The latest Ukraine-Russia war: Zelensky’s meeting with Trump’s representative was canceled after Putin rejected a peace deal

Ukraine has targeted the Druzhba oil pipeline in Russia’s central Tambov region, a source in Ukraine’s military intelligence agency said on Wednesday.

According to Reuters calculations, this is the fifth Ukrainian attack on the pipeline that carries Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia.

Hungary and Slovakia continue to buy energy supplies from Russia, even after other EU countries cut ties following the country’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Ukrainian media reported that remote-controlled explosives were used in this attack.

The Slovak pipeline operator and the Hungarian Oil and Gas Company said later on Wednesday that oil supplies through Druzhba were operating normally.

The Kremlin said the meeting comes after Ukraine’s president was due to meet US negotiators Steve Wittkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner in Brussels, but they left Moscow for Washington on Tuesday night.

The Kremlin also denied claims that Putin had rejected the deal entirely, as Russian spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Russian leader had accepted some of the proposals – but key differences remained.

Türkiye has discussed the safety of its ships with NATO after last month’s attack on one of its ships in the Black Sea.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte discussed the issue on Wednesday on the sidelines of the alliance’s foreign ministers’ meeting, a source told Reuters.

Ankara condemned the attacks on Moscow-linked ships in Turkey’s exclusive economic zone off the country’s Black Sea coast.

Ukraine has claimed responsibility for a naval drone attack on two empty oil tankers en route to a Russian port last week.

This source in the Turkish Foreign Ministry announced that Fidan and Rutte discussed issues related to the security of the Black Sea and negotiations to end the almost four-year war on the sidelines of the NATO meeting in Brussels.

As Moscow grows more optimistic in its combined warfare tactics to provoke NATO, James C. Reynolds looks at how armies and economies compare.

The Kremlin claimed that the European Union’s decision to phase out Russian gas imports by 2027 would lead to higher prices for consumers.

The agreement includes a legally binding and phased ban on the import of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and pipeline gas from Russia, which will be fully banned from the end of 2026 and the fall of 2027, respectively.

Russia accounted for 12 percent of EU gas imports as of October, down from 45 percent before the Ukraine conflict in 2022.

Wes Streeting has dismissed Vladimir Putin’s claims that Russia is “ready” for war with Europe as “the same old swordplay”.

Russia’s president claimed on Tuesday that Russia was “ready” for war with Europe, in remarks that set off alarm bells in the West.

Speaking to Sky News, the Minister of Health said that Russia has no plans to attack.

“I think we have to see it for what it is, which is the same old fencing we’ve heard from President Putin,” he said.

And President Putin’s quip about warmongering European leaders would be funny if what he’s doing in Ukraine wasn’t so serious.

World affairs editor Sam Kelly writes that all hopes were for Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Wittkoff to visit Moscow, but peace talks with a man who has repeatedly sided with Russia were never going to happen.

European officials have agreed to a deal to phase out Russian gas imports by 2027, Ursula von der Leyen said.

The head of the European Union Commission said: This is the dawn of a new era, the era of complete energy independence of Europe from Russia.

The move comes as part of efforts to end Europe’s dependence on Russian energy.

Ms von der Leyen said Russia’s gas imports had fallen from 45 percent at the beginning of the war to 13 percent, and crude oil imports had dropped to 2 percent.

The British High Commissioner to India has sparked a diplomatic row after writing an article in an Indian newspaper that blamed Vladimir Putin for the war in Ukraine.

In a joint paper with the ambassadors of France and Germany, Lindy Cameron wrote that Russia launched an “unprovoked war of aggression” that angered the pro-Russian nation.

“Every day we see new and indiscriminate Russian attacks in this illegal war, targeting civilian infrastructure, destroying homes, hospitals and schools. These are not the actions of anyone serious about peace,” they wrote.

Responding to the article, former Indian foreign minister Kanwal Sibal said, “This vile article against Russia just before Putin’s state visit to India violates diplomatic norms, is a diplomatic insult to India as it questions India’s close ties with a very friendly third country.”

This is interference in our internal affairs because it aims to fuel anti-Russian sentiment in pro-European circles in India and to question the morality of our relations with Russia.