Zelensky to attend EU summit on Ukraine
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will join EU leaders for a Brussels summit on Thursday aimed at cementing the bloc’s support for Kyiv’s three-year fight against Russia’s invasion.
“President Zelensky will attend the summit in person,” an EU official said on the eve of the summit gathering all 27 leaders for the first time since Zelensky’s White House clash with President Donald Trump upended US support for Ukraine.
Third person killed in overnight Russian missile strike in Ukraine
A third person died after overnight Russian strikes in Ukraine, local authorities said Thursday.
Moscow has kept up its bombardment of Ukraine even as rhetoric builds in Washington and Moscow on potential talks to halt the more than three-year war.
Ukraine’s emergency services said two people were killed when a Russian missile hit a five-story hotel in Kryvyi Rig, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s home town. It said a stairwell was destroyed, and that rescuers were looking for people under the rubble. “Two people were killed, seven injured, 14 were rescued,” it said.
Officials later said a security guard was killed when a warehouse was struck in Sumy, further north.
A hotel building on fire at the site of a strike in Kryvyi Rig, Ukraine. (The State Emergency Service of Ukraine via AFP)
Top Trump allies hold talks with Zelensky’s political opponents, Politico reports
Four senior members of President Donald Trump’s entourage have held discussions with some of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s top political opponents, Politico reported on Wednesday.
Talks were held with Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko and senior members of the party of Former President Petro Poroshenko, Politico reported, citing three Ukrainian lawmakers and a US Republican foreign policy expert.
Discussions were held on whether Ukraine could have quick presidential elections, according to the report.
Russia’s Medvedev mocks Macron warning, says French leader won’t be missed
Russian former president Dmitry Medvedev early on Thursday mocked French President Emmanuel Macron’s warning that Russia posed a threat, saying the French leader posed no threat at all and would not be missed once he stepped away from public life.
“Russia has become, as I speak to you and for years to come, a threat to France and Europe, says Macron,” Medvedev, now deputy head of Russia’s Security Council, wrote in English on the X media platform.
“Micron himself poses no big threat though. He’ll disappear forever no later than May 14, 2027. And he won’t be missed,” he added, misspelling the French president’s name.
Macron says he’ll confer with allies on protecting Europe with French nuclear deterrence
President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday announced he would discuss extending France’s nuclear deterrent to European partners and raised the possibility of sending European troops to Ukraine to enforce a peace deal, as Europe scrambles to respond to Donald Trump’s upending of the transatlantic alliance.
In an address to the nation, Macron said that the French were “legitimately worried” about the start of a “new era” after Trump began his second stint in the White House by reversing US policy on Ukraine and risking a historic rupture with Europe.
“I want to believe that the United States will stay by our side but we have to be prepared for that not to be the case,” he said bluntly.
“The future of Europe does not have to be decided in Washington or Moscow,” he added.
EU leaders to back defence surge, support Zelensky after US aid freeze
European leaders aim to endorse bold measures to ramp up defence spending and pledge support for Ukraine on Thursday, after Donald Trump’s suspension of military aid to Kyiv fuelled concerns the continent can no longer be sure of U.S. protection.
Leaders of the European Union’s 27 countries will be joined by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at a summit in Brussels, although their show of solidarity may be marred by Hungary refusing to endorse a statement backing Kyiv.
The meeting takes place against a backdrop of dramatic defence policy decisions driven by fears that Russia, emboldened by its war in Ukraine, may attack an EU country next and that Europe cannot rely on the US to come to its aid.
US President Donald Trump has insisted he is committed to the NATO security alliance that links North America and Europe.
But he has also said Europe must take more responsibility for its security and previously suggested the US would not protect a NATO ally that did not spend enough on defence.
His decision to shift from staunch US support for Ukraine to a more conciliatory stance towards Moscow has deeply alarmed Europeans who see Russia as the biggest threat to their security.
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