Ukraine-Russia war current: Zelensky meets EU allies, while Putin experienced the “bloodiest month of war” in September

Pope Francis met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the Vatican on Friday for his second face-to-face meeting in four months.

The two men, who previously met on the sidelines of a Group of Seven (G7) summit in southern Italy in June, held 35-minute talks at the Vatican's Apostolic Palace.

At the end of the meeting, Francis gave Zelensky a bronze artwork depicting a flower growing next to a bird with the inscription “Peace is a fragile flower.”

Zelensky gave the pope an oil painting depicting a child amid ruins in the Ukrainian city of Bucha, which was occupied by Russian forces for 33 days in the spring of 2022.

A reading at the Vatican provided no details about the pope's meeting with Zelensky, but said that a subsequent meeting between the Ukrainian leader and the Vatican's chief diplomat would include discussions “about the state of the war … and how it might go.” would have taken place”.

Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov said AI-powered drones are playing a key role on the battlefield in Ukraine and urged more training for troops in how to use them.

Mr. Belousov's ministry released a video in which he tours a center for next-generation drone technologies and speaks with drone operators.

A soldier showed Mr. Belousov a simulation of a drone equipped with AI-powered automatic image recognition attacking a small boat on a river.

“It is locking on the target and already locking on it,” the soldier told the minister. “Even if there is a loss of control, the drone steers towards it.”

Mr. Belousov said two detachments equipped with AI-powered drones were already deployed in eastern Ukraine and the Russian regions of Belgorod and Kursk, where troops were fighting to drive out Ukrainian troops who made a surprise incursion across the border in August.

“The boys are fighting, and fighting very successfully,” he said.

The ministry said it plans to form and staff five more units to conduct such drone operations “around the clock.” Mr Belousov said soldiers needed to be trained accordingly.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is not ready to talk to Chancellor Olaf Scholz about brokering peace in Ukraine, the German Foreign Minister said.

“Ukraine is ready for a just peace,” said Annalena Baerbock in Berlin, where Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will hold talks with Scholz on Friday.

In a conversation with the Slovak Foreign Minister, Baerbock criticized Putin for rejecting offers for peace talks.

“He rejects peace and sends another signal for war and destruction every day. “Nowadays he is no longer even willing to talk to the German Chancellor on the phone,” she said.

A nighttime Russian missile attack on Odessa killed at least four people, including a 16-year-old girl, according to regional authorities. This was the latest in a series of attacks this week in the southern Ukrainian region, likely aimed at disrupting the country's grain exports.

Four Russian missile and drone strikes in the Odessa region this week killed 14 people and wounded around 20, according to local officials. The strikes have hit merchant ships and damaged port infrastructure in the region, which is a key hub for Ukraine's agricultural exports across the Black Sea.

An attack in Odessa late Wednesday killed nine people and hit a Panamanian-flagged container ship – the third attack on a merchant ship in four days, according to regional governor Oleh Kiper.

The Ukrainian Air Force shot down 29 of the 66 Russian drones launched overnight.

Moscow also fired two missiles, it said, and 31 drones were “locally lost,” likely due to electronic warfare.

Two more drones returned to Russian territory, the Air Force said.

After meeting Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, Mr Zelensky met French President Emmanuel Macron.

In Paris, Macron and Zelensky hugged before talks about the plan at the French president's Elysee Palace. Afterwards, Zelensky said “full details” would be announced in November and that he was talking to allies about securing further military aid and allowing Ukrainian forces to carry out long-range strikes.

Kiev wants Western partners to allow attacks deep inside Russia using long-range weapons they provide. Some, including Britain and France, appear ready, but Biden is cautious about escalating the conflict.

He later met in Rome with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who ensured Italy's full and continuous support “at both bilateral and multilateral levels” to put Kiev in the best possible position to build a just and lasting peace.

Meloni said the meeting provided an opportunity to discuss the situation on the ground and Ukraine's “immediate military, financial and humanitarian needs, as well as upcoming diplomatic initiatives and the path to ending the conflict.”

Volodymyr Zelensky laid out his “victory plan” to Sir Keir Starmer as pressure mounted on Britain to give Ukraine permission to use Storm Shadow missiles to attack targets in Russia.

In three-way talks in Downing Street, the Prime Minister, the Ukrainian President and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte discussed the status of the war.

Mr Rutte said there was no legal reason to prevent the use of Western-supplied weapons against targets inside Russia, but decisions had to be made by individual states.

Following the talks at No. 10, Mr. Zelensky said: “The Victory Plan aims to create the right conditions for a just end to the war.”

“I thank the UK for its continued defense support to our country, including with long-range weapons.”

President Vladimir Putin has begun a visit to Turkmenistan, speaking at an international forum with Central Asian leaders and the Iranian president.

The Kremlin said Putin would discuss the situation in the Middle East with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on the sidelines of the conference in the Turkmen capital Ashgabat.

Moscow and Tehran signed a $1.7 billion deal for Iran to export drones to Russia after Putin invaded Ukraine in 2022, and the US is also believed to have transferred short-range ballistic missiles.

In his opening speech at the forum, Putin reiterated that he wanted to build a “new world order” with Russia's friends and partners, according to a video shared by the Kremlin.