Russia’s war on Ukraine ‘must be brought to an end’, Zelenskyy says

Ukraine’s president says communication between Washington and Kyiv ‘virtually nonstop’, despite a spat with Trump.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy at a European Union summit in Brussels on Friday [Yves Herman/Reuters]

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that the war with Russia “must be brought to an end” and that his country is preparing for the “next steps” of diplomacy to end the conflict.

Zelenskyy said on X on Sunday that he had a “conversation with the American president’s envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner”. He added that “a lot depends” on the US position, but it’s clear there are “many things that matter to all of us”.

list 1 of 3 Rubio says Ukraine without access to Starshield, future ‘under discussion’

list 2 of 3 Russia’s war in Ukraine puts Europe on edge

list 3 of 3 Ukrainian drone attack on Russia’s St Petersburg kills 1, hits energy sites

The Ukrainian leader’s comments come amid a significant diplomatic fallout with US President Donald Trump, who on Saturday waived expected sanctions targeting Russia’s energy economy and previously called renewed Ukrainian strikes on Russian energy infrastructure “a disgrace”.

Nonetheless, Zelenskyy said his team is in “virtually nonstop communication” with their US counterparts and said a focus of dialogue is on the results of the talks in Florida and further steps.

US wavers on Ukraine’s access to tech

Also on Sunday, Zelenskyy said he was “thankful” that the US had resumed intelligence sharing with Ukraine after a pause left Ukraine particularly vulnerable to Russia’s regular ballistic missile attacks.

“It was blocked for some period of time. And then it was deblocked by the American side,” Zelenskyy told NBC, adding: “Only [the] United States has this unique intelligence to tell our side when Russia uses ballistic missiles. And we didn’t get it during ballistic attacks during three days”.

Kyiv has also reported restrictions on the speed of satellite service Starshield, a military-grade version of Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite connectivity network, provided to Ukraine by Musk’s company SpaceX.

Ukraine said its relays were experiencing a limit on how fast receivers could travel while maintaining connectivity, making it almost impossible to intercept Russia’s upgraded jet-powered long-range drones.

Musk had said any restrictions imposed on Starshield connectivity were the responsibility of the US government. The White House quickly rebuked that and in an NBC interview on Sunday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called Zelenskyy “very reckless” for accusing the US of throttling connectivity.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Sunday that Ukraine is currently blocked from Starshield, and that a request from Kyiv to access the system for attacks deep inside Russia is “under discussion”.

Long-range attacks continue

Also on Sunday, Ukrainian media reported that Russian strikes killed two people in the western Volyn region, near the border with Poland, and injured at least five others across the country. Overnight attacks by Russia killed a woman and injured a six-year-old in the Zaporizhzhia region.

On Saturday night and in the early hours of Sunday, Ukraine hit Russia’s second-largest city, St Petersburg , with a significant drone attack. It targeted a key oil refinery and depot, a warehouse of Russian online retailer Ozon and a data centre run by Russian social media company, VKontakte.

At least one person was killed in the attack, which Russian state media said was the largest on the city since the start of the war in 2022.

Smoke rises above an oil terminal in St Petersburg on Sunday following a Ukrainian attack [AFP]

尽管与特朗普发生争执，乌克兰总统表示，华盛顿和基辅之间的沟通“几乎从未间断”。

周五，弗拉基米尔·泽连斯基在布鲁塞尔举行的欧盟峰会上发表讲话。[Yves Herman/路透社]

乌克兰总统泽连斯基表示，与俄罗斯的战争“必须结束”，乌克兰正在准备采取“下一步”外交措施来结束冲突。

泽连斯基周日在X电视台表示，他与美国总统的特使史蒂夫·威特科夫和贾里德·库什纳进行了“谈话”。他补充说，“很多事情取决于”美国的立场，但很显然，“有很多事情对我们所有人来说都很重要”。

列表 1/3 鲁比奥称乌克兰无法获得星盾武器，未来“仍在讨论中”

列表 2/3：俄罗斯在乌克兰的战争令欧洲紧张不安

乌克兰无人机袭击俄罗斯圣彼得堡，造成1人死亡，并击中能源设施（共3起，此为第3起）。

乌克兰领导人发表上述言论之际，正值乌克兰与美国总统唐纳德·特朗普发生重大外交冲突之时。特朗普于周六取消了针对俄罗斯能源经济的预期制裁，此前他还称乌克兰再次袭击俄罗斯能源基础设施是“耻辱”。

尽管如此，泽连斯基表示，他的团队正与美国同行保持“几乎不间断的沟通”，并表示对话的重点是佛罗里达州会谈的结果和后续步骤。

美国在乌克兰获取技术的问题上态度摇摆不定

泽连斯基周日还表示，他对美国在暂停情报共享后恢复与乌克兰的情报共享表示“感谢”，此前暂停使乌克兰特别容易受到俄罗斯的定期弹道导弹袭击。

泽连斯基告诉NBC：“情报一度被封锁，后来被美方解除封锁。”他补充说：“只有美国掌握这种独特的情报，能够告知我们俄罗斯何时使用了弹道导弹。但在这三天的弹道导弹袭击中，我们却没有收到情报。”

基辅方面还报告称，卫星服务 Starshield 的速度受到限制。Starshield 是埃隆·马斯克的 Starlink 卫星连接网络的军用版本，由马斯克的公司 SpaceX 提供给乌克兰。

乌克兰方面表示，其中继站的接收器在保持连接的同时传输速度受到限制，这使得拦截俄罗斯升级后的喷气式远程无人机几乎不可能。

马斯克曾表示，任何对“星盾”网络连接的限制都应由美国政府负责。白宫迅速对此予以驳斥。周日，财政部长斯科特·贝森特在接受NBC采访时称，泽连斯基指责美国限制网络连接是“非常鲁莽”的行为。

美国国务卿马可·卢比奥周日表示，乌克兰目前被禁止使用“星盾”系统，基辅方面提出的访问该系统以对俄罗斯境内发动攻击的请求“正在讨论中”。

远程攻击仍在继续

周日，乌克兰媒体报道称，俄罗斯空袭造成乌克兰西部沃伦州（靠近波兰边境）两人死亡，另有至少五人受伤。此前一天晚上，俄罗斯的袭击还导致扎波罗热州一名妇女死亡，一名六岁儿童受伤。

周六晚间至周日凌晨，乌克兰对俄罗斯第二大城市圣彼得堡发动了一次大规模无人机袭击。袭击目标包括一家重要的炼油厂和油库、俄罗斯在线零售商Ozon的一个仓库以及俄罗斯社交媒体公司VKontakte运营的一个数据中心。

袭击造成至少一人死亡，俄罗斯国家媒体称这是自 2022 年战争开始以来该市遭受的最大规模袭击。

周日，乌克兰军队发动袭击后，圣彼得堡一处石油码头上空升起浓烟。[法新社]