{"id":203962,"date":"2026-03-13T16:34:58","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T16:34:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/ukraine-war-briefing-putin-envoy-says-us-better-understands-importance-of-russian-oil-amid-energy-crisis-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T16:34:58","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T16:34:58","slug":"ukraine-war-briefing-putin-envoy-says-us-better-understands-importance-of-russian-oil-amid-energy-crisis-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/ukraine-war-briefing-putin-envoy-says-us-better-understands-importance-of-russian-oil-amid-energy-crisis-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine war briefing: Putin envoy says US better understands importance of Russian oil amid energy crisis &#8211; The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Russian negotiator Kirill Dmitriev describes negotiations with Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner as \u2018productive\u2019. What we know on day 1,479<br \/><strong>Vladimir Putin\u2019s envoy says Washington is \u201cbeginning to better understand\u201d the importance of Russian oil, after a \u201cproductive meeting\u201d with US negotiators about <\/strong><strong>the Ukraine<\/strong><strong> invasion<\/strong>. \u201cWe discussed promising projects that could contribute to the restoration of Russian-American relations and the current crisis on global energy markets,\u201d Russian negotiator Kirill Dmitriev wrote in a Telegram post.<br \/><strong>The discussions in Florida on Thursday, which did not include representatives from Ukraine, came hours before the US issued a 30-day licence for countries to buy Russian oil and petroleum products currently stranded at sea, in an effort to stabilise global energy markets roiled by the Iran war<\/strong>. The US already lifted some sanctions on Russian oil earlier this week. That move was criticised as filling Russia\u2019s war coffers. Trump said this week that Putin, to whom he spoke on Monday, wanted to be \u201chelpful\u201d in relation to the Middle East war.<br \/><strong>Russia has received \u20ac6bn (\u00a35bn) from selling its fossil fuels in the fortnight since the start of the US-Israel war with Iran<\/strong>, data suggests. The revenues imply Russia made an extra \u20ac672m in oil, gas and coal sales during March, Simon Goodley <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2026\/mar\/12\/russia-fossil-fuels-revenue-us-israel-war-iran-data\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">writes<\/a>.<br \/><strong>Hungary returned two seized armoured bank vehicles to Ukraine on Thursday but withheld cash and gold worth millions<\/strong>, citing an investigation into alleged money laundering, a move that Kyiv has denounced as theft. Relations between Hungary and Ukraine reached a new low last week when Hungary <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2026\/mar\/06\/hungary-seizes-millions-euros-cash-gold-ukrainian-convoy\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">detained seven Ukrainians transporting cash and gold<\/a>. Kyiv accused Budapest of taking the bank employees, engaged in a legitimate transfer, hostage to pressure Ukraine into restarting suspended oil shipments. Those detained were expelled by Hungary and crossed into Ukraine on Friday.<br \/><strong>The EU has proposed a mission to inspect the Druzhba oil pipeline in Ukraine, and is waiting for a reply from Ukraine<\/strong>, a spokesperson for the EU Commission said on Thursday. Russian oil flows through the Druzhba pipeline to Hungary and Slovakia have been suspended since late January after it was damaged. Kyiv says a Russian strike hit Druzhba pipeline equipment, while Slovakia and Hungary say Ukraine is to blame for the prolonged outage.<br \/><strong>Hungary\u2019s prime minister, Viktor Orb\u00e1n, has accused Ukrainians of plotting to attack his family<\/strong>, amid<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2026\/mar\/06\/hungary-seizes-millions-euros-cash-gold-ukrainian-convoy\" data-link-name=\"in body link\"> the increasingly bitter standoff<\/a> between Kyiv and Budapest. Orb\u00e1n and his allies appear to be <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2026\/feb\/27\/hungarys-viktor-orban-seeking-to-drum-up-votes-by-doing-down-ukraine\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">using the dispute for maximum political gain<\/a> before the election due next month, Shaun Walker and Flora Garamvolgyi <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2026\/mar\/12\/orban-ukraine-claims-hungary-election\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">write<\/a>. Polling has Orb\u00e1n up to 20 points behind challenger P\u00e9ter Magyar.<br \/><strong>Ukraine is opening access to its battlefield data for its allies to train drone AI software<\/strong>, the defence minister said on Thursday, as Kyiv seeks to harness the experience it has garnered fending off Russia\u2019s invasion. The move comes as militaries across the globe start to use automated systems which can guide drones to their targets without a pilot, or quickly analyse vast pools of data. Foreign allies and companies have sought access to Ukraine\u2019s datasets, as these are crucial for training models to recognise patterns, shapes and the behaviour of people and machines on the battlefield.<br \/><strong>The European Commission has warned it will cut funding for the Venice Biennale if organisers go ahead with plans to include Russia<\/strong>. The commission reiterated any breach of ethical standards by the art festival would be treated as a violation of contract, leading to suspension of the \u20ac2m (\u00a31.7m) agreement, Jennifer Rankin <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/artanddesign\/2026\/mar\/12\/venice-biennale-risks-losing-eu-funding-over-planned-russia-involvement\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">reports<\/a>. Biennale organisers said last week that Russia would be allowed to take part, triggering accusations from Ukraine it was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/artanddesign\/2026\/mar\/09\/venice-biennale-ukraine-exclude-russia\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">offering \u201ca stage \u2026 for whitewashing war crimes\u201d.<\/a><br \/><strong>Romania and Ukraine have signed a statement of intent to produce Ukrainian defence systems including drones in Romania<\/strong>. Romania, an EU and Nato member, shares a 650-km (400-mile) border with Ukraine, including along the Danube River where Ukrainian ports on the opposite bank have come under Russian attack and Russian drones have breached Romanian airspace.<br \/><strong>The Kremlin accused Ukraine on Thursday of targeting a major gas pipeline in southern Russia that leads to Turkey with \u201creckless\u201d drone strike<\/strong>s. \u201cAt night, there were renewed attempts to attack the Russkaya compressor station with drones,\u201d Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said, calling the pipeline an \u201cinternational facility\u201d that \u201censures energy security for Turkey\u201d. \u201cThese are absolutely reckless actions by the Kyiv regime,\u201d Peskov said.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/rss\/articles\/CBMi5AFBVV95cUxNM1VwUDRZNVFyOGM1eXNWbXluYTJnYWQwc2VCWEJycEFORnAyVTczQ2NBQmJEdndoWE0zdmFmV0VCLTZTRmx1R1RDSzRvOThiYnBYMGJVYnE5RnNLeWdEZlh1aW5qSFZZSGRwbzNtUWh6YVRHWEZCR0dvQWZqdjVhZnFNLXd0dGU0MmZwT2dTOEVSRzBOMTdLVkx3cklOdXZHc1h1V2pvY0Rtdk1hMmRET0ZZc3k1WVBrVllGNlJtczRWdS03ODlCYXVsbXZ5WUFNaHJuQ0pKRkowRUdRN1V1Ti15NW4?oc=5\">source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Russian negotiator Kirill Dmitriev describes negotiations with Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner as \u2018productive\u2019. What we know on day 1,479Vladimir Putin\u2019s envoy says Washington is \u201cbeginning to better understand\u201d the importance of Russian oil, after a \u201cproductive meeting\u201d with US negotiators about the Ukraine invasion. \u201cWe discussed promising projects that could contribute to the restoration [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":203963,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-203962","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-us","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}