Ukrainian ambassador praises gear change in Germany under Merz
The Ukrainian ambassador to Germany has expressed satisfaction with the change in tone in Berlin after President Volodymyr Zelensky's visit this week.
"There were clear results," Oleksii Makeiev told radio station WDR5 on Friday, referring to Wednesday's meeting between Zelensky and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
"And on a personal level, it went very well," he said.
"We are experiencing a new tone: more direct, clearer, more committed. The personal relationship between my president and Chancellor Merz is one of trust. And these are important things for diplomacy," Makeiev said.
He added that he has "rarely experienced such an atmosphere."
During the meeting, Merz promised Zelensky that Germany would support Ukraine in the production of long-range missiles.
However, Germany still does not plan to supply Kiev with its much-discussed Taurus cruise missiles, and there will be no further public discussion on the issue, Merz said.
Merz's predecessor, Olaf Scholz, clearly refused to supply Taurus missiles to Ukraine. He repeatedly emphasized that Germany must not be drawn into the war.
Since taking office, Merz has struck a tougher tone towards Russia.

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Chicago Tribune
44 minutes ago
- Chicago Tribune
2 killed in Russian attacks on Ukraine as prospects for talks remain uncertain
KYIV, Ukraine — Russian drone and missile attacks on Ukraine on Saturday killed at least two people, including a 9-year-old girl, officials said, as uncertainty remains about whether Kyiv diplomats will attend a new round of peace talks proposed by Moscow for early next week in Istanbul. Russian troops launched some 109 drones and five missiles across Ukraine overnight and into Saturday, the Ukrainian air force said. Three of the missiles and 42 drones were destroyed and another 30 drones failed to reach their targets without causing damage, it said. The girl was killed in a strike on the front-line village of Dolynka in the Zaporizhzhia region, and a 16-year-old was injured, Zaporizhzhia's Gov. Ivan Fedorov said. 'One house was destroyed. The shockwave from the blast also damaged several other houses, cars, and outbuildings,' Fedorov wrote on Telegram. A man was killed by Russian shelling in Ukraine's Kherson region, Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin wrote on Telegram. Moscow did not comment on either attack. Russia's Ministry of Defense said Saturday that it had gained control of the Ukrainian village of Novopil in the Donetsk region, and took the village of Vodolahy in the northern Sumy region. Ukrainian authorities in Sumy ordered mandatory evacuations in 11 more settlements as Russian forces make steady gains in the area. The new additions bring the total number of settlements under evacuation orders in Sumy, which borders Russia's Kursk region, to 213. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said some 50,000 Russian troops have amassed in the area with the intention of launching an offensive to carve out a buffer zone inside Ukrainian territory. Speaking Saturday, Ukraine's top army chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said that Russian forces were focusing their main offensive efforts on Pokrovsk, Toretsk and Lyman in the Donetsk region, as well as the Sumy border area. Syrskyi also said Ukrainian forces are still holding territory in Russia's Kursk region, a statement that Moscow has repeatedly denied. Russia said on April 26 that it had pushed all Ukrainian troops from the Kursk region after Ukrainian troops seized land there during a surprise incursion in August 2024. 'The enemy is holding its best units here,' Syrskyi said referring to Kursk, 'which it planned to use in the east.' Elsewhere, 14 people were injured including four children after Ukrainian drones struck apartment buildings Saturday in the Russian town of Rylsk and the village of Artakovo in the western Kursk region, local acting Gov. Alexander Khinshtein said. Andrii Yermak, a top adviser to Zelenskyy, said Friday that Kyiv was ready to resume direct peace talks with Russia in Istanbul on Monday but that the Kremlin should first provide a promised memorandum setting out its position on ending the more than three-year war. Zelenskyy said Friday that Russia was 'undermining diplomacy' by withholding the document. 'For some reason, the Russians are concealing this document. This is an absolutely bizarre position. There is no clarity about the format,' Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram. Moscow previously said it would share its memorandum during the talks.


New York Post
an hour ago
- New York Post
10 Ukrainian civilians killed in Russian air strikes, while Zelensky slams Russia for ‘not serious' peace talks
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Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Ukraine expands evacuations in Sumy region amid offensive fears
Ukraine ordered the evacuation of 11 more villages in its Sumy region bordering Russia on Saturday amid fears Moscow was gearing up for a fresh ground assault. Russia claims to have captured several settlements in the northeastern region in recent weeks, and has massed more than 50,000 soldiers on the other side of the border, according to Kyiv. The evacuations came just two days before a possible meeting between the two sides in Istanbul, as Washington called on both countries to end the three-year war. Russia has confirmed it will send a delegation to the Turkish city, but Kyiv has yet to accept the proposal, warning the talks would not yield results unless the Kremlin provided its peace terms in advance. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday it was still not clear what Moscow was planning to achieve at the meeting and that so far, it did not "look very serious". Authorities in Ukraine's Sumy region said Saturday they were evacuating 11 villages within a roughly 30-kilometre (19-mile) range from the Russian border. "The decision was made in view of the constant threat to civilian life as a result of shelling of border communities," the regional administration said on social media. A spokesman for Ukraine's border service, Andriy Demchenko, said Thursday that Russia was poised to "attempt an attack" on Sumy. In total, 213 settlements in the region have been ordered to evacuate. Russia's defence ministry said Saturday that its forces had taken another Sumy region village, Vodolagy. Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, launched in February 2022, has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths and the destruction of towns and cities across parts of the east and south of the country. The Kremlin now controls around a fifth of its neighbour and claims to have annexed five Ukrainian regions as its own, including Crimea, which it seized in 2014. Within the past 24 hours, Russian attacks across Ukraine killed at least eight people, including a nine-year-old girl, authorities said Saturday. - 'Strong delegations' - US President Donald Trump has spearheaded diplomatic efforts to bring an end to the fighting, but has so far failed to extract any major concessions from the Kremlin. The Kremlin has proposed further negotiations in Istanbul on Monday, after a May 16 round of talks that yielded little beyond a large prisoner-of-war exchange. Kyiv has not yet said whether it will attend the Monday meeting, and warned Friday it did not expect any results from the talks unless Moscow provided its peace terms in advance. Russia says it will provide its peace memorandum in person in Istanbul. Ukraine suspects it will contain unrealistic demands that Kyiv has already rejected, including that Ukraine cede territory still under its control and abandon its NATO ambitions. Russia's UN ambassador Vassily Nebenzia demanded Friday that the West halt arms supplies to Kyiv and that Ukraine end mobilisation during any ceasefire -- hinting at what the memorandum might contain. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has developed warm relations with both Zelensky and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, has become a key mediator amid efforts to end the conflict. In a call with Zelensky late Friday, the Turkish leader urged both sides to send "strong delegations" to ensure momentum towards peace, according to Turkish state news agency Anadolu. Russia said its delegation would be led by Vladimir Medinsky, a former culture minister and political scientist who is not seen as a key decision maker in the Kremlin. Turkey has offered to host a summit between Putin, Zelensky and Trump, but the Kremlin has turned down the offer. Putin has consistently rebuffed calls for a 30-day, unconditional ceasefire in Ukraine. bur-cad/rlp