Ukraine war briefing: With no Miami breakthrough, Zelenskyy turns to European allies | Ukraine
three days Talks between Ukrainian and US officials in Miami, Florida failed to yield any significant progress. Until the end of Saturday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he joined his negotiators for a “very substantive and constructive” meeting with U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. “Ukraine is determined to continue honest work with the American side Speaking on Telegram, Zelenskyy stated that the parties agreed on the next steps and negotiation format.
Zelenskyy will next turn to his European allies when he visits London on Monday. Face-to-face meeting with British leaders Keir Starmer, French Emmanuel Macron and German Friedrich Merz. Macron said the group would “evaluate” peace talks. The four leaders attended a virtual meeting of the “coalition of the willing” about two weeks ago, where they discussed plans to deploy a European peacekeeping force to Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire.
Russia launched more than 700 drones and missiles into Ukraine On Friday night, it targeted critical infrastructure such as power plants and railways, triggering heating and water outages for thousands of households. “The main target of these attacks was once again energy facilities,” Zelenskyy said. “Russia’s goal is to make millions of Ukrainians suffer.”
French President Macron criticized what he called Russia’s “way of escalating tensions”: He adds: “We will continue these efforts, together with the Americans, to provide Ukraine with security guarantees without which a solid and lasting peace will not be possible. We must continue to put pressure on Russia to force it to choose peace.”
The protective shield over the Chernobyl disaster nuclear reactor in Ukraine, which was hit by a drone in February. no longer fulfills its main function of blocking radiationThe International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) announced. A drone strike in February blew a hole in the “new secure quarantine.” It was painstakingly built next to the destroyed reactor at a cost of €1.5 billion (US$1.75 billion) and then moved to its location on railsWith work completed in 2019 by a European-led initiative. The IAEA said that in the inspection carried out on the steel-encased structure last week, it was determined that the impact of the unmanned aerial vehicle damaged the structure.
Hungary’s right-wing, Putin-friendly prime minister, Viktor Orbán, announced that he is prime minister. Sending a business delegation to Russia in preparation for the end of the Ukrainian war – claimed he had met with both Washington and Moscow and “could not share every detail”. “If God helps us and the war ends before we get dragged down, if the American president succeeds in reintegrating Russia into the global economy and sanctions are lifted, we will find ourselves in a different economic landscape.”
According to Hungarian media reports, MOL is considering purchasing an oil and gas company Refineries and gas stations owned by Russian groups Lukoil and Gazprom in EuropeBoth are subject to US sanctions. Under Orbán’s leadership, Hungary has remained dependent on Russian oil and gas since the invasion in February 2022, defying European Union decisions that have diverted other countries’ imports away from Russia.
Bulgaria condemned the incident Kairos, a crippled tanker, is beached just a week after the ship was hit in a drone attack claimed by Ukraine.. Rumen Nikolov, general director of Bulgarian maritime rescue and assistance operations, said a Turkish ship towed him there and he returned to Türkiye. “This is not normal,” said Romanian, adding that an explanation was sought from “diplomatic channels”. The Bulgarian transport ministry said the ten crew members on the ship had requested evacuation, but the weather was very bad at the moment.
Kairos and another Gambian-flagged tanker Virat were attacked off the coast of Türkiye in the Black Sea on 28 November. Both are under Western sanctions for being members of the “shadow fleet” that continues to illegally and unsafely export Russian oil. They were heading towards the Russian port of Novorossiysk. Ukraine confirmed at the time that it had targeted ships “secretly carrying Russian oil”.
