Ukraine war briefing: allies asked Kyiv about reducing attacks on Russian energy sector, Zelenskyy says | Russia

Ukraine signed a 10-year defense agreement with Bulgaria, a major arms producer, covering the production of unmanned aerial vehicles and other weaponsZelenskyy announced. Ukraine’s president said he was “very pleased” with the agreement signed during Bulgaria’s interim prime minister Andrey Gyurov’s visit to Kiev. The agreement covers “the joint production of various types of weapons, including drones, on the territory of our countries,” he told a press conference. Zelenskyy said the length of the agreement should make it possible to “systematize” security cooperation, especially keeping up with the rapid pace of drone technology, an important weapon in Ukraine’s fight against Russian occupation. Bulgaria, now a member of NATO and the EU, was part of the communist bloc during the cold war and had been producing ammunition and weapons to Soviet standards for decades, which the Ukrainian army also used. Sofia sent large quantities of weapons to Kiev. Gyurov praised the agreement as “the result of long preparations” and added: “This is not just a formality, but a common commitment to our Euro-Atlantic security.”

Two people were killed and more than 20 were injured in Russian attacks on central and northern Ukraine on Monday.regional officials said. Debris falling from drones in the center of the city of Poltava killed one person, injured three and damaged a high-rise apartment building, regional governor Vitaliy Diakivnych said. One person died in drone strikes and artillery strikes in the Dnipropetrovsk region near the town of Nikopol, regional governor Oleksandr Ganzha said. 2 people in the town and 12 people in the region were injured. He said that Russian forces carried out two attacks with glider bombs in the Sumy region near the Russian border, and 13 people were injured, including the six-year-old regional governor Oleh Hryhorov. Fifteen houses were damaged.

The United States on Monday extended for the fourth time the deadline for companies to negotiate with Russia’s Lukoil to buy its foreign assets. After Washington imposed sanctions on the energy company in 2025, the US Office of Foreign Assets Control extended the deadline by one month until May 1 for companies wishing to purchase foreign assets worth approximately $22 billion. In October, Washington imposed sanctions on Russia’s second-largest oil producer, Lukoil, and its largest producer, Rosneft, in a bid to reduce Moscow’s ability to pay for its war against Ukraine. Interest in the assets has been shown by US private equity firm Carlyle, US oil giants Exxon Mobil and Chevron Corp, Abu Dhabi conglomerate International Holding Company and Austrian investor Bernd Bergmair, the former majority owner of the adult entertainment group that includes the website Pornhub.

Vladimir Putin’s position has not been significantly weakened by sanctions imposed on oligarchs or specific products or sectorsExiled Russian billionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky said: Politicians want to “impress their voters” with sanctions on goods and trade, but he added that their implementation in practice is “unrealistic”. Khodorkovsky said the West’s belief that sanctions against Russian oligarchs would motivate them to pressure Putin to end the war in Ukraine was based on a “misunderstanding” of the relationship between wealthy businessmen and the Kremlin. “I have been saying for the last 20 years that there are no oligarchs in Russia,” he said. “How can you reconcile oligarchy with dictatorship? If you have money without weapons, you become someone else’s food.”