Ukraine on Thursday, Peter Beaumont writes from the Kharkiv region. Russia launched hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles, as well as glide bombs. There were outages in eight regions. “This autumn, the Russians use every single day to strike at our energy infrastructure,” said Volodymyr Zelenskyy, adding that strikes hit the regions of Chernihiv, Kharkiv, Poltava, Sumy and Vinnytsia.
One of the facilities hit was the Shebelinka gas processing plant in the Kharkiv region. Staff told the Guardian that it had been hit just after 5.30am by drones and missiles, setting off at least two blazes in different parts of the facility. The Russian defence ministry claimed it hit facilities used by the Ukrainian military with Kinzhal missiles “in response” to attacks on Russian infrastructure. However, since invading Ukraine in 2022, Moscow has attacked Ukraine’s civilian power infrastructure each winter, regardless of what the Ukrainians do.
Russia showed its true attitude to peace through the “terror” of such strikes, said Kyiv’s envoy to Washington, Olga Stefanishyna. “Russia once again chose missiles over dialogue, turning this attack into a direct blow to ongoing peace efforts led by President Trump … These assaults show that Moscow’s strategy is one of terror and exhaustion.”
The EU had no choice but to build up anti-drone defences against Russia, the bloc’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said on Thursday, as Brussels unveiled a “roadmap” to prepare for potential conflict by 2030. “Today we propose a new anti-drone system to be fully operational by the end of 2027,” Kallas said. Brussels wants the “European drone defence initiative” to begin working initially by the end of 2026 and be fully functioning by the end of 2027. Brussels hopes to get the backing of EU leaders at a summit next week. Alongside the drone initiative is a broader “eastern flank watch” programme designed to bolster air and ground defences along the EU’s border closest to Russia by the end of 2028.
