Ukraine updates: Zelenskyy on 'victory plan' tour of Europe

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni announced after talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that Rome would host the next "recovery conference" to help rebuild Ukraine.

"Ukraine is not alone and we will stand with it for as long as needed," Meloni told reporters, setting the date for the meeting as July 10-11, 2025.

The last Ukraine Recovery Conference was held in Berlin in June 2024.

US President Joe Biden spoke with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and discussed various issues, including the need to support Ukraine in its war against Russia.

"The President underscored the enduring strength of the US-German relationship and noted his intention to continue our strong collaboration on geopolitical priorities, including supporting Ukraine's defense against Russian aggression," the White House said in a statement.

The German government confirmed the call. It said that during the call, Biden explained to Scholz the current situation in the areas of the US affected by Hurricane Milton.

Biden canceled his planned visit to Germany this week at the last minute due to the threat of the hurricane. During the visit, he was scheduled to attend the meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group at Ramstein Air Base. The meeting had to be postponed.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in Rome where he met with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, as part of his European tour to secure more Western support before the US election.

Meloni welcomed Zelenskyy on Thursday evening at the Villa Doria Pamphili for a meeting, TV images showed.

As was the case in London and Paris earlier in the day, part of the discussions with Meloni will reportedly include the presentation of his "victory plan."

Zelenskyy is also expected to have a private audience with Pope Francis at the Vatican on Friday morning and later in the day visit Berlin, where bilateral meetings with Chancellor Olaf Scholz and President Frank-Walter Steinmeier are scheduled.

A Ukrainian journalist, Viktoria Roschyna, who was captured by Moscow while reporting from occupied eastern Ukraine, has died in Russian detention, a Ukrainian official said.

"Unfortunately, information about Viktoria's death has been confirmed," said Petro Yatsenko, a spokesperson for Ukraine's prisoner of war coordination headquarters.

"It is too early to talk about the circumstances of the death, we are working to establish them," he added.

Roschyna, who would have turned 28 this month, disappeared last August after traveling to Russian-held eastern Ukraine for a story.

She remained missing until April 2024, when her father received a letter from Moscow's Defense Ministry saying she was being held in Russian detention.

The circumstances of her arrest were not made public, and it was not clear where in Russia she was being held.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, in Paris on Thursday for the second round of talks with European leaders in a bid to shore up support for his plan to end Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine. 

Speaking to reporters after meeting Macron, Zelenskyy said Macron had expressed support for his "victory plan" and added Ukraine needed more Western support ahead of winter fighting against Russia.

He acknowledged a "difficult situation in the east" where Russian forces have recently made incremental gains.

The Ukrainian leader also denied speculation that he was discussing the terms of a possible cease-fire in the war with Russia in talks with European leaders, blaming such reports on disinformation from Moscow, France's AFP news agency reported.

"This is not the topic of our discussions," he said. "It's not right. Russia works a lot with media disinformation so it (such reports) is understandable," he added.

For his part, Macron said after the meeting that work on military supplies for Ukraine was continuing. 

He added that Zelenskyy had outlined Ukraine's "plan for the next weeks" and the pair had discussed strategy for the "next weeks and months."

Earlier Thursday, Zelenskyy sat down in London with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and NATO chief Mark Rutte. 

Zelenskyy said during the talks he had "outlined the details of our victory plan." 

It "aims to create the right conditions for a just end to the war," he added. 

Russia has attacked Ukraine's port infrastructure almost 60 times in the last three months and is intensifying such attacks, according to Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba.

"The purpose of these attacks is to reduce our export potential. We are talking about deliberately provoking a food crisis in those parts of the world that directly depend on Ukrainian grain supplies," he said.

According to Kuleba, Russian strikes have damaged or destroyed nearly 300 port infrastructure facilities, 177 vehicles and 22 civilian ships.

On Monday, a Russian missile hit a Palau-flagged ship in the port of Odesa, while on Sunday, another Russian missile damaged a St. Kitts and Nevis-flagged civilian ship carrying corn in the port of Pivdennyi.

A square in the northern German city of Hamburg has been officially inaugurated to commemorate Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who was murdered 18 years ago this week.

Located in the district of Eimsbüttel, the square was officially renamed in the presence of friends and relatives of Politkovskaya.

The initiative came from the Bucerius "Zeit" Foundation, which is based there, and political groups in the Eimsbüttel district assembly.

"This place will remind us that there are people like my mother who are not afraid to swim against the tide and fight for the truth," Politkovskaya's son, Ilya Politkovsky, said upon the unveiling in Hamburg.

The square named after his mother is "a symbol that freedom, truth and justice remain fundamental values," he said.

Politkovskaya was an investigative journalist who reported on political and social events in Russia, in particular, the Second Chechen War. It was her reporting from Chechnya that gave her national and international recognition.

On October 7, 2006, the outspoken Kremlin critic was murdered in the elevator of her apartment block in Moscow.

In 2014, five men were sentenced to prison for the murder, but it is still unclear who was behind the contract killing.

The European Commission pledged €1.8 billion ($1.9 billion) in economic aid for Moldova on Thursday ahead of a crunch referendum vote on EU membership. 

"Europe stands firmly by Moldova's side," Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said during a visit to the capital, Chisinau.

Located between Ukraine and Romania, the Moldovan economy has been hit by the negative consequences of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine that began in February 2022.

Like Ukraine, Moldova has been a candidate for EU accession since 2022 and Von der Leyen said the economic support package has the potential to double the size of the Moldovan economy over the next decade. 

The arrangement contains financial aid for infrastructure projects in Moldova like bridges, railways, and a road link from Chisnau to the Ukrainian harbor city of Odessa.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has arrived in Paris as part of a European tour aimed at securing aid, the Ukrainian presidency confirmed to the news agency AFP.

Zelenskyy is in the French capital to meet President Emmanuel Macron. He is also to meet Italian and German leaders as part of the tour.

As recently as Wednesday, France had promised to deliver Mirage fighter jets in the first quarter of 2025. Training for Ukrainian pilots and mechanics for the aircraft is under way in France.

NATO will hold a long-planned nuclear exercise next week, the military alliance's chief, Mark Rutte, said Thursday, a few weeks after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced changes to Moscow's nuclear doctrine to discourage Ukraine's Western allies.

The "Steadfast Noon" drill will start on Monday and last for about two weeks. It will be led by Belgium and the Netherlands, use eight military bases and involve 2,000 personnel and 60 aircraft from 13 nations. The drill has been held at roughly the same time each year for over a decade.

"In an uncertain world, it is vital that we test our defense and that we strengthen our defense so that our adversaries know that NATO is ready and is able to respond to any threat," Rutte told reporters in London.

Bomber aircraft and fighter jets that can carry nuclear warheads will participate. No live munitions will be used. The bulk of the exercise will take place around 900 kilometers (560 miles) from Russia in the North Sea.

NATO officials have confirmed that Moscow has been made aware of the exercise.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer welcomed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and recently installed NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte to 10 Downing Street on Thursday.

The trio discussed the support Ukraine would need in the coming months as Kyiv tries to fend off the full-scale Russian invasion that began in February 2022.

Starmer's spokesperson reiterated Britain's view that Ukraine has the right, in certain circumstances, to strike targets inside Russian territory, but said that the UK's stance on the use of its long-range Storm Shadow missiles had not changed.

"We obviously want to put Ukraine in the strongest position. But no war has ever been won by a single weapon. And on Storm Shadow specifically, there has been no change to the UK government's position on the use of long-range missiles," the spokesperson said.

Zelenskyy also met NATO's Mark Rutte in London.

Asked about long-range weapons, Rutte told reporters: "We discussed it today, but in the end it is up to the individual allies."

jsi/sms (AP, AFP, Reuters, DPA)