War, Ukraine strikes two refineries in Russia. Putin: 'Over 700,000 Russian soldiers at the front'

A well-prepared meeting on Ukraine, for which Russian President Vladimir Putin said he was ready, means receiving a response to the approaches discussed in Anchorage, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said today in an interview with the First Channel.

"The president said he is ready for the meeting, but that it must be well prepared. We must get a reaction to the proposals we have promoted and the approaches discussed in Anchorage," Lavrov said. Furthermore, Lavrov attacked the Euro-Atlantic alliance, pointing out that in the war in Ukraine they have failed in their principles. "The Euro-Atlantic logic has run out of steam," the diplomat pointed out, going on to say that "the war in Ukraine organised by the West against us, Ukraine's war against us, only underlines that the Euro-Atlantic concepts have not fulfilled the promises made at the time of their creation."

Russia's foreign minister claims that Moscow is "ready to seek" what he calls "compromises" to end the war in Ukraine but "on condition" that "what he says would be Russia's "legitimate security interests" and what he calls "the legitimate interests of Russian-speakers in Ukraine" are guaranteed, Tass reports. "The Trump administration's position includes understanding the problems related to Nato, and they have stated this publicly. There is also an understanding that the referenda held in Crimea and other territories cannot be ignored," Lavrov said. Russia - whose troops invaded Ukraine in 2022 - claims to have annexed the four Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia (which its soldiers only partially occupy) in so-called 'referendums' that were not recognised by the vast majority of the international community and which are believed to have been held without the slightest respect for democratic standards. Moscow also de facto took control of Crimea in 2014 by force and in a controversial referendum, in violation of international law.

Spain and Germany agree on the 'need for a stronger and more united Europe', first and foremost 'around the challenge posed by Putin's invasion of Ukraine, respect for international law, the territorial integrity of a nation like Ukraine that freely asks to direct its future and belong to the European Union'. This was said by the President of the Spanish government, Pedro Sanchez, at the press conference following his meeting at the Moncloa with Chancellor Friedrich Merz, on his first bilateral visit to Madrid. "This coherence, in our case, we also express it when we talk about the crisis in the Middle East and the suffering that the Gazawi population is undergoing," added the socialist premier, without referring to the differences between Madrid and Berlin on the response to Israel's escalation in Gaza. However, Sanchez acknowledged that "Germany throughout this time has supported UN resolutions urging the government of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to end the violence," to allow access to humanitarian aid, and to move "towards a political horizon of solving this crisis with the assumption of two states," he added.