Zelenskyy launches new trade and security partnership with eastern European nations

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy launched a new cooperation scheme on Friday with eight countries from the Carpathian region of central and eastern Europe. The meeting took place in western Ukraine and was attended by Polish prime minister Donald Tusk, Serbia's President Aleksandar Vucic and Romania's President Nicusor Dan.

Zelenskyy said on Telegram that 50 agreements were signed with a combined value of more than €1bn ($1.15bn). More than half of the deals concern energy, particularly solar and wind power, aimed at achieving independence from Russian energy. The group includes Romania, Serbia, Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Austria, Hungary and the European Union. Zelenskyy thanked regional allies for keeping trade and transport links open since Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, calling the meeting the start of closer cooperation within an EU framework. The event is expected to continue until Sunday.

US sanctions and Russian elections

On the same day, US President Donald Trump signed legislation imposing sweeping sanctions on Russia to press it toward ending the war, while also granting himself power to impose additional tariffs on countries breaching the embargo. The act, named after the late Senator Lindsey Graham, targets Russia's oil and gas revenues as well as countries continuing to buy Russian energy.

Russia began a three-day State Duma election, the first since the 2022 full-scale invasion. Results are expected after polls close Sunday, with the ruling United Russia party widely expected to retain its majority. President Vladimir Putin claimed on Friday that Ukraine is deliberately obstructing peace talks and interfering in Russia's election, while reaffirming Moscow's reliance on its nuclear triad.

Strike on Sumy and Latvia's warning

A Russian glide bomb struck an apartment building in Sumy on Friday, killing two people and injuring seven, three of them seriously, including a 13-year-old girl. Emergency crews rescued four people, with others possibly still trapped under rubble.

Latvia's President Edgars Rinkēvičs, in a Guardian interview in Washington, warned that Europe is failing to keep pace with drone and aerial warfare developments in Ukraine, and that most Nato countries could not repel a Russian missile attack if the conflict were to expand.