With “harmful ideas” that do not correspond to reality on the ground, despite the Ukrainian strikes deep in , it is worrying that they “inflated” the mind of the US president, during the G7 Summit. According to what was reported by the top foreign policy adviser of the President of Russia Vladimir Putin, Yuri Ushakov, the European leaders probably tried to influence Donald Trump during the , but as he underlined the American president is a strong politician who remains faithful to his own views.
What did Ushakov say?
Ushakov said he believes Trump received misleading information about the situation in Ukraine during the meeting and added that Moscow still expects a visit by the US president’s envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, but no date has yet been set.
“We can assume that Trump was bombarded with harmful ideas. We understand that the Europeans are exerting an unconstructive influence here. Trump is a strong politician and remains committed to his views. He commented on some issues and kept others to himself. Let’s see how things will develop,” he specifically said.
Zelensky and his European allies have argued to Trump that Ukraine’s military position has improved thanks to drone attacks deep inside Russian territory, while Trump said after a “very good” meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that Russia should make peace with Ukraine. In addition there were reports that he agreed to give the green light to the development by European and Ukrainian industries of US weapons systems with the aim of getting them to Ukraine. His remarks prompted cautious optimism among G7 leaders that a peace deal could be reached.
Ushakov in his remarks argued that the assessment that the correlations on the battlefields have changed because of the wounds deep inside Russia “does not correspond in any way to reality.”
Mass attacks from Ukraine targeting a refinery
However, at the same time that Putin’s advisor was stating the above, Ukrainian drones and missiles were hitting many targets in Moscow, in the largest air raid by Kiev against the Russian capital in the last two years, causing a fire at a large oil refinery and forcing authorities to proceed with evacuations at the country’s largest airport.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the attack a response to Russian strikes earlier this week on a historic monastery complex in Kiev.
The scale of the attack, which appeared to be aimed at disrupting the operation of the strategically important oil refinery in Moscow’s Kapotnia district, caught most of the city by surprise. In Moscow, it is not customary to activate air raid sirens for citizens, which caused concern and panic on social media.
Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency reported that the attack on Moscow’s energy facilities was the largest in two years.
Videos posted online showed three large plumes of smoke rising from the Kapotnia refinery. It is the second attack on the facility in two days, which Zelensky described as a “just response to Russian blows.” As he noted: “We don’t want this war, we never wanted it, and everyone knows it, as do our partners. But if Ukraine burns, then your Moscow will also burn.”
The refinery, one of Moscow’s most important energy facilities, covers up to 40% of the Russian capital’s gasoline needs and about 50% of its diesel consumption.
Russia announced that its air defense systems intercepted and shot down 555 Ukrainian drones in various regions of the country overnight. This number could not be independently confirmed.
President Vladimir Putin is in Kazan, about 700 kilometers east of Moscow, where he is hosting leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), as Russia seeks to boost trade and wider ties with the region.
