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Morning opening: Zelenskyy ready for talks, but will take no steps back, and needs financial support
Jakub Krupa
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said Kyiv was ready for peace talks anywhere besides Russia and Belarus, but stressed Ukrainian forces would “take no steps back” or cede territory.
In comments reported by Reuters and AFP, Zelenskyy also stressed that Ukraine needed European financial support to continue fighting the Russian forces for another two or three years, as the EU’s plan to use frozen Russian assets to back is stuck due to Belgium’s opposition.
“I emphasised this again to all European leaders. I told them that we are not going to fight for decades, but you must show that for some time you will be able to provide stable financial support to Ukraine,” the Ukrainian president said in comments released this morning.
The timing here is probably not accidental: Belgian prime minister Bart de Wever, who faces domestic pressure over the country’s draft budget, is set to meet Nato’s secretary general Mark Rutte later today, and the issue is near certain to feature in their talks.
Separately, Zelenskyy also urged US president Donald Trump to put more pressure on Chinese leader Xi Jinping to cut his support for Russia during their meeting this week.
“I think this may be one of [Trump’s] strong moves, especially if, following this decisive sanctions step, China is ready to reduce imports” from Russia, he told journalists.
But one European leader, seen as the main candidate to host potential future talks between Trump and Russia’s Vladimir Putin, appeared to be unhappy with the growing US pressure on Russia.
The Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, told Italian reporters at the Vatican that he thought Trump’s sanctions on Russian oil majors were wrong from the Hungarian point of view, as they could risk a hike in energy prices.
Unsuprisingly, he appears to be isolated in his view, with the Finnish defence minister, Antti Hakkanen, praising the new sanctions, calling the move a major sign of resolve by the US president against Vladimir Putin’s three-year long war.
Expect to hear more on this today, as Nordic leaders meet in Stockholm, with EU’s Ursula von der Leyen joining them for talks, which will no doubt cover Ukraine, too.
It’s Tuesday, 28 October 2025, it’s Jakub Krupa here, and this is Europe Live.
Good morning.
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Jakub Krupa
As mentioned earlier, we are expecting a press conference on the sidelines of the Nordic Council meeting today in the next twenty minutes or so, with regional leaders – including Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway – joined there by the EU’s Ursula von der Leyen.
I will keep an eye on this for you and bring you all the latest lines here.
Belarus president calls Lithuanian border closure 'crazy scam,' criticises EU plans to use frozen Russian assets
Meanwhile, the Belarusian autocratic leader, Alexander Lukashenko, did not mince his words as he responded to Lithuania’s decision to close its border with Belarus over smuggler balloons disrupting the air traffic and causing airport closures.
Lukashenko called the border closure “a crazy scam” aimed at disrupting Chinese trade flows in the area, even as he nominally said he would be ready to apologise if Minsk was genuinely responsible for the disruptions.
In comments reported by Belarusian state news agency Belta and Reuters, Lukashenko said that Lithuania had “come up with an absurd excuse, these balloons, even for a small country like Lithuania.“
The Belarusian president also strongly opposed the western plans to use Russian frozen assets calling it “a theft,” as he separately tried to argue that the deployment of the Russian Oreshnik missile system in Belarus was not an aggressive move, but merely a precautionary move to ensure security of his country.
Morning opening: Zelenskyy ready for talks, but will take no steps back, and needs financial support
Jakub Krupa
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said Kyiv was ready for peace talks anywhere besides Russia and Belarus, but stressed Ukrainian forces would “take no steps back” or cede territory.
In comments reported by Reuters and AFP, Zelenskyy also stressed that Ukraine needed European financial support to continue fighting the Russian forces for another two or three years, as the EU’s plan to use frozen Russian assets to back is stuck due to Belgium’s opposition.
“I emphasised this again to all European leaders. I told them that we are not going to fight for decades, but you must show that for some time you will be able to provide stable financial support to Ukraine,” the Ukrainian president said in comments released this morning.
The timing here is probably not accidental: Belgian prime minister Bart de Wever, who faces domestic pressure over the country’s draft budget, is set to meet Nato’s secretary general Mark Rutte later today, and the issue is near certain to feature in their talks.
Separately, Zelenskyy also urged US president Donald Trump to put more pressure on Chinese leader Xi Jinping to cut his support for Russia during their meeting this week.
“I think this may be one of [Trump’s] strong moves, especially if, following this decisive sanctions step, China is ready to reduce imports” from Russia, he told journalists.
But one European leader, seen as the main candidate to host potential future talks between Trump and Russia’s Vladimir Putin, appeared to be unhappy with the growing US pressure on Russia.
The Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, told Italian reporters at the Vatican that he thought Trump’s sanctions on Russian oil majors were wrong from the Hungarian point of view, as they could risk a hike in energy prices.
Unsuprisingly, he appears to be isolated in his view, with the Finnish defence minister, Antti Hakkanen, praising the new sanctions, calling the move a major sign of resolve by the US president against Vladimir Putin’s three-year long war.
Expect to hear more on this today, as Nordic leaders meet in Stockholm, with EU’s Ursula von der Leyen joining them for talks, which will no doubt cover Ukraine, too.
It’s Tuesday, 28 October 2025, it’s Jakub Krupa here, and this is Europe Live.
Good morning.
