नवीनतम
Zelenskyy urges US to broaden oil sanctions
NEW DELHI [Maha Media]: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday urged the United States to expand sanctions on Russian oil from two companies to the whole sector, and appealed for long-range missiles to hit back at Russia.
Zelenskyy was in London for talks with two dozen European leaders who have pledged military help to shield his country from future Russian aggression if a ceasefire stops the more than three-year war.
The meeting hosted by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer aimed to step up pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin, adding momentum to recent measures that have included a new round of sanctions from the United States and European countries on Russia’s vital oil and gas export earnings.
The talks also addressed ways of helping protect Ukraine’s power grid from Russia’s almost daily drone and missiles attacks as winter approaches, enhancing Ukrainian air defenses, and supplying Kyiv with longer-range missiles that can strike deep inside Russia. Zelenskyy has urged the U.S. to send Tomahawk missiles, an idea U.S. President Donald Trump has flirted with.
The Ukrainian leader said Trump's decision this week to impose oil sanctions was “a big step,” and said “we have to apply pressure not only to Rosneft and Lukoil, but to all Russian oil companies.”
“Besides, we are carrying out our own campaign of pressure with drones and missiles specifically targeting the Russian oil sector," he said during a news conference at the Foreign Office in London. Trump also has put on hold a plan for a swift meeting with Putin in Budapest, because he didn’t want it to be a “waste of time.”
Putin has so far resisted efforts to push him into negotiating a peace settlement with Zelenskyy and has argued that the motives for Russia’s all-out invasion of its smaller neighbor are legitimate. Russia has also been adept at finding loopholes in Western sanctions.
A top Russian official said Friday he has arrived in the United States for talks with U.S. officials. Kirill Dmitriev, Putin’s envoy for investment and economic cooperation, announced his visit in a post on X. He said it was “planned a while ago” on an invitation “from the U.S. side.”
Dmitriev will meet with U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff, a White House official not authorized to publicly discuss the private meeting confirmed on condition of anonymity. The meeting was first reported by Axios. Dmitriev has been a key interlocutor in discussions between the Trump administration and the Kremlin on numerous issues, including the Ukraine war and the release of American detainees in Russia.
