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Keir Starmer will hold discussions on boosting support for Ukraine with France’s Macron and Germany’s Merz
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Sir Keir Starmer will host Volodymyr Zelensky, Emmanuel Macron and Friedrich Merz for a summit in No 10 tomorrow, Downing Street said.
France’s Elysee Palace said the leaders will gather for high-level talks aimed at boosting support for Ukraine and increasing pressure on Russia.
“This meeting will allow them to continue their close coordination on our shared agenda of continuing support for Ukraine and increasing pressure on Russia’s war effort,” the statement said.
“Russia is facing military, economic, and strategic failure — and persists, unsuccessfully, on the front lines in a deadly war.”
The meeting comes after Zelensky urged Russian president Vladimir Putin in an open letter to meet him to agree an end to the war.
Cycling’s world governing body (UCI) has lifted its blanket ban on Belarus and relaxed some restrictions on Russian junior riders, amending regulations it first adopted in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The UCI said the changes follow updated recommendations from the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which lifted all restrictions on Belarusian athletes.
Ukraine’s military reports that drone operators from Ukraine’s 3rd Special Operations Forces Regiment have managed to take control of part of the land route to occupied Crimea.
A statement claims the operators are able to target Russian equipment and logistics along the Melitopol-Chonhar route, which leads to Crimea.
“As a result, logistics in terms of supplying the Russian army and fuel to the peninsula have already been complicated,” it said. “This is just the beginning. More to come!”
A sea drone self-destructed near an oil terminal in Romania’s Black Sea port of Constanta on Friday, without causing casualties, as Ukraine said Russia jammed the vessel causing it to driftoff course.
The explosion was the second major incident in a populated area in Romania on NATO’s eastern flank within a week as the spillover threat from the war in Ukraine increases.
Ukraine’s navy said one of its drones lost control in the Black Sea as a result of Russian electronic warfare. It contacted Romania to warn them and prevent casualties, it said.
Romanian defence minister Radu Miruta said that warning allowed a timely evacuation.
Residents of St. Petersburg, Russia’s second-largest city, were told not to leave their homes after a “large-scale” Ukrainian drone attack targeted the city Saturday morning, local officials said, underscoring Kyiv’s growing ability to hit deep inside Russia.
St. Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov advised St. Petersburg residents not to go outside and warned of possible disruptions to mobile internet service.
Regional Gov. Alexander Drozdenko said 141 drones were shot down over the surrounding Leningrad region. Russia’s Defense Ministry said its air defenses shot down 376 Ukrainian drones.
The Russian-installed management of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant said that it had restored the Ferrosplavnaya-1 power line, which supplies electricity to the plant.
“All systems and equipment at the ZNPP are operating normally,” the management said via its Telegram channel.
A temporary local ceasefire, brokered by the UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), was declared on Friday to allow repairs to the power line.
A few hours after the incident was reported, the Russian state nuclear energy corporation Rosatom accused Ukraine of deliberately violating the ceasefire through a drone attack that left at least three people injured.
The Zaporizhzhia plant, Europe’s largest with six reactors, was seized by Russian troops in the early weeks of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Each side has since accused the other of undertaking military actions to compromise nuclear safety.
The plant generates no electricity, but needs external power to ensure that nuclear fuel at the site does not overheat.
Ukraine’s military said on Saturday it had hit an oil depot and an oil terminal in Russia’s Leningrad region overnight.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier on Saturday said the military had also hit another Russian oil deport in Krasnodar region.
Russian authorities have accused Ukraine of launching an ‘unprecedented’ attack on St Petersburg on the final day of the ‘Russian Davos’ major economic forum in the city.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said his forces had targeted a naval base and Russian arsenals with drones, travelling 620 miles to the region.
Regional governor Aleksandr Drozdenko said more than 140 drones were shot down over the surrounding Leningrad region.
Zelensky also said that an oil depot in the southern Krasnodar region, 310 miles away, was also struck as part of what he called Ukraine’s “long-range sanctions” on Russia.
Russian president Vladimir Putin had earlier told the forum there was no point in meeting with Zelensky, who had suggested reopening talks to end the war.
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