Zelensky should meet with Biden; Lavrov: French instructors in Ukraine are legitimate targets

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said Ukraine needs more air defenses and the US is working to supply them with a "continuous flow of weapons".

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Ukrainian soldiers on the battlefield, Photo: Reuters
Ukrainian soldiers on the battlefield, Photo: Reuters
Disclaimer: The translations are mostly done through AI translator and might not be 100% accurate.

US President Joseph Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky are scheduled to meet this Sunday while both leaders are in France, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters.

Those talks will be followed by another meeting next week as leaders of the Group of Seven leading industrial nations gather for a summit in Italy.

Sullivan said that Biden "will have two substantive engagements with President Zelensky," including discussions about the current situation in Ukraine and how the United States of America (US) can "continue and deepen" its support.

The second meeting will take place just before a peace conference in Ukraine hosted by Switzerland, which Biden will not attend. The US delegation will include Vice President Kamala Harris and Sullivan.

Sullivan said Ukraine needs more air defenses and the US is working to supply them with a "continuous flow of weapons".

U.S. support at this time does not include plans to send U.S. military trainers to Ukraine, Sullivan said.

"Instructors - legitimate targets"

Russia said on Tuesday that it does not rule out the possibility of striking foreign military instructors in Ukraine.

Russia's foreign minister said any French military instructor in Ukraine training Ukrainian soldiers would be a "legitimate target" for Russian attacks.

"Regardless of their status, military officials or mercenaries are a legitimate target for our armed forces," Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday. He said he thought the French instructors were "already on the territory of Ukraine."

Lavrov said this at a press conference in the Republic of Congo during his African tour.

Ukraine's Supreme Military Commander said last Sunday that Ukraine was preparing for the imminent arrival of the trainers.

However, French President Emmanuel Macron did not confirm this or comment on what he called "rumors or a decision that could be made".

Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, also said on Tuesday that "the instructors who train the troops of the Kiev regime do not have any kind of immunity and it does not matter if they are French or not."

Discussion on the use of confiscated Russian property

White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Tuesday that he expects the G7 leaders' talks in Paris to include a discussion of using frozen Russian assets to finance the reconstruction of Ukraine.

Kirby said those funds are being held around the world and it will take a coordinated effort by allies to make the plan work.

"Where it's going to go and if we're going to make a decision soon, I can't talk about that," Kirby said. "But it's an idea that we believe is relevant and should be explored. But for that to happen and for it to be effective, we need to have friends and partners participate in it."

Peskov said late last month that the European Union's plan to use profits from frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine's defense would be "nothing but expropriation."

Continued mutual drone attacks

The Ukrainian military said on Wednesday that Russian forces had carried out 22 drone strikes overnight, while officials in Ukraine's Mykolaiv region reported damage to homes.

The Ukrainian Air Force announced that air defenses shot down all 22 drones, and the interceptions were carried out over the Mykolaiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Kherson, Poltava and Sumy regions.

Vitaly Kim, the regional governor of Nikolaev, said on Telegram that debris from the crashed drones destroyed one house and damaged ten others. There were no reported injuries.

Filip Pronin, the governor of Poltava, reported on Telegram that one person was injured and an industrial plant was damaged in the Russian attack.

In Dnipropetrovsk, Governor Sergey Lisak said on Telegram that the drone attack damaged five houses, three agricultural buildings and some power lines.

The Russian Defense Ministry said on Wednesday it had destroyed two Ukrainian drones over the Belgorod region, two drones over the Kursk region and another drone over the Voronezh region. There were no reports of casualties.

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