{"id":663439,"date":"2026-03-18T02:53:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T02:53:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/663439\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T02:53:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T02:53:13","slug":"zelenskyy-in-london-for-russia-ukraine-talks-with-starmer-and-rutte","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/663439\/","title":{"rendered":"Zelenskyy in London for Russia-Ukraine talks with Starmer and Rutte"},"content":{"rendered":"

LONDON (AP) \u2014 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy<\/a> called Russia and Iran \u201cbrothers in hatred\u201d on Tuesday as he sought support from U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer<\/a> at a time when the Iran war<\/a> has robbed momentum from U.S.-brokered talks to end Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Zelenskyy urged Ukraine\u2019s allies not to forget about his country, and suggested the U.S. and others should make use of Ukraine\u2019s anti-drone technology during a Middle East war that has also revived Russia\u2019s ailing economy through increased oil revenue and could soon limit Kyiv\u2019s access to vital Western air defense systems, which are needed in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe regimes in Russia and Iran are brothers in hatred and that is why they are brothers in weapons,\u201d Zelenskyy told lawmakers in Britain\u2019s Parliament. \u201cAnd we want regimes built on hatred to never, never win in anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Holding talks with Zelenskyy at 10 Downing Street, Starmer said \u201c(Russian President Vladimir) Putin can\u2019t be the one who benefits from the conflict in Iran, whether that\u2019s oil prices or the dropping of sanctions.\u201d<\/p>\n

The meeting came days after the U.S. temporarily waived some Russian oil sanctions in a bid to ease pressure on global supplies triggered by the war in the Middle East, which was sparked by the joint U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran starting Feb. 28. <\/p>\n

Zelenskyy and some other European leaders criticized Washington\u2019s move to ease sanctions, saying it would provide a windfall for Moscow<\/a> to keep up its attacks on Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Zelenskyy also met with King Charles III<\/a> at Buckingham Palace before addressing dozens of members of the House of Commons and the House of Lords in Parliament. He told them that other countries could learn from Ukraine\u2019s agile adoption of technology, including drones and AI, for defense.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact we got through this winter, which Russia tried to make deadly for all our families, shows that our solutions work,\u201d Zelenskyy said.<\/p>\n

European leaders underline risks of Iran war for Ukraine<\/p>\n

Zelenskyy said the London talks, also attended by NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte. would assess energy security, after Russia hammered Ukraine\u2019s power grid<\/a> over the winter, and the battlefield situation.<\/p>\n

In Brussels, the European Union\u2019s chief diplomat Kaja Kallas noted Tuesday that Russia stands to gain from higher energy prices and the rerouting of advanced Western air defense systems from Ukraine to the Middle East.<\/p>\n

But, she said, Ukraine \u201cremains Europe\u2019s top security priority and attention for Ukraine will not be allowed to fizzle out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finland\u2019s President Alexander Stubb said the Iran war is bad for Ukraine, \u201cmainly because of the oil price which feeds the Russian war machinery. The Russian economy was actually doing extremely badly a couple of weeks back. Now it\u2019s bouncing back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ukraine losing out with Middle East conflict, analysts say<\/p>\n

U.S. President Donald Trump says he wants to secure a peace deal<\/a> that ends Europe\u2019s biggest conflict since World War II and has rattled the continent\u2019s leaders, who reckon that Russia could pose a credible security threat<\/a> to the European Union by the end of the decade.<\/p>\n

But the U.S.-mediated talks between delegations from Moscow and Kyiv, which so far have yielded no significant progress on key issues, are on hold during the Middle East conflict.<\/p>\n

Ukraine is the \u201cultimate loser\u201d from the war with Iran, said Ed Arnold, Senior Research Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London. He said the war is draining stocks of American air defense missiles that are crucial for Kyiv to shoot down Russian missiles and is diverting Washington\u2019s attention from Russia-Ukraine negotiations.<\/p>\n

Fran\u00e7ois Heisbourg, special adviser at the Foundation for Strategic Research in Paris, said it is important for Ukraine to secure deals with Gulf states for advanced air defense systems in exchange for Ukrainian anti-drone expertise and technology.<\/p>\n

UK and Ukraine eye drone deal that Trump spurned<\/p>\n

Ukraine has become one of the world\u2019s leading producers<\/a> of high-tech, battle-tested drone interceptors.<\/p>\n

Zelensky stressed that Ukraine\u2019s experience can be an asset in the Middle East war. He said more than 200 Ukrainian military experts are in the region to share expertise in defeating Iranian drones, which have been used in vast numbers by Russia. Ukraine has developed cheap and effective ways to shoot them down, he said, showing off an iPad-controlled defense system used by Ukraine\u2019s military.<\/p>\n

Trump has spurned Zelenskyy\u2019s offer of help for the United States and its Persian Gulf partners in fighting Iranian drones. <\/p>\n

British officials say Russia and Iran are collaborating on drone technology and tactics, and argued that Europe must also raise its game when it comes to defense technology.<\/p>\n

During Zelenskyy\u2019s visit, the U.K. and Ukraine signed a deal combining \u201cUkraine\u2019s expertise and the U.K.\u2019s industrial base to manufacture and supply drones and innovative capabilities.\u201d Britain is also funding an \u201cAI Center of Excellence\u201d in conjunction with the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense.<\/p>\n

Ukraine counterattacks on front line, Kremlin calls resistance \u2018futile\u2019<\/p>\n

Russia\u2019s Defense Ministry said Tuesday that its air defenses intercepted and destroyed 206 Ukrainian drones overnight over Russian regions, the annexed Crimean Peninsula and the Azov Sea. A total of 40 intercepted drones were flying toward Moscow, the ministry said.<\/p>\n

Asked about an increase in Ukrainian drone attacks on Moscow over the past few days, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that authorities in Kyiv were \u201ccontinuing absolutely futile resistance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zelenskyy said late Monday that counterattacks by Ukrainian forces at eastern and southern points along the front line have wrecked Moscow\u2019s plans for a March offensive.<\/p>\n

His comments couldn\u2019t be independently verified, but the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said Monday that Ukrainian counterattacks \u201care likely constraining\u201d some Russian offensive operations.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press writers Illia Novikov in Kyiv, Ukraine and Emma Burrows in London contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Follow AP\u2019s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/russia-ukraine<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONDON (AP) \u2014 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called Russia and Iran \u201cbrothers in hatred\u201d on Tuesday as he…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":663440,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5],"tags":[88257,64,37325,69,280697,8697,280696,57,6604,83,3461,6087,120,17723,45981,8955,50,8961,80,3658,3657,273,3660,376,4338,274,3656,96,103,107],"class_list":["post-663439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","tag-alexander-stubb","tag-business","tag-dmitry-peskov","tag-donald-trump","tag-ed-arnold","tag-european-union","tag-franois-heisbourg","tag-general-news","tag-international-news","tag-iran","tag-iran-government","tag-iran-war","tag-kaja-kallas","tag-keir-starmer","tag-king-charles-iii","tag-mark-rutte","tag-news","tag-north-atlantic-treaty-organization","tag-politics","tag-russia-government","tag-russia-ukraine-war","tag-ukraine","tag-ukraine-government","tag-united-kingdom","tag-united-kingdom-government","tag-vladimir-putin","tag-volodymyr-zelenskyy","tag-war-and-unrest","tag-world","tag-world-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=663439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663439\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/663440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=663439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=663439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=663439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}