Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has confirmed that he met with Russian billionaire and former Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich in Kyiv, where Abramovich offered to act as a backchannel to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Speaking to Sky News, Zelenskyy acknowledged for the first time that the oligarch had traveled to Ukraine's capital and participated in negotiations to some extent.
“He came to Kyiv. He said ‘I am messaging direct to you. And I want to take a message from you and give it to [Russian president Vladimir] Putin’. But he said it has to be silent without any kind of public messages,” Zelenskyy stated. The Ukrainian leader added that his message to Abramovich was clear: “You are fighting against us on our territory. We will not leave and we will not go out from our territory, no we will not give you victory.” He also reiterated his request for a face-to-face meeting with Putin.
Zelenskyy described the meeting as “not a secret,” noting that the Russians wanted to understand what Kyiv was “ready to do.” Abramovich, who has been sanctioned by the UK government for his alleged “clear connections” to Putin’s regime, has not commented on the Kyiv meeting. He previously played a role in unsuccessful negotiations during the early weeks of the invasion but has since been less visible.
Putin has made it clear that Russia is not prepared to cease hostilities until Ukraine abandons the Donbas region, which includes Donetsk and Luhansk. Meanwhile, Zelenskyy met with the leaders of the UK, France, and Germany in London on Sunday, where they discussed the “urgent need” to ramp up weapons production to counter Russia’s powerful hypersonic Oreshnik ballistic missiles. A joint statement said, “The leaders underlined the urgent need to scale up the production of interceptors and co-develop anti-ballistic missile and deep strike capabilities,” though no financial or other details were provided. Zelenskyy is scheduled to meet King Charles on Monday.
Ukraine’s shortage of air defense systems, partly due to depleted US stocks during the Iran war, has left civilians vulnerable to ballistic missiles, even as Kyiv’s defenses intercept most drones and its forces make gains elsewhere. Over the weekend, a Russian drone struck a storage facility for spent nuclear fuel near the Chornobyl power plant. While the structure was empty at the time, the targeting of the sensitive site appeared to be a direct message from Moscow amid escalating long-range aerial strikes on both sides.
Russia launched waves of drones and other munitions at Ukraine on Sunday, killing at least five people. In the Zaporizhzhia region, a bombardment of a public transport stop killed at least two people, and a nearby drone strike killed a 56-year-old minibus driver. In Dnipro, central Ukraine, a separate attack killed a 59-year-old man, according to regional governor Oleksandr Ganzha. Russia’s defense ministry claimed on Sunday that its air defenses had downed 500 Ukrainian drones in the past 24 hours, as reported by Interfax.
Moldova’s President, Maia Sandu, stated that the war in neighboring Ukraine highlights her country’s urgent need for high-tech interceptor drones and new legislation to facilitate their production. Moldova, seeking EU membership by 2030, has faced numerous incidents of Russian drones flying over its territory or debris landing near its border. Sandu, a vocal critic of Russia’s invasion, expressed particular concern about a drone that struck a residence in Galati, Romania, near the Moldova-Ukraine border last month, injuring two people.
