BERLIN (AP) \u2014 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met Tuesday in Berlin with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, whose country is one of Ukraine\u2019s biggest supporters, as Kyiv battles to defeat Russia\u2019s all-out invasion, now in its fifth year.<\/p>\n
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius was also holding talks with his counterpart, Mykhailo Fedorov, the former Ukrainian digital transformation chief who took up his new post in January and is credited with advancing military drone technology.<\/p>\n
U.S.-led efforts to end Russia’s war on Ukraine have recently petered out as the Iran war grips the Trump administration\u2019s attention, although Tammy Bruce, the deputy U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told the U.N. Security Council on Monday that Washington \u201cwill continue to push for a negotiated and durable end\u201d to the war.<\/p>\n
Western analysts and officials say Ukraine has in recent months recorded battlefield successes against Russia\u2019s bigger army, disrupting a spring offensive started by Russia amid improving weather, as fields dry out and new foliage on tree lines offers more cover.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the long-range drones and missiles that Kyiv designs and produces are repeatedly striking oil facilities and manufacturing plants deep inside Russia.<\/p>\n
Ukraine \u201cis in a much better place than it has been at any stage in this horrific war,\u201d Finland\u2019s President Alexander Stubb said at the Brookings Institution in Washington on Monday.<\/p>\n
Ukraine \u201cis on top from a military perspective,\u201d Stubb claimed, noting that last month Ukraine fired more drones and missiles at Russia than Russia launched at Ukraine.<\/p>\n
Moscow has also claimed progress on the battlefield. Independent verification of each side\u2019s claims was not possible.<\/p>\n
Russia occupies about 20% of Ukraine. That includes the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia seized in 2014.<\/p>\n
Ukraine is desperately short of cash and needs a promised 90-billion-euro ($106 billion) loan from the European Union. That was being held up by Hungary\u2019s Viktor Orb\u00e1n, but his departure as prime minister after weekend elections could free up the sum.<\/p>\n
Kyiv is also heavily reliant on U.S. intelligence for targeting inside Russia and needs more sophisticated American-made air defense systems to stop Russian missile attacks on its power grid. If the Iran war drags on, it could erode vital U.S. support for Kyiv, Zelenskyy fears.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, the Ukrainian army is short-handed, facing some 200,000 troop desertions and draft-dodging by around 2 million people, Fedorov, the defense minister, said in January.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
Follow AP\u2019s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/russia-ukraine<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BERLIN (AP) \u2014 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met Tuesday in Berlin with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, whose country…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60626,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[1125,1126,1124,112,190],"class_list":{"0":"post-60625","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-berlin","8":"tag-ap-politics","9":"tag-ap-world-news","10":"tag-associated-press","11":"tag-berlin","12":"tag-germany"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60625\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}