sidelines

Kyiv in sanctions push as NATO states on Europe’s eastern flank take preventive action after Moscow’s air incursions.

Ukrainian Volodymyr Zelenskyy is preparing to meet US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York City next week in a bid to urge him to impose stronger sanctions on Russia.

The Ukrainian president shared his plans on Saturday, as Russia intensified attacks on his country following air incursions into Europe’s eastern flank that have sparked anxiety over a potential spillover of the ongoing war in Ukraine.

The announcement, reported by the AFP news agency, came the day after the European Union presented its 19th sanctions package.

“We now expect strong sanctions steps from the United States as well – Europe is doing its part,” Zelenskyy posted on X on Saturday.

This week brought us closer to finalizing the 19th sanctions package – we expect its approval soon. We will quickly synchronize the package in Ukraine. Russia’s energy resources are being restricted. The infrastructure of the “shadow fleet” will face new pressure. Cryptocurrency… pic.twitter.com/JzgvsQQHHQ

— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) September 20, 2025

Trump already signalled last week that he was ready to impose “major sanctions” on Russia, which has so far evaded his attempts for a ceasefire, but only if all NATO allies agree to completely halt buying oil from Moscow.

Zelenskyy is also expected to discuss security guarantees for Ukraine to prevent future Russian attacks after an eventual truce, though Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that he would not accept the presence of Western troops in Ukraine.

Moscow stepped up attacks on Ukraine overnight, firing 40 missiles and some 580 drones in one of the biggest barrages of Russia’s war on its neighbour, killing at least three people and wounding dozens.

Preventive operations in east

NATO countries took measures to strengthen defences on Europe’s eastern flank after Russian drone incursions in Poland and Romania over the past two weeks, and unprecedented reports of three Russian fighter jets entering Estonian airspace on Friday.

Poland’s army said that Polish and allied aircraft were deployed early on Saturday in a “preventative operation” to ensure the safety of Polish airspace after Russia launched air strikes targeting western Ukraine, near the Polish border.

The United Kingdom said that its fighter jets had flown their first NATO air defence sortie to patrol Polish skies and defend against potential aerial threats from Russia as part of the alliance’s Eastern Sentry mission.

On Saturday, Russia’s Ministry of Defence denied that its aircraft flew into Estonia’s airspace the day before, but Estonian officials said the 12-minute violation was confirmed by radar and visual contact.

Colonel Ants Kiviselg, the commander of Estonia’s Military Intelligence Centre, said that it still “needs to be confirmed” whether the border violation was deliberate.

Rubio and Lavrov ‘confirmed their mutual desire to find peaceful solutions to conflicts’, Russian Foreign Ministry says.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio have held rare face-to-face talks on the sidelines of an ASEAN meeting in Malaysia, discussing the war in Ukraine, as well as developments in Iran and Syria.

“A substantive and frank exchange of views took place on the settlement of the situation around Ukraine, the situation around Iran and Syria, as well as a number of other international issues,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement following the meeting on Thursday in Kuala Lumpur.

Both sides reportedly expressed interest in easing tensions and resuming dialogue in areas beyond the battlefield.

Lavrov and Rubio “confirmed their mutual desire to find peaceful solutions to conflicts, restore Russian-American economic and humanitarian cooperation, and facilitate unimpeded contacts between the societies of the two countries”, the ministry added.

The Russian side described the meeting as constructive, saying dialogue between Moscow and Washington would continue.

Rubio, speaking to reporters after the 50-minute meeting, said he had delivered a clear message about the need for progress on the war in Ukraine.

“I had a frank and important conversation with Minister Lavrov,” Rubio said. “We need to see a roadmap moving forward about how this conflict can conclude.”

He said US President Donald Trump remained disappointed with what Washington, DC views as a lack of flexibility from Moscow.

Trump has been growing increasingly frustrated with Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying the Russian leader was throwing a lot of “b*******” at US efforts to end the war that started with Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Rubio also signalled that a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi may take place during the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) gathering. “I think we’re working on that – maybe, maybe we’ll meet,” he said at a press conference.

The meeting between the top Russian and US diplomats comes at a time of heightened global polarisation, with ASEAN serving as one of the few venues where dialogue among rival powers still takes place.

Ukrainian leader steps up diplomatic push, while his Russian counterpart will skip a summit due to ICC arrest warrant.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and United States President Donald Trump have held talks on the sidelines of the NATO summit in The Hague, with sanctions on Russia over its war in Ukraine, now in its fourth year, and arms procurement for Kyiv on the agenda.

Zelenskyy said he discussed how to achieve a “real peace” and “protect our people” with Trump on Wednesday.

The meeting, which reportedly lasted 50 minutes, was a second attempt after Zelenskyy failed to meet Trump earlier this month in Canada when the US president abruptly left a G7 summit as the Israel-Iran conflict raged, just days before the US militarily intervened with strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites.

Speaking at news conference ending his participation at the NATO summit, Trump said it is possible that Russian President Vladimir Putin has territorial ambitions beyond Ukraine, adding that he plans to speak to Putin soon about ending the war.

Zelenskyy noted earlier that Moscow and Kyiv have not moved any closer to a ceasefire, saying, “The Russians once again openly and absolutely cynically declared they are ‘not in the mood’ for a ceasefire. Russia wants to wage war. This means the pressure the world is applying isn’t hurting them enough yet, or they are trying very hard to keep up appearances.”

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said the security bloc’s “military edge is being aggressively challenged by a rapidly rearming Russia, backed by Chinese technology and armed with Iranian and North Korean weapons” before the summit.

On Putin, Rutte was blunt, “I don’t trust the guy,” he said, adding that the Russian leader wouldn’t be happy with the outcome of the NATO summit.

NATO endorsed a higher defence spending goal of five percent of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2035 – a response to a demand by  Trump and to Europeans’ fears that Russia poses a growing threat to their security.

Putin to stay at home

In the meantime, Putin will not travel to next week’s BRICS summit in Brazil as an arrest warrant issued against him by the International Criminal Court (ICC) still hangs over him, Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said on Wednesday.

The ICC issued the warrant in 2023, just over a year after Russia launched its full-scale invasion and war against Ukraine. Putin is accused of deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine to Russia, a war crime.

Moscow vehemently denies allegations of war crimes, and the Kremlin, which did not sign the ICC’s founding treaty, has dismissed the warrant as null and void. But weighing the risk that he might be arrested if he travels to another country that is a signatory to the ICC treaty, Putin has always erred on the side of caution, only travelling where he is safe from being apprehended.

Putin concluded an official visit to Mongolia last September undisturbed as his hosts ignored the arrest warrant, despite Mongolia being an  ICC member.

The Kremlin on Wednesday also said the US was not yet ready to dismantle obstacles to the work of their respective embassies, as efforts to normalise relations between the two have stalled after initial signs that Trump’s second term as US president would lead to a major thaw after tensions during the administration of former US President Joe Biden.

The war grinds on

In the latest developments on the ground in the war, Russian missile strikes on southeastern Ukraine killed 17 people in the city of Dnipro and injured more than 200, damaging dozens of buildings and infrastructure facilities on Tuesday.

Two people were killed in a Russian attack on the city of Samara.

Russia says it intercepted dozens of drones overnight across its territory, including the Voronezh region on the border of eastern Ukraine.

Russian forces say they captured the village of Dyliivka in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region,  a key battleground dating back to the first eruption of conflict in 2014.