TheUnited States is tying its security guarantees for a Ukraine peace agreement to Kyiv surrendering the entire eastern Donbas region to Russia, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told Reuters in an interview. He said that, with Washington’s attention turned to its own dispute with Iran, former President Donald Trump is pressuring Ukraine to end the four‑year war that began with Russia’s 2022 invasion. “The situation in the Middle East certainly influences Trump’s thinking, and I believe it will shape his next moves. Unfortunately, he still favours a tactic of increasing pressure on Ukraine,” Zelenskyy added. “I want the American side to recognise that the eastern part of our country is integral to our security assurances.”
Zelenskyy also accused Russia of trying to blackmail the United States by threatening to halt the sharing of military intelligence with Iran unless Washington cuts off intelligence flow to Ukraine. He noted that on Monday he said Ukrainian intelligence possessed “irrefutable” proof that Russia continued to supply Iran with information. On Wednesday he told Reuters he had reviewed the relevant data but gave no further specifics. “I have reports from our intelligence services showing Russia is doing this and saying, ‘I will not pass intelligence to Iran if America stops passing intelligence to Ukraine.’ That is blackmail, plain and simple,” he stated.
In a separate development, a Russian official reported that a Ukrainian drone strike damaged an industrial zone near one of Russia’s largest oil refineries. Governor Alexander Drozdenko said more than 20 drones were intercepted over the northern Leningrad region, though he did not pinpoint the exact damaged area. The town of Kirishi, which hosts a major refinery, lies within that zone. Reuters reported on Wednesday that at least 40 % of Russia’s oil export capacity remains offline due to Ukrainian drone attacks, a contested strike on a key pipeline, and the seizure of tankers.
Russian forces killed two people in Ukraine’s northeastern city of Kharkiv and its surrounding area, and a strike on the Danube port of Izmail damaged port facilities and energy infrastructure, officials said. Kharkiv prosecutors announced on Telegram early Thursday that a woman wounded in a Kharkiv attack later died in hospital. They reported nine injuries from strikes on two city districts, a frequent target of Russian forces located about 30 km (18 miles) from the border. The prosecutors also said a Russian drone killed a man in his car in a district nearer the frontier.
Ukrainian drone attacks caused two fatalities in Russia’s Belgorod region on Wednesday, according to regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov. He wrote on Telegram that an 18‑year‑old man riding a motorcycle in a border‑area village and a woman in her car in the town of Graivoron were killed. Belgorod has repeatedly been a flashpoint in the cross‑border fighting.
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