US president reveals plan to meet Russian ruler again as Ukrainian president visits Washington; EU’s fuel importers will have to prove it’s not Russian. What we know on day 1,332

Volodymr Zelenskyy has said in Washington that Vladimir Putin’s decision to seek talks with Donald Trump shows the Russian president is on the defensive. “We can already see that Moscow is rushing to resume dialogue as soon as it hears about Tomahawks ,” Zelenskyy said, referring to the US president’s musings about supplying the long-range cruise missiles to Ukraine. Trump on Wednesday said he was making plans to meet Putin in Budapest, Hungary, where both the US and Russian presidents share an admirer in the form of the prime minister, Viktor Orbán.

“ Putin is trying to derail the momentum toward greater pressure on Russia ,” said Dan Fried, a former US state department official. “We’ll see what happens tomorrow [on Friday, with Zelenskyy due to meet Trump] but the chances of moving toward a ceasefire by pushing Russia to get serious seem to have diminished.” Trump had recently been hardening his language towards Russia until Thursday’s call with Putin which the Kremlin described as “extremely frank and trustful”.

“The planned meeting between the American and Russian presidents is great news for the peace-loving people of the world. We are ready!” said Orbán, who as the leader of an EU and Nato country has frequently played the spoiler in their attempts to aid Ukraine in the war . Orban said he had spoken by phone with Trump and preparations for a US-Russia peace summit were under way.

The European Union has set a requirement for fuel importers into the EU to prove their fuels are not made from Russian crude , according to a document published on Thursday. The document provides guidance on the EU’s upcoming ban on imports of fuels refined from Russian crude, part of its 18th sanctions package against Russia over its war in Ukraine. The ban takes effect from 21 January next year.

The market appeared to be taking into account the potential end of Indian imports of Russian oil , Reuters reported on Thursday. Some Indian refiners are preparing to cut Russian oil imports, with expectations of a gradual reduction, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. Oil prices were stable on Thursday and Tony Sycamore, a market analyst at IG, said: “This is a positive development for the crude oil price as it would remove a big buyer of Russian oil.” It came after Donald Trump claimed Narendra Modi, India’s PM, had promised him on Wednesday that India would stop the imports. India did not confirm Trump’s claim – its officials said the two leaders did not have a phone call on Wednesday, and that the priority was to safeguard India’s energy supply.