Umerov met with E3 advisors amid missile threats – Politico
Rustem Umerov, head of the Ukrainian negotiating team, has arrived in Berlin to take part in confidential talks with national security advisers to the leaders of the E3 countries—Germany, France, and the United Kingdom.
According to Politico, this emergency diplomatic visit comes amid another escalation of missile strikes on Ukraine, a massive attack on Kyiv over the weekend, and open threats by Russia to carry out systematic and sustained strikes on the Ukrainian capital. The situation is further complicated by calls from the Russian Foreign Ministry for foreign diplomats to leave the city immediately, as well as a recent statement by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio that the U.S. is currently stepping back from peace negotiations.
Official sources are refraining from disclosing details of the meeting. A spokesperson for German Chancellor Friedrich Merz declined to provide any comments, citing the event’s strict confidentiality, and the Ukrainian Embassy in Germany also declined to comment on the event. Prior to his visit to Berlin, Rustem Umerov traveled to Brussels, where he held talks with high-ranking officials of the European Commission regarding the expansion of cooperation in the defense industry.
An additional political backdrop to this meeting was the noticeable rise in tensions between German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The source of the disagreement was the German leader’s recent proposal to grant Ukraine “associated membership” in the European Union instead of a full integration process. Volodymyr Zelenskyy firmly rejected this initiative, emphasizing that Ukraine’s place in the EU must be exclusively full, comprehensive, and equal. European diplomats directly link Umerov’s presence in Berlin today to Merz’s high-profile public statements regarding Ukraine’s European integration prospects.
Sergey Lavrov, the foreign minister of the aggressor state, the Russian Federation, stated during a phone call with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio that Russia is “launching strikes on targets in Kyiv.”
Russia’s threats of new strikes on Kyiv are a hysterical reaction to setbacks on the front lines — Flash
Strikes on Kyiv may be part of Russia’s summer campaign — Bild
