Ukraine-Russia war latest: Europe condemns Trump’s move to drop Putin oil sanctions as Zelensky bemoans Middle East conflict – UK Times

European leaders have reacted sharply to a US decision to temporarily ease sanctions on the purchase of Russian oil.

The waiver will allow countries to buy Russian oil already on vessels at sea but unsold due to sanctions.

European Council President Antonio Costa said the decision was “very concerning” as it “impacts European security”.

“Weakening sanctions increases Russian resources to wage the war of aggression against Ukraine,” he wrote in a post on X.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said at a news conference the move could allow Russia to gain about $10bn, adding: “It certainly does not help peace.

“French president Emmanuel Macron, speaking alongside Zelensky, said the reported shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz “in no way” justified lifting sanctions.

Canada’s prime minister Mark Carney said earlier that Canada’s position was to “maintain sanctions on Russia”.

German chancellor Friedrich Merz also criticised the decision, calling it “wrong” at a separate news conference.

Russia could earn more than $10bn (£7.8bn) in additional oil and gas revenues to help fuel its war on Ukraine – thanks to Donald Trump, experts warn.

The US president lifted restrictions on countries buying Russian crude stranded at sea, after the closure of the key shipping route, the Strait of Hormuz, due to the Iran war he started, sent prices soaring. A fifth of the world’s oil supply passes through the strait.

US treasury secretary Scott Bessent claimed the 30-day waiver would “not provide significant financial benefit to the Russian government”.

He said the “tailored, short-term” move would only provide Moscow with a limited financial boost from oil sales, adding that it would address the “instability posed by the terrorist Iranian regime”.

No 10 has instead urged its international allies to maintain pressure on Moscow, and to avoid inadvertently funding Putin’s war in Ukraine by purchasing Russian oil.

Explosions have been reported in Ukraine’s capital in the early hours of today, according to Kyiv Independent journalists on the ground.

The blasts were heard at around 3.10am local time.

At around the same time, Ukraine’s Air Force warned of the threat of Russian ballistic missiles.

Russia has designated a US academic as a foreign agent for disseminating false information about Russian policies and opposing Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Nina Khrushcheva, the great-granddaughter of a former Soviet leader, is a professor at The New School university in New York and has continued to make research trips to Russia since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The term “foreign agent” has connotations of spying that Moscow applies to people it views as engaged in anti-Russian activity.

Her ancestor Nikita Khrushchev led the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, when he was ousted by fellow members of the ruling Politburo.

Khrushcheva said she was not surprised at being added to Russia’s “foreign agent” list, which as of Friday contained 1,164 names including politicians, journalists, artists, NGOs and media organisations.

“It would have been sloppy on their part not to do this sooner or later,” she said, adding that it was too early to say what the practical impact would be.

“There is certainly historical irony but not anything shocking. When Stalin is up, Khrushchev is down,” she said.

Khrushchev was the Soviet leader who transferred Crimea to Ukraine from Russia in 1954, an act reversed in 2014 when Russian forces invaded the peninsula and President Vladimir Putin declared its annexation.

Khrushchev is also remembered for facing off against US President John F Kennedy in the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, when the world teetered on the brink of nuclear war.

People listed as foreign agents are subjected to onerous bureaucratic requirements and restrictions on their income in Russia. They are obliged to place the foreign agent label on social media posts or anything else they publish.

Some Kremlin critics have worn the label as a badge of honour, while others say it is a burden that hampers them in their work because it causes other Russians to shun them.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky expressed frustration over waning attention on the Ukraine war amid the crisis in the Middle East as he denounced US decision to ease sanctions on Russian oil.

“There is nothing good for Ukraine in the war in the Middle East. It is understandable that the attention of the world is moving to the Middle East. It’s not good for us,” Zelensky told students in Paris during a speech at the Sciences Po university.

He said the decision to waive oil sanctions was not helping to end the conflict in Ukraine as he sought reassurances of support in Paris.

“This single easing by the US could provide Russia with around $10 billion for the war. It certainly does not help to achieve peace,” Zelensky told a joint news conference with French president.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said the US 30-day waiver on Russian oil sanctions amid the Iran war is “not the right decision” and will not help bring a stop to Russia’s more than four-year-old invasion of Ukraine.

“This easing alone by the United States could provide Russia with about 10 billion dollars for the war,” Mr Zelensky said on Friday.

“This certainly does not help peace.

“I believe that lifting sanctions will, in any case, lead to a strengthening of Russia’s position.”

“It spends the money from energy sales on weapons, and all of this is then used against us,” Mr Zelensky said at a news conference with French President Emmanuel Macron during a visit to Paris.

“Therefore, ultimately lifting sanctions only so that more drones will later be flying at you is, in my opinion, not the right decision.”

The US Treasury Department announced on Thursday a 30-day waiver on Russian oil sanctions.

The step aims to free up Russian cargoes stranded at sea and ease supply shortages caused by the Iran war.

Analysts say that spiralling oil prices due to Persian Gulf production blockages are benefiting the Russian economy.

President Volodymyr Zelensky says three-sided peace talks with Russia and the US are stalling after the Americans sought a postponement due to the war in Iran.

Zelensky, whose comments were quoted by various Ukrainian media outlets at the end of a visit to France, said the US side had indicated its negotiators were not permitted to leave the United States in view of circumstances in the Middle East.

He said discussions about the next round were akin to a soap opera “because of the war in the Middle East”.

“The Americans said they were ready to meet, but only in America as the war and the security situation barred them from leaving the US,” the state news agency Ukrinform quoted Zelensky as saying.

The Ukrainian delegation, he said, was ready to meet in Miami or Washington, but Russia rejected the proposal and suggested meeting in Turkey or Switzerland, a proposal ruled out by the US.

“We immediately said that we were ready for a meeting next week. We are preparing for a meeting in America, in Switzerland, in Turkey, and even, if they are not afraid, in the Emirates,” Zelensky was quoted as saying.

Ultimately, he said, staging the next round of talks depended on the US side. Washington’s negotiating team has been led by special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, president Donald Trump’s son-in-law.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Zelensky’s remarks.

Russian shelling killed one person and wounded six in southeastern Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, the regional governor said on Friday.

Oleksander Ganzha, head of the region’s military administration, said on Telegram that Russian forces attacked two sites in the region.

Further southeast, the governor of Zaporizhzhia region, Ivan Fedorov, said four people were injured in a Russian attack near the region’s main town, also called Zaporizhzhia.

Just over the Russian border in Belgorod region, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said one resident died in a Ukrainian strike on a village just inside the border.

Donald Trump has said the United States does not need help with drone defence when asked whether Ukraine was helping providing such assistance, in an interview on Fox News Radio’s The Brian Kilmeade Show that aired on Friday.