Kremlin won't dictate who joins Europe's team for Ukraine peace talks

Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov said Saturday that Moscow has no interest in dictating the makeup of a European negotiating team in any future Ukraine peace talks. Speaking to the Yanushev Telegram channel, he called that way of approaching the issue wrong outright. Moscow, he said, is interested in dialogue with the Europeans — specifically to gauge how far their position could feed into a peace process.

The statement dropped into a fast-moving diplomatic picture. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told reporters that US representatives asked Kyiv whether it would pull its military out of Donbass in exchange for NATO membership, according to the Kyiv Post. Zelensky said that if Washington confirms the offer alongside other NATO allies, he will put it to Ukrainian society — but that the specifics don't exist yet and everything is still under discussion.

Bulgaria broke ranks on European aid the same day. Prime Minister Rumen Radev announced Sofia will sit out the new round of European funding for Ukraine and will not hand Kyiv weapons or ammunition from Bulgarian Armed Forces stockpiles. He pointed to Bulgaria's excessive deficit procedure and strains on the country's reserves, while saying his government won't block other member states from contributing as they see fit.

On the ground, the head of the disputed Lugansk People's Republic, Leonid Pasechnik, said Ukrainian forces targeted rescuers clearing debris from an earlier strike on a gas station in Starobilsk. Writing on his Max channel, he said emergency personnel took cover and no one was injured. Separately, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi voiced alarm over Ukraine's power grid and nuclear safety as military activity continues, urging a complete halt to strikes on electrical facilities and noting several Ukrainian nuclear plant units had their output cut by the fluctuating grid. He also said one worker was killed in a recent strike on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant.