Ukraine war briefing: More Russian drones than ever attack before Trump-Putin call
Separately, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, met the US vice-president, JD Vance, and secretary of state, Marco Rubio, on Sunday as part of preparations for the Trump-Putin call, Peter Beaumont reports. The encounter took place on the sidelines of Pope Leo’s inauguration on Sunday. It came two days after the first direct talks between Ukraine and Russia in over three years in Turkey.
After meeting with Vance, Zelenskyy said: “We discussed the talks in Istanbul, where the Russians sent a low-level delegation with no decision-making powers. We also touched on the need for sanctions against Russia, bilateral trade, defence cooperation, the situation on the battlefield and the future exchange of prisoners.” A senior official from Zelenskyy’s office said the Rome encounter went “better” than the Oval Office row three months ago when Vance publicly berated Zelensky as being “disrespectful” and not “thankful” enough.
Calls to step up and coordinate action against the unflagged Russian “shadow fleet” of oil tankers in the Baltic Sea were made at the weekend before the EU foreign ministers’ meeting on Monday, which is expected to impose sanctions on 180 ships, writes Patrick Wintour. On average three loaded shadow tankers a day pass through northern European waters, including the Danish straits and the Channel. The inclusion of more vessels would take the total number of ships under EU sanctions to 350.
The shadow fleet is estimated to be carrying as much as 85% of Russia’s oil exports and so funding roughly a third of its budget. The battle over the shadow fleet intensified last week when a Russian Sukhoi Su-35 jet breached Estonian airspace in what looked like a reprisal for a tanker named the Jaguar, likely to be carrying Russian oil, being escorted out of Estonian economic waters by the country’s navy after the crew resisted boarding for inspect. The Estonian navy believed the ship might pose a threat to nearby underwater cables.