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By JIll Lawless
October 25, 2025 — 5.40am
London: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged the United States to expand sanctions on Russian oil from two companies to the whole sector, and appealed for long-range missiles to hit back at Russia.
Zelensky was in London for talks with two dozen European leaders who have pledged military help to shield his country from future Russian aggression if a ceasefire stops the more than three-year war.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer greets Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky ahead of the “Coalition Of The Willing Meeting” at 10 Downing Street.Credit: Getty Images
The meeting hosted by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer aimed to step up pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin, adding momentum to recent measures that have included a new round of sanctions from the United States and European countries on Russia’s vital oil and gas export earnings.
The talks also addressed ways of helping protect Ukraine’s power grid from Russia’s almost daily drone and missiles attacks as winter approaches, enhancing Ukrainian air defences, and supplying Kyiv with longer-range missiles that can strike deep inside Russia. Zelensky has urged the US to send Tomahawk missiles, an idea US President Donald Trump has flirted with.
The Ukrainian leader said Trump’s decision this week to impose oil sanctions was “a big step,” and said “we have to apply pressure not only to Rosneft and Lukoil, but to all Russian oil companies.”
“Besides, we are carrying out our own campaign of pressure with drones and missiles specifically targeting the Russian oil sector,” he said during a news conference at the Foreign Office in London.
Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, from left, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and Netherland’s Prime Minister Dick Schoof speak to the media after a meeting of the so-called “Coalition of the willing” in London.Credit: AP
Trump also has put on hold a plan for a swift meeting with Putin in Budapest, because he didn’t want it to be a “waste of time.”
Putin has so far resisted efforts to push him into negotiating a peace settlement with Zelensky and has argued that the motives for Russia’s all-out invasion of its smaller neighbour are legitimate. Russia has also been adept at finding loopholes in Western sanctions.
A top Russian official said Friday he has arrived in the United States for talks with US officials. Kirill Dmitriev, Putin’s envoy for investment and economic cooperation, announced his visit in a post on X. He said it was “planned a while ago” on an invitation “from the US side.”
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Dmitriev has been a key interlocutor in discussions between the Trump administration and the Kremlin on numerous issues, including the Ukraine war and the release of American detainees in Russia.
Putin’s unbudging stance has exasperated Western leaders.
“He’s rejected the opportunity for talks once again, instead making ludicrous demands for Ukrainian land, which he could not and has not taken by force,” Starmer said at a news conference alongside Zelensky and several other European leaders. “Of course, that is a complete non-starter.”
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said Putin’s goals remain unchanged but he “is running out of money, troops and ideas.”
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof also attended Friday’s meeting of the “Coalition of the Willing” in person. About 20 other leaders joined by video link.
Russia says it has captured Ukrainian villages
The Russian Defense Ministry claimed on Friday that over the past week its forces have captured 10 Ukrainian villages. The small conquests are part of Russia’s slow but steady slog to envelop the remaining Ukrainian strongholds in the Donetsk region from both the north and the south and create footholds for pressing further west into the Dnipropetrovsk region.
The Defence Ministry also said its forces downed 111 Ukrainian drones over several regions overnight, with debris causing damage to homes and infrastructure.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin reported that air defences downed three drones heading to the city, which forced flights to be suspended at two Moscow airports.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian authorities said Russian artillery struck a residential block in the southeastern city of Kherson on Friday, killing two people and injuring 22 others.
Russian planes also dropped at least five powerful glide bombs on the northeastern city of Kharkiv, injuring six people and damaging homes, according to Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov.
And for the first time, Russia fired glide bombs on Ukraine’s southern Odesa region Friday, according to Oleh Kiper, head of the Odesa Regional Military Administration, calling it “a new, serious threat” in the area. Glide bombs are significantly cheaper than missiles and carry a heavier payload.
AP
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