Ukraine-Russia war latest: Trump says he will loosen oil sanctions after ‘very good’ call with Putin

Ukraine has sent air defence teams to Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia to help them in their fight against Iran’s aerial attacks, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday.

Gulf states have expended large quantities of precious air-defence missiles to counter Irans attack drones and have sought Ukraine’s expertise in downing them. Kyiv downs Russian drones every night using an array of weaponry including cheaper, smaller drones or jamming equipment.

“Regarding the situation in the Middle East, we have sent our teams: three professional, equipped teams,” Zelensky told Reuters.

His communications adviser also said Ukrainian specialists had already been deployed to a US military base in Jordan, without providing details.

Zelensky said the presence of Ukrainian pilots was key to the effectiveness of interceptor drone operations.

“Even those countries that were quietly buying interceptors have, I think, realised that without our military, our operators, our software… without all of that, the interceptors simply don’t work.”

Senior Trump adviser and US special envoy Steve Witkoff has said in a CNBC interview on Tuesday that the next round of trilateral peace talks between Ukraine, Russia and the United States would likely be “sometime next week.”

Several rounds of talks between the three countries have been held in recent months without any breakthrough on territory, the key issue.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday that POW swaps and a possible leaders’ summit would be discussed during the next round of U.S.-brokered peace talks between Ukraine and Russia.

He told reporters in a WhatsApp media chat that the talks had been postponed until next week.

In an outtake from a recorded address for International Women’s Day, the Russian president could be seen clearing his throat before repeatedly coughing and gesturing towards his neck.

Putin said, according to the Moscow Times: “You know, let me say that again, because… my throat’s a bit scratchy. Yes, a bit scratchy. I almost started coughing. I’ve been talking a lot today.”

The video of the 73-year-old Russian leader was posted to the Kremlin’s Telegram channel, then deleted without explanation, The Times said. A separate video of the presidential press service was then uploaded without the coughing fit.

s the war in the Middle East spreads and intensifies, the one in Ukraine continues. While geographically some 2,500km (1,600 miles) apart, the consequences of US President Donald Trump’s latest military adventure for the Russian war against Ukraine will be acutely felt across several areas. In the short term, the Kremlin will probably feel emboldened to double down on its aggression, but this is unlikely to shift the dial significantly towards Russian victory in the long term.

The targeted killing of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei by a precision US strike would have reminded the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, of his reportedly “apoplectic” reaction to the killing of the Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, in 2011. Comments on social media from the likes of far-right Russian nationalist Alexander Dugin, who posted, that “one by one, our allies are being systematically destroyed”, and former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, who alleged that the “talks with Iran were just a cover”, are unlikely to have steadied Putin’s nerves.

Donald Trump announced the US would ease oil-related sanctions on certain countries after a call with Vladimir Putin, aiming to stabilise global energy markets following recent Middle East conflicts.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed that Ukrainian interceptor drones and operators are now at US bases in Jordan, with multiple nations seeking Ukraine’s drone counter-measure expertise.

Russian drone attacks on Kharkiv and Dnipro injured over 20 people, as Ukraine’s air force reported intercepting a significant majority of 137 incoming drones.

Dutch intelligence agencies disclosed a widespread Russian cyber campaign targeting Signal and WhatsApp accounts of dignitaries, military personnel, and journalists globally through phishing.

President Zelensky reiterated Ukraine’s readiness for US-backed peace talks with Russia, accusing Moscow of attempting to exploit Middle East tensions to further its aggression.

Ukrainian widow Olga Garbuz, who lost her husband to the war in Ukraine, came to Dubai with her daughter in 2022 to rebuild her life.

“The war in Ukraine took many things from me and my daughter. My husband got killed. We got displaced multiple times. I cannot imagine going through any of these again,” Ms Garbuz tells The Independent.

Her husband, Yuriy Volchkov, was killed in Kharkiv, a frontline city in eastern Ukraine, in March 2022, when the vehicle he was travelling in to distribute humanitarian aid was shot at by the Russians. He was 45 years old.

Russian and Ukrainian officials are making contradictory claims of battlefield successes in their 4-year-old war, with Ukraine saying it has pushed Moscow’s forces back in some places on the front line but the Kremlin insisting that Russia’s invasion of its neighbor is making progress.

At the same time, Russia’s almost daily aerial attacks on civilian areas of Ukraine continue, with overnight drone strikes on two cities injuring at least 14 people, including two children, emergency services said Tuesday.

Ukraine’s air force said that it shot down 122 out of 137 drones that Russia launched during the night.