Ukraine war briefing: Putin envoy says US better understands importance of Russian oil amid energy crisis

Vladimir Putin’s envoy says Washington is “beginning to better understand” the importance of Russian oil, after a “productive meeting” with US negotiators about the Ukraine invasion. “We discussed promising projects that could contribute to the restoration of Russian-American relations and the current crisis on global energy markets,” Russian negotiator Kirill Dmitriev wrote in a Telegram post.

The discussions in Florida on Thursday, which did not include representatives from Ukraine, came hours before the US issued a 30-day licence for countries to buy Russian oil and petroleum products currently stranded at sea, in an effort to stabilise global energy markets roiled by the Iran war. The US already lifted some sanctions on Russian oil earlier this week. That move was criticised as filling Russia’s war coffers. Trump said this week that Putin, to whom he spoke on Monday, wanted to be “helpful” in relation to the Middle East war.

Russia has received €6bn (£5bn) from selling its fossil fuels in the fortnight since the start of the US-Israel war with Iran, data suggests. The revenues imply Russia made an extra €672m in oil, gas and coal sales during March, Simon Goodley writes.

Hungary returned two seized armoured bank vehicles to Ukraine on Thursday but withheld cash and gold worth millions, citing an investigation into alleged money laundering, a move that Kyiv has denounced as theft. Relations between Hungary and Ukraine reached a new low last week when Hungary detained seven Ukrainians transporting cash and gold. Kyiv accused Budapest of taking the bank employees, engaged in a legitimate transfer, hostage to pressure Ukraine into restarting suspended oil shipments. Those detained were expelled by Hungary and crossed into Ukraine on Friday.

The EU has proposed a mission to inspect the Druzhba oil pipeline in Ukraine, and is waiting for a reply from Ukraine, a spokesperson for the EU Commission said on Thursday. Russian oil flows through the Druzhba pipeline to Hungary and Slovakia have been suspended since late January after it was damaged. Kyiv says a Russian strike hit Druzhba pipeline equipment, while Slovakia and Hungary say Ukraine is to blame for the prolonged outage.

Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, has accused Ukrainians of plotting to attack his family, amid the increasingly bitter standoff between Kyiv and Budapest. Orbán and his allies appear to be using the dispute for maximum political gain before the election due next month, Shaun Walker and Flora Garamvolgyi write. Polling has Orbán up to 20 points behind challenger Péter Magyar.

Ukraine is opening access to its battlefield data for its allies to train drone AI software, the defence minister said on Thursday, as Kyiv seeks to harness the experience it has garnered fending off Russia’s invasion. The move comes as militaries across the globe start to use automated systems which can guide drones to their targets without a pilot, or quickly analyse vast pools of data. Foreign allies and companies have sought access to Ukraine’s datasets, as these are crucial for training models to recognise patterns, shapes and the behaviour of people and machines on the battlefield.

The European Commission has warned it will cut funding for the Venice Biennale if organisers go ahead with plans to include Russia. The commission reiterated any breach of ethical standards by the art festival would be treated as a violation of contract, leading to suspension of the €2m (£1.7m) agreement, Jennifer Rankin reports. Biennale organisers said last week that Russia would be allowed to take part, triggering accusations from Ukraine it was offering “a stage … for whitewashing war crimes”.

Romania and Ukraine have signed a statement of intent to produce Ukrainian defence systems including drones in Romania. Romania, an EU and Nato member, shares a 650-km (400-mile) border with Ukraine, including along the Danube River where Ukrainian ports on the opposite bank have come under Russian attack and Russian drones have breached Romanian airspace.

The Kremlin accused Ukraine on Thursday of targeting a major gas pipeline in southern Russia that leads to Turkey with “reckless” drone strikes. “At night, there were renewed attempts to attack the Russkaya compressor station with drones,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said, calling the pipeline an “international facility” that “ensures energy security for Turkey”. “These are absolutely reckless actions by the Kyiv regime,” Peskov said.