Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Kyiv, October 4, 2026
EA on Pakistan TV: Ukraine — The Black Sea Blockades Are Choking Grain Exports
EA-Ukraine VideoCast: What is the Meaning of “Glory to Ukraine”?
Sunday’s Coverage: Zelensky — We Will Step Up Attacks on Russia’s Oil Refineries
UPDATE 1446 GMT:
After speaking with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky about support for Kyiv, French President Emmanuel Macron condemned Russia’s escalating strikes on civilian infrastructure.
The Kremlin “has made the irresponsible choice to intensify its strikes on civilian infrastructure and targets”, Macron posted.
“We will yield neither to intimidation nor to Russia’s escalation,” Macron said as he accused Moscow of “stubbornly refusing all calls for a ceasefire”.
The European Union’s foreign policy head Kaja Kallas warned:
Europe has seen a spike in the Russian hybrid attacks and sabotage attempts and airspace violations in recent weeks. Russian missiles and drones violated Moldovan airspace again over the weekend. And this is completely unacceptable.
UPDATE 1442 GMT:
Romanian authorities say two people were killed and 11 crew were rescued after a fire on the ship Royad Mammadov in the Black Sea outside Romania’s territorial waters.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian drones were responsible.
UPDATE 1313 GMT:
Germany’s head of foreign intelligence warns Berlin is at risk of entering a violent conflict as Russia steps up its “shadow war” against European democracies.
“The confrontation we are facing with Russia has taken on a new, more dangerous dimension,” Martin Jäger, head of the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), told an annual public hearing in Parliament.
Jäger cited August’s attempt to detonate a drone near a Ukrainian cargo plane at Leipzig Airport, foiled by a staffer who downed the UAV, as “one example” with the threat remaining “real and imminent“.
He summarized, “Russia is putting us to the test and closely watching how we handle this situation. From the perspective of the Kremlin leadership, any sign of wavering invites them to further increase the pressure on Germany.”
UPDATE 0632 GMT:
More than 51% of Russia’s oil refining capacity has been disabled by Ukrainian attacks, claims Ukraine’s Defense Minister Yevhen Khmara.
Khmara cited analysts from Ukraine’s intelligence services, Defense Ministry, and General Staff: “This is the result of carefully planned, systematic, and comprehensive actions aimed at crippling the Russian war machine and destroying its military-economic potential.”
UPDATE 0627 GMT:
One civilian was murdered and eight injured, one “very seriously”, by a Russian double-tap strike with Banderol missiles on Kharkiv’s industrial district.
At least 10 multi-story residential buildings were damaged, and an administrative building and vehicles were set afire.
Ukraine air defenses downed 172 of 205 drones launched by Russia overnight, 49 of them jet-powered. Strikes were recorded at 13 locations.
A drone strike on an energy infrastructure facility in the Poltava region in central Ukraine left around 22,000 consumers without electricity.
UPDATE 0612 GMT:
Moscow police detained about 60 people at an authorized Communist Party rally on Sunday after participants began chanting anti-Kremlin slogans, according to Russian rights monitor OVD-Info.
The rally marked the anniversary of Russia’s 1993 constitutional crisis, when a standoff between President Boris Yeltsin and hard-line lawmakers culminated in the military shelling the Parliament building in Moscow. Authorities said 123 people were killed, while unofficial estimates put the toll in the hundreds.
The Communist Party has organized annual events as a symbol of resistance to Yeltsin-era reforms. However, Sunday’s gathering took a turn as participants chanted slogans including “Freedom for political prisoners,” “For fair elections”, and “Down with the Tsar”.
The participants also shouted, “No to political repression” and “Down with the party of crooks and thieves”.
Of those seized, 26 were Communist Party participants, 30 were members of the liberal Yabloko party, and several were activists.
ORIGINAL ENTRY: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says the Trump Administration is pushing for Ukraine-Russia technical talks before the end of October.
At a press conference alongside German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Kyiv, Zelensky said, “The American side is currently in contact with Ukraine and Russia and is proposing to hold some kind of meeting at the technical level in a trilateral format.
The President said he spoke directly with the US negotiating team on Saturday, but he could not disclose all the details of the preparations.
“We’re open to the UAE or any other country proposed by the US side [as a venue],” Zelensky said. “I know they’ll propose this to the Russian side as well — or may have already done so, I’m not sure of the sequence of events. And we’ll wait for a response.”
Ukraine and Russia had three sets of US-brokered talks in Abu Dhabi and Geneva in January-February 2026. The military discussions made some technical process; however, the political talks were stymied by the Kremlin maintaining its maximum demands for Ukraine’s surrender of territory and the rest of the country left without effective security guarantees.
Donald Trump has sought a meeting with Zelensky and Vladimir Putin. The Russian leader has rejected any encounter with Zelensky unless it is in Moscow.
Trackbacks/Pingbacks