Ukraine latest: Kiev allies pledge to remove Russian oil from global market

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday urged the United States to extend sanctions on Russian oil from two companies to the entire region, and called for Russia to retaliate with long-range missiles.

Zelensky was in London for talks with two dozen European leaders, who have pledged military help to protect their countries from future Russian aggression if an armistice ends more than three years of war.

The meeting, hosted by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, was aimed at increasing pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin to trigger recent measures including a new round of sanctions from the United States and European countries on Russia’s significant oil and gas export earnings.

The talks also discussed ways to protect Ukraine’s power grid from Russia’s near-daily drone and missile attacks as winter approaches, bolster Ukrainian air defenses and help supply Kiev with long-range missiles that can strike deep inside Russia. Zelensky has urged America. The idea of ​​sending Tomahawk missiles has been floated by US President Donald Trump.

The Ukrainian leader said Trump’s decision to impose oil sanctions this week was “a big step”, adding “we have to put pressure not only on Rosneft and Lukoil, but on all Russian oil companies.”

“In addition, we are carrying out our own campaign of pressure with drones and missiles specifically targeting Russian oil fields,” he said during a press conference at the Foreign Office in London.

Trump has also put plans for a quick meeting with Putin in Budapest on hold because he did not want it to be a “waste of time.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s special envoy for investment and economic cooperation Kirill Dmitriev said yesterday that he believes his country, the US and Ukraine are close to a diplomatic solution to end Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Speaking to CNN after arriving in Washington for talks with US officials, Mr Dmitriev said a meeting between Donald Trump and Mr Putin had not been cancelled, as the US president had reported, and the two leaders were likely to meet at a later date.

The planned summit was halted on Tuesday as Russia’s rejection of an immediate ceasefire loomed large over negotiations efforts. Trump said he canceled a planned meeting with Putin in Budapest due to the lack of progress in diplomatic efforts toward ending the war and a sense that time was running out.

However, Mr. Dmitriev said, “I believe that Russia and the United States and Ukraine are actually quite close to a diplomatic solution.”

At least three people were killed and 17 others injured in overnight Russian missile and drone attacks on Ukraine, local officials said.

A ballistic missile attack on the capital Kiev today killed one person and wounded 10, said Timur Tkachenko, head of the city’s military administration.

According to the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, three injured people were taken to hospital.

The emergency service said a non-residential building caught fire at one location, while debris from intercepted missiles fell on an open area at another location, damaging windows of nearby buildings.

Mayor Vitali Klitschko wrote during the attack, “Explosion in the capital. The city is under ballistic attack.”

Acting regional governor Vladislav Khavnenko said two people were killed and seven injured in the Dnipropetrovsk region, adding that apartment buildings, private houses, an outbuilding, a shop and at least one vehicle were damaged.

Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched nine missiles and 62 drones, and air defense intercepted four missiles and 50 drones.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said its own air defense forces shot down 121 Ukrainian drones over Russia overnight.

For a quarter century, President Vladimir Putin has faced the threat of Russia’s declining and aging population.

In 1999, the year before he came to power, the number of babies born in Russia fell to the lowest level on record. In 2005, Putin said that demographic problems needed to be solved by maintaining “social and economic stability”.

In 2019, he said the problem was still “haunting” the country. As recently as Thursday, he told a Kremlin demographic conference that increasing births was “crucial” for Russia.

Putin has launched initiatives to encourage people to have more children — from free school meals for large families to giving Soviet-style “hero-mother” medals to women with 10 or more children.

“Many of our grandmothers and great-grandmothers had seven, eight and even more children,” Putin said in 2023. “Let’s preserve and revive these wonderful traditions. Having many children and a large family should become the norm.”

Russia is trying to halt this decline and adopt new restrictions to embrace “traditional family values”, including laws banning abortion and promoting “child-free ideology” and outlawing all LGBTQ+ activism.

Russian feminist scholar Sasha Talavar said officials believe such values ​​are a “magic wand” for solving demographic problems.

In the government’s view, women can be economically independent, but they must be “willing and very excited to take on this additional work of reproduction in the name of patriotism and Russian strength,” he said.

The ringleader of last year’s arson attacks on Ukraine-linked businesses in London was sentenced to 17 years in prison on Friday in what prosecutors described as “a sustained campaign of terrorism and subversion on British soil.”

Dylan Earl, 21, admitted aggravated arson in the 2024 fire that targeted companies delivering satellite equipment from Elon Musk’s Starlink to Ukraine, which is vital to its defense against Russia’s continued aggression.

He became the first person convicted under the National Security Act for his role in a plot to target a liquor store and restaurant in London’s posh Mayfair district with a plan to kidnap the owner, a critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Prosecutors said Earl also discussed a plan with his handlers from Russia’s Wagner mercenary group to kidnap the co-founder of finance app Revolut and burn down a warehouse in the Czech Republic.

The earl appeared in the dock at London’s Old Bailey court alongside Jake Reeves, 24, who also pleaded guilty to aggravated arson and National Security Act charges of obtaining material benefit from a foreign intelligence agency.

“This case is about the Russian Federation’s efforts to gain dangerous global influence by using social media to recruit saboteurs at great distances from Moscow,” Judge Bobby Chima-Grube said.

He sentenced Earl to 17 years in prison for arson and National Security Act charges, as well as a separate drugs charge. Reeves was sentenced to 12 years in prison.

Ukraine’s State Security Service has unveiled a significantly upgraded maritime drone, “Sea Baby”, which it claims can now operate throughout the Black Sea, carry significantly heavier weapons, and use artificial intelligence for precise targeting.

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has previously credited these unmanned naval vessels with forcing a strategic shift in Russia’s Black Sea operations, having used them to target Russian shipping and infrastructure.

The SBU confirmed that Sea Baby’s operational range has been increased from 1,000 km to 1,500 km, with its payload capacity now reaching 2,000 kg.

Ukrainian forces operating behind enemy lines derailed Russia’s hopes of reuniting the captured Zaporizhia nuclear power station before Vladimir Putin’s birthday earlier this month, sources have claimed.

Ukrainian sources told The Guardian they believed Russia was trying to bring power back to the plant in time for the president’s birthday on October 7, after losing external power in late September.

Europe’s largest power station, which had been under Russian control since the beginning of the invasion, was forced to operate on diesel backup generators after its last remaining external power line was severed on 23 September. Russia and Ukraine accused each other.

James C. Reynolds has more.

At least eight people were injured after Russia fired ballistic missiles into Kiev overnight.

The explosions were heard in Kiev just before 4 a.m. local time, the Kyiv Independent reported.

Timur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, said fires broke out in several places on the Ukrainian capital’s left bank.

The US this week imposed new sanctions on Russia’s two largest petroleum producing companies, Rosneft and Lukoil.

After efforts to negotiate an end to Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine stalled, the Trump administration said the move was intended to “increase pressure on Russia’s energy sector” and “undercut the Kremlin’s ability to raise revenue for its war machine and support its weak economy.”

So how much of an impact could this move have, and what implications would it have for countries that depend on Russia for their oil supplies?

China, India and Türkiye are the largest recipients of Russian oil destined for the EU. The EU’s decision to boycott most Russian offshore oil from January 2023 led to a massive shift in crude oil flows from Europe to Asia.

Since then, China has been the No. 1 consumer of Russian energy, buying about $219.5bn (£164bn) worth of Russian oil, gas and coal, followed by India ($133.4bn/£100bn) and Turkey ($90.3bn/£67.7bn).

US President Donald Trump said he would like China to help Washington in its deal with Russia.

“I would like China to help us with Russia,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One. “I would like China to help us.”

Mr Trump, who left Washington on Friday night, is set for a five-day visit to Malaysia, Japan and South Korea, his first to the region and his longest foreign trip since taking office in January.

He will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea later this week.