Ukraine war briefing: With no Miami breakthrough, Zelenskyy turns to European allies
Positive tone after Florida talks with Ukrainian president heading to London Street to see Starmer, Macron and Merz. What we know on day 1,383
Three days of talks between Ukrainian and US officials in Miami, Florida produced no evident breakthrough by the end of Saturday. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said he joined his negotiators for a “very substantive and constructive” call with US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. “Ukraine is committed to continuing to work honestly with the American side to bring about real peace,” Zelenskyy said on Telegram, adding that the parties agreed on the next steps and a format for talks.
Zelenskyy will next turn to European allies when he visits London on Monday for an in-person meeting with leaders Keir Starmer of Britain, Emmanuel Macron of France and Friedrich Merz of Germany. Macron said the group would “take stock” of peace negotiations. The four leaders took part in a virtual meeting of the “coalition of the willing” about two weeks ago, where they discussed plans to put a European peacekeeping force in Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire.
Macron, the French president, slammed what he called Russia’s “escalatory path”, adding: “We will continue these efforts with the Americans to provide Ukraine with security guarantees, without which no robust and lasting peace will be possible. We must continue to exert pressure on Russia to compel it to choose peace.”
Russian forces over Saturday night launched a combined air strike on infrastructure in the central Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk, causing power and water outages in some areas, said its mayor, Vitalii Maletskyi, on Sunday. Located on the Dnipro River, Kremenchuk is a major industrial hub and home to one of Ukraine’s biggest oil refineries. A 2022 strike on a crowded shopping mall in Kremenchuk killed at least 21 people. Maletskyi said city services were working to restore electricity, water and heating. A damage assessment would be carried out on Sunday. “We will restore everything.”
Russia launched more than 700 drones and missiles at Ukraine over Friday night, targeting critical infrastructure, such as energy sites and railways, and triggering heating and water outages for thousands of households. “The main targets of these strikes, once again, were energy facilities,” Zelenskyy said. “Russia’s aim is to inflict suffering on millions of Ukrainians.”
The protective shield over the Chornobyl disaster nuclear reactor in Ukraine, which was hit by a drone in February, can no longer perform its main function of blocking radiation, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has announced. In February a drone strike blew a hole in the “new safe confinement”, which was painstakingly built at a cost of €1.5bn ($1.75bn) next to the destroyed reactor and then hauled into place on tracks, with the work completed in 2019 by a Europe-led initiative. The IAEA said an inspection last week of the steel confinement structure found the drone impact had degraded the structure.
Hungary’s rightwing, Putin-friendly prime minister, Viktor Orbán, has announced he is sending a business delegation to Russia in preparation for the end of the Ukraine war – claiming he was in discussion with both Washington and Moscow and could not “share every detail”. “If God helps us and the war ends without us being dragged into it, and if the American president succeeds in reintegrating Russia into the global economy and the sanctions are dismantled, we will find ourselves in a different economic landscape.”
According to media in Hungary, its MOL oil and gas firm is considering acquiring refineries and petrol stations in Europe owned by Russian groups Lukoil and Gazprom, both of which are subject to US sanctions. Under Orbán’s leadership, Hungary has remained dependent on Russian oil and gas, flouting decisions of the European Union whose other countries have diversified their imports away from Russia since the February 2022 invasion.
Bulgaria has denounced the towing of a crippled tanker, the Kairos, into its waters just over a week after the ship was hit in a drone attack claimed by Ukraine. A Turkish ship towed it there and returned to Turkey, said Rumen Nikolov, director general of Bulgarian maritime rescue and relief operations. “This is not normal,” Rumen said, adding that an explanation was sought “through diplomatic channels”. Ten crew members on board had requested evacuation but the weather was too bad at the moment, said the Bulgarian transport ministry.
The Kairos and another Gambian-flagged tankers, the Virat, were attacked on 28 November in the Black Sea off the Turkish coast. Both are under western sanctions for belonging to the “shadow fleet” that illicitly and unsafely continues to export Russian oil. They had been heading for the Russian port of Novorossiysk. Ukraine confirmed at the time that it had targeted vessels “covertly transporting Russian oil”.