Ukraine ‘actively developing’ regional security arrangements for defence, food and energy, Zelenskyy says; Russia and Ukraine swap prisoners. What we know on day 1,522
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in Azerbaijan on Friday for talks on “security and energy”, a senior Ukrainian official told AFP. Kyiv and Baku enjoy warm relations, with Azerbaijan repeatedly expressing support for Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sending humanitarian aid since the Russian invasion in 2022. Ties between Moscow and Baku have soured over the past year, after an Azerbaijani passenger plane was mistakenly hit by a Russian anti-aircraft missile in 2024, killing 38 people.
The trip follows one to Saudi Arabia, where Zelenskyy met with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, as the Ukrainian leader seeks to share Kyiv’s drone expertise with the Gulf countries affected by the war in Iran. Zelenskyy said Ukraine was “actively developing” its strategic security arrangement across three key areas, including exports of Ukrainian military expertise and air defence capabilities, energy cooperation to help Ukraine, and food security.
US weapons deliveries to Ukraine haven’t stopped despite the Iran war, and Ukrainian long-range strikes continue to hammer Russian oil production and manufacturing plants, Zelenskyy said on Thursday. “Of course, we are hitting what is painful for Russia, and it is very painful,” Zelenskyy said in voice messages to reporters, adding that Russian losses in the strikes have reached tens of billions of dollars. Russian officials have reported that attacks have struck infrastructure in regions more than 1,000km (600 miles) inside Russia.
