Zelenskyy to meet Starmer and ‘coalition of the willing’ to discuss further military support
Ukrainian president Volodmyr Zelenskyy will travel to London on Friday for a meeting of the “coalition of the willing” hosted by prime minister Kier Starmer. Starmer intends to make the case for using frozen assets to fund Ukraine’s defences.
Cabinet Office minister Nick Thomas-Symonds told LBC:
We want to try and take Russian oil and gas off the global market.
We want also to finish the job on the frozen Russian sovereign assets, essentially so we can use the them to unlock billions of pounds to fund Ukraine’s defences and, thirdly, supplying long-range capabilities.
By that, I mean missiles to Ukraine going into the winter months, which obviously has jobs benefits here in the United Kingdom as well.
But fundamentally it is about that message to Putin and action to ramp up the pressure. Because it is Putin who is playing for time, Putin who is the one who is not coming to the table and engaging.
In other developments:
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Belgian prime minister Bart De Wever said on Thursday that his country needs concrete and solid guarantees before supporting a plan to use frozen Russian assets to fund a giant loan to Kyiv, pointing out that the plan is “uncharted territory”. Belgium’s position is critical, as the assets in question are held by Belgian financial institution Euroclear. “Can this (plan) be legal? That is a very good question … There are no clear answers,” De Wever told reporters after attending an EU summit in Brussels on Thursday. “We will in any case be buried in litigation. That seems like a certainty.”
EU leaders did not reach an agreement on how to handle the frozen assets during the summit. The issue will be discussed further at the next EU summit in December. -
An overnight Ukrainian drone attack injured a young boy and four others in a Moscow suburb, Russian officials said Friday. The drone hit an apartment on the 14th floor of a residential building in Krasnogorsk, the governor of the Moscow region, Andrey Vorobyov, said on Telegram. Russia’s defence ministry meanwhile said it had downed 111 Ukrainian drones.
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Germany’s economy minister begins a visit to Ukraine on Friday to discuss how Berlin can bolster the country’s defences as its energy infrastructure confronts intensifying Russian attacks.
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Hungary is working on finding a way to “circumvent” US sanctions on Russian oil companies, prime minister Viktor Orbán said in an interview with state radio Kossuth on Friday. Orban also said that he has talked to Hungary’s oil and gas company MOL on the topic. US President Donald Trump on Wednesday imposed sanctions on Russia for the first time in his second term, targeting Lukoil and Rosneft, signifying a major shift in his approach to ending the war.
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Vladimir Putin has said Russia will never bow to US pressure but conceded new sanctions could cause some economic pain, as China and India were reported to be scaling back Russian oil imports after Washington targeted Moscow’s two largest producers. The Russian leader on Thursday described the US sanctions as an “unfriendly act that does nothing to strengthen Russian-American relations” and “an attempt to put pressure on Russia”, which he said was futile. “No self-respecting country ever does anything under pressure,” Putin added in comments to Russian journalists.
Key events
Senior EU officials to visit China next week for urgent talks
Lisa O’Carroll
A team of senior EU officials will head to China next week for urgent talks aimed at disentangling Europe from the ongoing trade war between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping.
They are battling to persuade Beijing to ease the restrictions they have imposed on both exports of rare earths and semiconductors critical to car production.
The meetings will take place on line and in person, sources have said.
They follow a meeting of more than two hours this week between trade commissioner Maroš Šefčovič and commerce minister Wang Wentao earlier this week.
The car industry warned on Thursday that China’s ban on exports of semiconductors made by Chinese owned Nexperia could halt production.
The ban, which was taken in the wake of the Dutch government’s decision to take over Nexperia in Nijmegan, comes on top of recent restrictions Beijing imposed on rare earth exports.
China has a stranglehold on global supplies of rare earths, and supplies could mean new cars cannot be finished if elements including magnets needed for window and boot openings and closings are choked off.
Russian president Vladimir Putin spoke by phone to Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev, the Kremlin said on Friday, saying the two leaders had discussed their mutual desire to deepen trade and economic ties.
They had also discussed their wish to implement joint energy and transport and logistics projects, the Kremlin said.
Russia ‘analysing’ latest sanctions and will act according to its interests
Russia is analysing the latest western sanctions, and will act according to its interests, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Friday.
Peskov told reporters:
At the moment, we are analysing the sanctions that have been defined and announced, and, of course, we will do what best suits our interests.
That’s the main thing in our actions. We are acting primarily not against someone else, we are acting for our own benefit. That’s what we will be doing.
The US this week imposed sanctions on Russia’s largest oil companies, Lukoil and Rosneft, and EU countries approved a 19th package of sanctions on Moscow for its war against Ukraine that included a ban on Russian liquefied natural gas imports.
EU finds Meta and TikTok in breach of transparency obligations
Robert Booth
Instagram, TikTok and Facebook have breached EU law by failing to provide users with simple ways to flag illegal content including child sexual abuse material and terrorist content, the European Commission has said.
In preliminary findings on Friday, the EU’s executive body said Meta, the $1.8tn California company that runs the social media services, had introduced unnecessary steps in processes for users to submit reports.
It said both platforms appeared to use deceptive design – known as “dark patterns” – in the reporting mechanism in a way that could be “confusing and dissuading” to users.
The commission found this amounted to a breach of the company’s obligations under the EU-wide Digital Services Act (DSA), and meant that “Meta’s mechanisms to flag and remove illegal content may be ineffective”. Meta denies it has breached the act.
Read more:
Russian forces take control of three villages in eastern Ukraine, says Russian ministry
The Russian defence ministry said on Friday that its forces had taken control of three more villages in eastern Ukraine, Russian agencies reported.
According to the ministry, Russian troops have taken Bolohivka in the Kharkiv region, Promin in the Donetsk region, as well as Zlagoda in the Dnipropetrovsk region.
Earlier, the ministry also said its forces had captured the settlement of Dronivka in the Donetsk region.
The Guardian cannot independently verify battlefield reports.
Turkey: US and others must push Israel to stop violating Gaza ceasefire
Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan said the United States and others must do more to push Israel to stop violating the Gaza ceasefire agreement, including the possible use of sanctions or halting arms sales.
According to an official readout of his remarks to reporters aboard a return flight from Oman, Erdogan said the Palestinian militant group Hamas was abiding by the agreement.
Erdogan told reporters on his return flight from a regional Gulf tour:
As Turkey, we are doing our utmost for the ceasefire to be secured. The Hamas side is abiding by the ceasefire. In fact, it is openly stating its commitment to this. Israel, meanwhile, is continuing to violate the ceasefire.
The international community, namely the United States, must do more to ensure Israel’s full compliance to the ceasefire and agreement,” he said, according to a transcript of his comments shared by his office on Friday.
Israel must be forced to keep its promises via sanctions, halting of arms sales.
Ankara has said that it would join a “taskforce” to oversee the implementation of the ceasefire, that its armed forces could serve in a military or civilian capacity as needed, and that it will play an active role in the reconstruction of the enclave.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu hinted on Wednesday at his opposition to any role for Turkish security forces in the Gaza Strip.
For more updates on the situation in Gaza, follow our Middle East liveblog here.
Ireland votes for next president as polls predict landslide for Catherine Connolly
Rory Carroll
Irish voters go to the polls on Friday to elect a new president, with final opinion polls predicting a landslide for Catherine Connolly, an outspoken leftwing independent who has captured the imagination of many younger people.
An opinion poll on Thursday gave Connolly 40% versus 25% for her opponent, Heather Humphreys, a former cabinet minister. When the figures were adjusted for those who are undecided or plan to spoil their vote, Connolly had 55% and Humphreys 35%.
Two polls earlier this week also gave Connolly, 68, a wide lead in the race to succeed Michael D Higgins, who has served two seven-year terms, and become Ireland’s 10th president.
The presidency is a largely ceremonial office, but victory for the member of parliament from Galway would be a humbling rebuke to the centre-right government. It would also mark a triumph for an alliance of opposition leftwing parties – Sinn Féin, Labour, the Social Democrats, People Before Profit and the Greens – who forged a rare unity to jointly campaign for Connolly.
While the role does not have the power to shape laws or policies, past presidents have been known to air their views on important issues. Higgins has spoken out on the war in Gaza and Nato spending, among other things.
Zelenskyy to meet Starmer and ‘coalition of the willing’ to discuss further military support
Ukrainian president Volodmyr Zelenskyy will travel to London on Friday for a meeting of the “coalition of the willing” hosted by prime minister Kier Starmer. Starmer intends to make the case for using frozen assets to fund Ukraine’s defences.
Cabinet Office minister Nick Thomas-Symonds told LBC:
We want to try and take Russian oil and gas off the global market.
We want also to finish the job on the frozen Russian sovereign assets, essentially so we can use the them to unlock billions of pounds to fund Ukraine’s defences and, thirdly, supplying long-range capabilities.
By that, I mean missiles to Ukraine going into the winter months, which obviously has jobs benefits here in the United Kingdom as well.
But fundamentally it is about that message to Putin and action to ramp up the pressure. Because it is Putin who is playing for time, Putin who is the one who is not coming to the table and engaging.
In other developments:
-
Belgian prime minister Bart De Wever said on Thursday that his country needs concrete and solid guarantees before supporting a plan to use frozen Russian assets to fund a giant loan to Kyiv, pointing out that the plan is “uncharted territory”. Belgium’s position is critical, as the assets in question are held by Belgian financial institution Euroclear. “Can this (plan) be legal? That is a very good question … There are no clear answers,” De Wever told reporters after attending an EU summit in Brussels on Thursday. “We will in any case be buried in litigation. That seems like a certainty.”
EU leaders did not reach an agreement on how to handle the frozen assets during the summit. The issue will be discussed further at the next EU summit in December. -
An overnight Ukrainian drone attack injured a young boy and four others in a Moscow suburb, Russian officials said Friday. The drone hit an apartment on the 14th floor of a residential building in Krasnogorsk, the governor of the Moscow region, Andrey Vorobyov, said on Telegram. Russia’s defence ministry meanwhile said it had downed 111 Ukrainian drones.
-
Germany’s economy minister begins a visit to Ukraine on Friday to discuss how Berlin can bolster the country’s defences as its energy infrastructure confronts intensifying Russian attacks.
-
Hungary is working on finding a way to “circumvent” US sanctions on Russian oil companies, prime minister Viktor Orbán said in an interview with state radio Kossuth on Friday. Orban also said that he has talked to Hungary’s oil and gas company MOL on the topic. US President Donald Trump on Wednesday imposed sanctions on Russia for the first time in his second term, targeting Lukoil and Rosneft, signifying a major shift in his approach to ending the war.
-
Vladimir Putin has said Russia will never bow to US pressure but conceded new sanctions could cause some economic pain, as China and India were reported to be scaling back Russian oil imports after Washington targeted Moscow’s two largest producers. The Russian leader on Thursday described the US sanctions as an “unfriendly act that does nothing to strengthen Russian-American relations” and “an attempt to put pressure on Russia”, which he said was futile. “No self-respecting country ever does anything under pressure,” Putin added in comments to Russian journalists.
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