Ukraine-Russia war live: Kyiv says frontline position ‘strongest in a year’ as Zelensky calls for new talks – UK Times

Russian president ​Vladimir Putin can only meet Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky for ⁠the purpose of finalising agreements on the conflict, Russian news agencies quoted Kremlin ⁠spokesperson ​Dmitry Peskov ⁠as saying on Wednesday.

“The main thing ⁠is the goal of ​this ⁠meeting. Why ‌should they meet? Putin has said he is ‌ready for a ‌meeting in Moscow at any moment,” TASS news ⁠agency quoted Peskov as telling Russian state television.

“The main thing is that there should be a reason to meet, and ‌the main thing ​is that the ‌meeting should ⁠be productive. And it ⁠can only be for ‌the ​purpose of ‌finalising agreements,” he said.

A train driver was killed in Ukraine after Russia attacked the country’s railway in the Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Oleksii Kuleba said.

The attack targeted a sorting yard at the Zaporizhzhia-Live station in ⁠⁠the southern Zaporizhzhia region and killed an ‌‌assistant train driver.

The main driver was injured and is receiving treatment at a hospital, he said.

Kuleba called it “another proof of terrorism, Russia is at war against peaceful people, against those who were simply doing their job and keeping the country moving”.

Drones also targeted Ukraine’s main Black Sea port in the southern city of Odesa.

The strikes, which took place in the early hours of Wednesday, damaged the infrastructure of the Odesa ⁠⁠port, including berths, warehouses, railway infrastructure and ‌‌port operators’ facilities, Kuleba said in a statement on X.

EU ​ambassadors have approved the disbursement of a promised €90bn ($106bn) loan to Ukraine as well as a new package of sanctions against Russia ⁠after Hungary lifted its veto, the bloc’s Cypriot presidency said.

The European Union’s 27 member states are now expected to sign off on the deal by this afternoon, a spokesperson for the Cypriot presidency ⁠added.

The EU agreed last year ​on ⁠the loan to keep Ukraine liquid through 2026 and 2027. But Hungary then blocked ⁠the deal after Russia-friendly prime minister Viktor Orban accused Ukraine of ​sabotaging ⁠the transit of Russian ‌oil through a pipeline damaged by Russian attacks.

The spat had also delayed the new sanctions against Russia, which the EU ‌had initially aimed to adopt to ‌mark the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022.

The stumbling block was finally removed when Hungary’s oil group MOL yesterday said it had been informed that the Ukrainian operator of the Druzhba pipeline was ready to resume crude oil transit to Hungary and Slovakia.

MOL said it expected the first shipments via the pipeline to arrive in Hungary and Slovakia by Thursday at the latest. Both countries remain reliant on ‌Russia for much of their energy.

Ukraine’s prospects for ​receiving the loan had already improved when Orban ‌lost Hungary’s parliamentary election ⁠on 12 April. The leader of the winning party, ⁠Peter Magyar, has said he will no longer block the EU funds for ‌Kyiv, though he ​is only expected to take ‌power next month.

Ukraine has asked Turkey to host a meeting between president Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian president Vladimir Putin.

The development was shared by Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha, saying that Ukraine is ready to meet Putin at any venue to end the war, except Belarus or Russia.

“We asked the Turks about it, we asked some other capitals,” Sybiha said, speaking to reporters on Tuesday.

“We addressed the Turks specifically,” he said. “But if another capital, besides Moscow and Belarus, organises such a meeting, we will go.”

On Friday, Sybiha told the Antalya Diplomacy Forum that Ukraine was ready to participate in any round of talks “regardless of format,” including meetings involving Zelensky, Putin, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, or US president Donald Trump.

Ukraine’s frontline position is now “the strongest” it has been in a year, the country’s foreign minister Andrii Sybiha said, crediting its superiority in drone warfare and air defence.

“We have minimised the Russians’ advantage in manpower through the use of drones,” Sybiha said.

He added: “For us, the situation on the battlefield is about strengthening our negotiating position. We can shoot down up to 90 per cent of the targets that strike our cities… [Ukraine’s] position on the battlefield is indeed the strongest, or the most solid, it has been over the past year.”

A new analysis of data from the Institute for the Study of War said that Russia made almost no territorial gains across the frontline in March, the first time Moscow has made such little progress in two and a half years.

Ukraine could face increased risks in securing US ​anti-missile defences if the war in Iran goes on for an extended period of time, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has cautioned.

Speaking to CNN, Zelensky said Ukraine received limited numbers of such weaponry because US production was limited, but so far it had experienced no disruption in supplies or in provision of intelligence.

Zelensky said Ukraine was ⁠able to secure US ​weaponry through ⁠the PURL programme under which Nato countries can finance the purchase of weapons for Kyiv.

“Through this ⁠programme, we can include and buy anti-ballistic missiles for Patriot ​systems ⁠and some other weapons which ‌is very important for us. We don’t have this…with our European neighbours,” Zelensky told CNN in English.

“And of course, (given) ‌the big challenge in the Middle ‌East war and Iran, all these packages are at risk.”

The United States, he said, had supplied “only a small number. We had not ⁠too much. We understand why, because the production in the United States is not so big.”

“And if the war will continue or a ceasefire is delayed…(this) will be not good. And maybe we will have more risks with anti-ballistics.”

A ​Russian air attack has triggered a series of ⁠fires in an apartment block in Ukraine’s southeastern city of ⁠Dnipro, injuring ​seven ⁠people, including two children, in the early hours today, officials said.

Regional governor Oleksandr Ganzha ‌said five people were being treated in hospital, ‌including girls ‌aged nine and 14.

Pictures posted on line ⁠by the governor showed several apartments ablaze and emergency crews using extendable ladders with a bucket to bring ‌the flames ​under control.

Ganzha said ‌fire also ⁠broke out in ⁠a store and ‌a ​number of cars.

Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday that the unblocking of a 90-billion-euro ($106-billion) European Union loan to Kyiv was “the right signal under the current circumstances”.

Writing on X, Zelensky said that incentives for Russia to end its war in Ukraine “can arise only when both support for Ukraine and pressure on Russia are sufficient.”

“Ukraine is fulfilling its obligations in relations with the European Union – even on such sensitive issues as the operation of the Druzhba oil pipeline.

“We expect that the European side will also deliver what is needed for the real protection of lives and for advancing Ukraine’s full European integration.”