Explainer
Ukraine
war briefing: Putin back in Trump’s ear as soon as Tomahawks came up, says
Zelenskyy
US
president reveals plan to meet Russian ruler again as Ukrainian president
visits Washington; EU’s fuel importers will have to prove it’s not Russian.
What we know on day 1,332
Warren
Murray with Guardian writers and agencies
Fri 17
Oct 2025 02.36 CEST
Volodymr
Zelenskyy has said in Washington that Vladimir Putin’s decision to seek talks
with Donald Trump shows the Russian president is on the defensive. “We can
already see that Moscow is rushing to resume dialogue as soon as it hears about
Tomahawks,” Zelenskyy said, referring to the US president’s musings about
supplying the long-range cruise missiles to Ukraine. Trump on Wednesday said he
was making plans to meet Putin in Budapest, Hungary, where both the US and
Russian presidents share an admirer in the form of the prime minister, Viktor
Orbán.
“Putin is
trying to derail the momentum toward greater pressure on Russia,” said Dan
Fried, a former US state department official. “We’ll see what happens tomorrow
[on Friday, with Zelenskyy due to meet Trump] but the chances of moving toward
a ceasefire by pushing Russia to get serious seem to have diminished.” Trump
had recently been hardening his language towards Russia until Thursday’s call
with Putin which the Kremlin described as “extremely frank and trustful”.
“The
planned meeting between the American and Russian presidents is great news for
the peace-loving people of the world. We are ready!” said Orbán, who as the
leader of an EU and Nato country has frequently played the spoiler in their
attempts to aid Ukraine in the war. Orban said he had spoken by phone with
Trump and preparations for a US-Russia peace summit were under way.
The
European Union has set a requirement for fuel importers into the EU to prove
their fuels are not made from Russian crude, according to a document published
on Thursday. The document provides guidance on the EU’s upcoming ban on imports
of fuels refined from Russian crude, part of its 18th sanctions package against
Russia over its war in Ukraine. The ban takes effect from 21 January next year.
The
market appeared to be taking into account the potential end of Indian imports
of Russian oil, Reuters reported on Thursday. Some Indian refiners are
preparing to cut Russian oil imports, with expectations of a gradual reduction,
three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. Oil prices were stable on
Thursday and Tony Sycamore, a market analyst at IG, said: “This is a positive
development for the crude oil price as it would remove a big buyer of Russian
oil.” It came after Donald Trump claimed Narendra Modi, India’s PM, had
promised him on Wednesday that India would stop the imports. India did not
confirm Trump’s claim – its officials said the two leaders did not have a phone
call on Wednesday, and that the priority was to safeguard India’s energy
supply.
Vladimir
Putin meanwhile complained of Russian oil’s struggle with “unfair” practices
while claiming it remained one of the world’s leading producers. The industry
is under sanctions because of Putin’s war against Ukraine. Speaking at a
conference on Russian energy in Moscow, Putin said European countries had hurt
their own economies by cutting sales of Russian gas and criticised western
restrictions on exporting equipment to the Russian oil industry.
A massive
Russian drone and missile attack hit gas facilities in eastern Ukraine on
Thursday, Peter Beaumont writes from the Kharkiv region. Russia launched
hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles, as well as glide bombs. There were
outages in eight regions. “This autumn, the Russians use every single day to
strike at our energy infrastructure,” said Volodymyr Zelenskyy, adding that
strikes hit the regions of Chernihiv, Kharkiv, Poltava, Sumy and Vinnytsia.
One of
the facilities hit was the Shebelinka gas processing plant in the Kharkiv
region. Staff told the Guardian that it had been hit just after 5.30am by
drones and missiles, setting off at least two blazes in different parts of the
facility. The Russian defence ministry claimed it hit facilities used by the
Ukrainian military with Kinzhal missiles “in response” to attacks on Russian
infrastructure. However, since invading Ukraine in 2022, Moscow has attacked
Ukraine’s civilian power infrastructure each winter, regardless of what the
Ukrainians do.
Russia
showed its true attitude to peace through the “terror” of such strikes, said
Kyiv’s envoy to Washington, Olga Stefanishyna. “Russia once again chose
missiles over dialogue, turning this attack into a direct blow to ongoing peace
efforts led by President Trump … These assaults show that Moscow’s strategy is
one of terror and exhaustion.”
The EU
had no choice but to build up anti-drone defences against Russia, the bloc’s
foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said on Thursday, as Brussels unveiled a
“roadmap” to prepare for potential conflict by 2030. “Today we propose a new
anti-drone system to be fully operational by the end of 2027,” Kallas said.
Brussels wants the “European drone defence initiative” to begin working
initially by the end of 2026 and be fully functioning by the end of 2027.
Brussels hopes to get the backing of EU leaders at a summit next week.
Alongside the drone initiative is a broader “eastern flank watch” programme
designed to bolster air and ground defences along the EU’s border closest to
Russia by the end of 2028.
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