Zelensky will meet with Trump and demand that he impose sanctions on Russia.

MoscowVolodymyr Zelensky is frustrated by Donald Trump's inaction and will demand that he take a more decisive stance against Russia next week. The Ukrainian president is scheduled to meet with the White House leader at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, he explained in a conversation with journalists in Kiev. "If the war continues and there are no steps towards peace, we expect sanctions," he said.

Zelensky disagrees with Trump's position, which demands that NATO countries stop buying Russian oil before increasing sanctions against Russia. For the Ukrainian leader, asking Europe to take the first step is "reducing the pressure on Putin." "President Trump expects decisive action from Europe. I think we are wasting a lot of time if sanctions are not imposed," he concluded.

Kiev hopes Europe will toughen its stance against Moscow, alluding to Hungary and Slovakia, which have refused to stop purchasing energy from Russia. Zelenskyy hopes Trump will use his influence over his two prime ministers, who are ideologically close to the new US administration, to change their minds.

The Ukrainian president also wants to unravel the issue of what security guarantees the United States is willing to offer Ukraine and will insist on the need for a three-way meeting with Vladimir Putin to secure a ceasefire. Last night, the Russian military launched 580 drones and 40 missiles, killing three people and wounding dozens more. Kiev, for its part, struck Russian oil refineries in the Saratov and Samara regions, leaving four dead and one injured.

Moscow denies violating Estonian airspace

Meanwhile, the Kremlin maintains that it did not violate Estonian airspace after the country's Friday attack Allegations that three Russian MiG-31 fighter jets had flown over for nearly twelve minutes an island in the Gulf of Finland, about 100 kilometers from the Estonian capital, Tallinn, and that Alliance aircraft had intercepted them. The Kremlin's playbook is clear: when faced with any NATO accusation of having violated its borders, the maxim is always to deny it.

This is what Moscow has done again: it was neither an accident nor intentional, it simply did not happen. In a statement, the Russian Ministry of Defense confirms that three aircraft "carried out a planned flight from Karelia [a Russian region bordering Finland] to an airfield in the Kaliningrad region [Russian territory between Lithuania and Poland]." However, it assures that "the flight was carried out strictly in accordance with international rules for the use of airspace" and that the fighters "did not deviate from the agreed route or violate Estonian airspace," but rather flew over neutral waters.

The Kremlin accuses Europe of fabricating accusations

While the European Union speaks of an "extremely dangerous provocation" and frames it as Putin's desire to test NATO's response capacity, the Kremlin turns the argument around: it is not Russia that carries out provocations, but European countries that fabricate false accusations to try to hinder the process. Hours before the incident, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova also attacked Poland for insisting on holding Moscow responsible for The entry of 19 Russian drones into Polish territory last week. "This is a large-scale disinformation campaign aimed at demonizing Russia and mobilizing additional support for the kyiv regime, as well as an attempt to undermine a political solution to the conflict in Ukraine."

Amid concerns among NATO's eastern flank that Russia is trying to force an escalation, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has repeated one of Putin's most frequently repeated phrases: "We have never had, do not have, and will not have any plans to attack any NATO country."