Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned that a planned meeting between Russia, China and the United States next month could present the three participants with an opportunity to redraw global spheres of influence.
"We really don't want this to turn into 'Yalta 2, 3, 4' with a redistribution of influence," he said in comments to journalists on Wednesday, referring to the 1945 Yalta Conference in Crimea, where Allied powers redrew the world map in the wake of the Second World War.
The Kremlin has previously indicated that preparations were underway for a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US and Chinese counterparts, Donald Trump and Xi Jinping, on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific summit next month.
The Wall Street Journal first broke the news about the three-way summit earlier this month and said that Trump had not agreed to attend the summit at the time.
But the Journal said Trump was open to the proposal — that had been raised by Putin — since he wanted to bring an end to the war in Ukraine.
"What China, Russia and the United States might discuss has not yet been clearly defined," Zelenskyy said, adding that "Russia wants this meeting more than anyone," warning against handing Moscow "another major diplomatic advantage."
For years now, Russia has been seeking a new agreement with Washington on European security architecture, and in particular an end to what Putin considers NATO's aggressive expansion towards Russia.
Putin continues to cast the ongoing invasion of Ukraine as a response to such a NATO threat – a position widely rejected in Kyiv and the rest of Europe.
Zelenskyy's warning came ahead of planned talks between Ukrainian, Russian and US envoys in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) next month.
No specific date has been set for the Abu Dhabi meeting, but Kyiv is keen for it to take place before the potential Russia-China-US summit.
Before that, it was also confirmed on Wednesday that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will travel to the United States for a meeting with G20 counterparts in Atlanta on October 30-31.
Zelenskyy's remarks were released as he traveled to the Netherlands for meetings with Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten and Dutch King Willem-Alexander in The Hague.
The Dutch government said on Wednesday it would provide Ukraine with €1.2 billion ($1.3 billion) in non-military support over the next years.
Zelenskyy also held a phone call with British Prime Minister Andy Burnham to thank him for an extra £10 billion ($13.29 billion/€11.94 billion) of support announced earlier on Wednesday.
"A truly strong very timely step coming right Russia needs to and feel that Ukraine will not be left alone to deal with the problems Russia is so eager to escalate," he wrote on social media.
But Ukraine's greatest assets in its defense against Russian aggression remain US Patriot air defense missiles, and Zelenskyy urged Washington to increase supplies.
Zelenskyy said Ukraine had been receiving 12 missiles a month this year but is being targeted with "150 ballistic missiles a month."
Meanwhile on the battlefield, officials said a six-day ceasefire in a Russian-occupied town in southern Ukraine held for its first day and night.
The localized truce in the devastated town of Oleshky began on Tuesday and is due to last until Sunday, enabling a planned humanitarian operation to provide around 2,000 remaining residents with urgently needed food and medicine, and evacuate those who want to leave.
"We are grateful that they are organizing this possibility to evacuate people," said President Zelenskyy.
The plight of Oleshky in Ukraine's southern Kherson region caught the attention of US first lady Melania Trump, who the White House said helped broker the humanitarian mission.
If the ceasefire holds, it will be the first time in more than four-and-a-half years of fighting that both sides have observed a significant truce, with previous attempts quickly unraveling.
"This is the biggest de-escalation since 2022," said Ukraine's negotiator, Davyd Arakhamia, on Tuesday, adding every step brings peace closer.
Elsewhere, however, the war raged on with five people, including a four-year-old child, injured in a Russian drone strike on the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv overnight.
In Moscow, the Russian Defense Ministry said air defenses had downed 531 Ukrainian drones on Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning, but local authorities in the Belgorod border region said one person was killed in a drone attack.
And in Sofia, Bulgarian Defense Minister Dimitar Stoyanov said three maritime drones struck a container ship in the Black Sea off the coast of Bulgaria.
The crew evacuated the vessel and there were no immediate reports of casualties, according to Bulgarian state news agency BTA, but the incident took place as defense ministers from Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey were meeting in Sofia for trilateral talks focused on Black Sea security.
"We follow with concern the intense attacks on commercial vessels in the Black Sea and call on the sides to act with common sense, in line with the principle of navigational safety in open seas," said Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler.
"The necessary warnings are constantly being conveyed to both sides to keep commercial navigational out of the conflict zone and immediately halt attacks on civilian vessels."
A series of drone attacks have occurred this month off the coasts of NATO members Romania and Bulgaria. Russia has not taken responsibility, but suspicion has increasingly fallen on Moscow.
"The logic points in that direction," Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev told parliament earlier this month. "The problem is that we cannot prove it."
