Selenskyj demands green light from Britain and the USA for deployment of long-range missiles

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that if Ukraine used long-range weapons supplied by the West to attack targets on Russian territory, this would be a sign that NATO countries were also at war with Russia.

But Zelensky suggested he had not given up hope that Biden – who still has four months left in office – could turn things around in time for a “historic mission” to make “important decisions for Ukraine.”

“We have made some decisions in the history of our relations with Biden – very interesting and difficult dialogues,” said the Ukrainian leader.

“Later he changed his mind.”

A close adviser to Biden said this month that he would use his remaining time in office to “put Ukraine in the best possible position to prevail.”

NOVEMBER SUMMIT

After a summer of intense fighting, Zelensky will travel to the United States.

Moscow's armed forces are advancing in eastern Ukraine, while Kiev has held large parts of the Russian Kursk region for weeks.

The Russian army is now about ten kilometers away from the eastern Ukrainian crisis center of Pokrovsk, where Kiev has hastily brought the people evacuated from the front-line areas.

The war has been going on for almost 31 months and efforts to end the fighting have so far been unsuccessful.

Zelensky reiterated that Ukraine was “ready” to invite Russia to a second international peace summit in November “because all our allies, including our closest ones,” said Russia should be there.

“It is Russia that is fighting against Ukraine. The war cannot be ended without the intervention of one of the parties,” he said.

Zelensky said the November summit would be “the basis for talks with Russia in any format.”

But Russia said on Saturday it would not take part in such a summit and repeated Putin's conditions that Moscow would only come to the negotiating table if Kyiv gave up four of its regions.