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KYIV, Ukraine — Russian President Vladimir Putin assured U.S. President Donald Trump in a phone call Tuesday that Moscow doesn’t harbor aggressive intentions toward Europe, a senior Kremlin official said, after European officials blamed Moscow for sabotage campaigns on their soil.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said meanwhile that U.S. envoys who visited Kyiv presented some “very good, worthwhile ideas” for ending Russia’s 4½-year-old war, adding that he hopes to meet with Trump within two weeks.

But Russia remains determined to accomplish its military goals and it believes it is close to winning, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said. Ukrainian and Western observers, however, believe that Moscow has been unable to make any significant progress on the front line.

The war could yet drag on for years as Russia reconstitutes its forces and its defense industry, said U.S. Undersecretary of Defense Elbridge Colby.

“We must be prepared for a protracted conflict and for Ukraine’s requirements to persist in the months and years ahead,” Colby told an online meeting of countries helping Ukraine.

U.S. envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff visited Moscow and Kyiv for separate talks with Putin and Zelensky over the weekend. The meetings appeared to produce no substantial breakthrough on ending the fighting, and both countries resumed their deadly air war after a weekend truce in their capitals for the American visitors.

The attacks killed seven people and injured 28 in Kyiv and the surrounding region, authorities said. Officials from Russia reported three people killed and 13 wounded in areas it controls.

Kremlin says call between Putin and Trump was ‘constructive’

Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, said the hourlong conversation between Putin and Trump was “constructive and quite frank.” Moscow has a positive view of the results of the weekend visit by Witkoff and Kushner, he added.

There was no immediate White House comment on the call.

Ushakov told reporters that “in view of the speculation about Russia’s alleged hostile intentions toward European countries, it was underlined that we don’t have any aggressive plans regarding Europe.”

That claim runs counter to European authorities’ versions of recent incidents, such as the German government last week blaming Russia for an attempted attack at Leipzig/Halle Airport in August using a drone laden with explosives.

Ushakov said Putin told Trump about the combat situation in Ukraine and Russia’s plans to make battlefield gains and achieve its military goals in what Moscow calls its “special military operation,” not a war.

Zelensky aims to meet with Trump this month

Zelensky said he is counting on meeting with Trump around Sept. 20 — about the same time that the U.N. General Assembly is being held in New York. Putin isn’t expected to attend.

He indicated he will press Trump to provide more Patriot air defense systems that Kyiv needs to counter Russia’s ballistic missiles.

Ukraine needs 300 Patriot missiles from its partners’ stocks, 500 air-to-air interceptors, and $2 billion for more drones, U.K. Defense Secretary Wes Streeting told the meeting of countries providing help.

Also on Tuesday, the European Commission approved a loan of 3.2 billion euros ($3.7 billion) for Kyiv to purchase components for Patriot air defense systems, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said on its Telegram channel.

Zelensky thanked U.S. officials for their efforts to unblock negotiations with Russia, which have been stuck since early this year with little progress.

“As for the peace package that Kushner spoke about and the new ideas, I’ll tell you frankly, there were indeed a couple of very good, worthwhile ideas,” Zelensky said in audio messages answering reporters’ questions.

The proposals will remain under wraps for now, he said, but he expressed hope that talks involving delegations from Ukraine, Russia, and the U.S. can take place in the fall.

Ukraine is “ready to find a compromise” on the issues of grain exports and energy, he said. Moscow and Kyiv have targeted each other’s grain ships in the Black Sea, raising concerns that two of the world’s major suppliers won’t be able to get their produce to market.

Ukraine has also battered Russian oil facilities while Russia has pounded Ukraine’s power grid ahead of winter.

Russia is confident of victory, Kremlin spokesperson says

Peskov said he believed “victory is very close” on the battlefield.

“We’re very confident in our military potential,” he told reporters, while insisting Russia wants to find a peaceful solution and welcomes Trump’s diplomatic efforts.

Putin has sought to portray Russia as negotiating from a position of strength. But European officials and Western analysts say its bigger army is unable to make significant progress on the 800-mile front line, where it is pushing to capture the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, part of its industrial heartland.

“Russian forces will not seize Donetsk … until 2032 at their current rate of advance — if they can seize it at all,” the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said Sunday. “The Russian rate of advance has slowed significantly across the theater since 2025, when Russia’s rate of advance had already begun to slow.”

With troops bogged down on the battlefield, both countries have intensified their aerial campaign of drones and missiles.

Top Ukraine diplomat says ‘horrific’ attack hurts peace efforts

Russia’s main targets in its overnight attack were Kyiv and the Odesa region of southern Ukraine, Ukraine’s Interior Minister Ivan Vyhivskyi said.

Explosions were heard in Kyiv for nearly five hours, according to Vyhivskyi. More than 50 sites were damaged during the attack, including residential buildings, dormitories, schools, stores, and gas stations, he said.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha called it “a horrific attack” and accused Putin of undermining U.S. peace efforts.

The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces overnight launched a massive strike on Ukrainian military industry facilities.

It provided a detailed list of its targets. They included places storing Ukrainian drones and cruise missiles, as well as transport, logistics, and distribution centers for military cargo in Kyiv and the Kyiv region, the ministry said.

Drone incursion is reported in Romania

Romania’s Ministry of National Defense said a drone entered its territory and later crashed in neighboring Moldova east of the countries’ shared border after about 30 minutes. Two Spanish F-18 warplanes tracked its trajectory, the ministry said.

Moldovan police said a drone crashed in a sunflower field outside a village in the Riscani district, causing fires, but no one was injured.

Ukraine neighbors both Romania and Moldova, and the countries have reported dozens of drone incidents since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.

JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was directly warned by the president of the United Arab Emirates that Hamas was planning a major offensive just days before the militant group attacked on Oct. 7, 2023, according to an Israeli newspaper report.

UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed spoke with Netanyahu 10 days before the attack and said Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza at the time, was planning an operation, the Haaretz daily said.

Bin Zayed said it would lead to bloodshed and could destabilize the region and undermine the Abraham Accords, the normalization agreements between Israel and several Arab and Muslim-majority nations, the newspaper reported.

But Netanyahu “reacted with relative calm,” according to Haaretz, which said he assured bin Zayed that Israel was prepared for any scenario and a possible attack was more likely to come from the occupied West Bank.

Hamas militants killed some 1,200 people and took another 251 hostage in the Oct. 7 attack. Hundreds of Israelis, mostly soldiers, have been killed in continued fighting in wars in Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran.

Haaretz reported Netanyahu’s office called the report an “absolute lie” and said Netanyahu did not speak with the UAE president “during the period in question and received no warning from him.”

Netanyahu has rejected calls for an official government inquiry into the events surrounding the Oct. 7 attack.

His office denied Tuesday that the UAE gave him a warning. “If there was any relevant information, it was passed through intelligence channels between the two countries,” the statement said.

The UAE’s Foreign Ministry also said that it would not comment on “speculation regarding conversations between government leaders.”

Israel and the UAE have maintained “open and direct lines of communication” since they formally established ties five years ago, the statement said. It added: “When necessary, all relevant intelligence has been and continues to be communicated.”

Israel is holding national elections next month and Netanyahu’s actions around the time of the Oct. 7 attack are a key issue in the campaign.

Gadi Eisenkot, a former top general who is seen as Netanyahu’s main opponent in election, accused the prime minister of ignoring dozens of warnings ahead of the attack.

“He is unfit,” Eisenkot wrote on social media.

Another Netanyahu rival, Naftali Bennett, said, “Netanyahu bears personal and direct responsibility for the failure that led to the deaths of thousands of Israelis on his watch.”

Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed more than 73,650 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

BUNIA, Congo — Yuma Adolphe and his team are responsible for the safe and dignified burial of some of the people who die from Ebola in Congo’s Ituri province, the epicenter of history’s deadliest Ebola outbreak. Nearly every day, they dig the graves, prepare the bodies, and handle the coffins.

But as the authorities grapple with the outbreak, which has killed nearly 3,200 people among more than 6,600 confirmed cases, the burial team says they are at their limits, struggling with an increasing workload and hostile communities.

“It is difficult, but we try to push ourselves beyond our limits,” Adolphe told the Associated Press.

Since the outbreak began in mid-May, authorities have deployed small burial teams like Adolphe’s across the hot spots to handle the burials. Paid $20 a day, they are a part of a group of front-line workers who are working to contain the rapidly moving disease.

Despite the toll, the burial team members say the priority is to keep their community safe.

“We have to look at our own mental well-being, and physically the fatigue mounts, but we keep going to ensure the community is protected.”

‘In the past, we did not die like this’

But their work is in the crosshairs of the locals’ frustration with the outbreak, which not only has taken their loved ones but prohibits them from traditional burial rites.

Health workers exclusively handle the bodies, as Ebola spreads as a result of direct contact with the blood or other bodily fluids of infected people.

Experts say bodies of victims still contain considerable amounts of active virus and can spread infections further.

Burial teams have faced attacks

Since May, health workers and burial teams such as Adolphe’s have been attacked by bereaved families across the front line of the outbreak.

“Usually, the body is handed over to the family, who can handle it however they wish, in accordance with our African customs,” Adolphe said. “But in this situation, it’s difficult to let the family handle the body as they please. They are deprived of certain rituals, and that’s what leads to misunderstandings.”

Jeanne Alasha, adviser to the military governor of Ituri on health and humanitarian affairs, said that “as for those who continue to assault the teams, they are committing offenses punishable by law.”

Ituri province, where the outbreak is concentrated, is also at the center of the rebel conflict in eastern Congo. The province is under a military government appointed by federal civilian authorities in Kinshasa.

Shortly before noon last Friday, Justine Abineno, a chorister, was buried in Ituri. Abineno had died of Ebola. She had only complained of slight headaches before heading to a hospital and was diagnosed with Ebola, her mother said.

A catechist presided over the ceremony attended by dozens of people, as a team of specialist burial team members in scrubs and boots stood by.

Abineno’s mother, Sofia Wanito, said that the doctors only allowed her to see the body through the window of the hospital ward, and she wasn’t allowed to touch the coffin.

“In the past, we didn’t die like this. I could not even cover her with the sheets myself and pay a final tribute,” Wanito said.

Efforts to contain the virus are faltering

The Ebola outbreak is spreading across six provinces in eastern Congo in some of the most difficult conditions imaginable, fueled by rebel violence, displacement, and intense population movements. A weak healthcare and surveillance system also challenges responders, as do insufficient contact tracing and laboratory testing.

Efforts to contain the outbreak have also been complicated by the lack of an approved vaccine or treatment for the rare Bundibugyo virus causing it. Authorities have started vaccinating front-line health workers with the Evrebo vaccine, which the World Health Organization says could offer some protection against Ebola, but there’s no conclusive evidence that it would work against the current virus.

Health authorities say the true scale of the crisis is likely three times more than official statistics as the disease continues to outpace efforts to contain it. WHO has said that it’s projected to surpass the deadliest in history, West Africa’s 2014-2016 outbreak, which killed more than 11,000 people.

Front-line health workers in eastern Congo have gone on multiple strikes to demand pay for their work, complicating efforts to stop the outbreak.

‘We are putting everything on the line’

Benjamin Muhindo, another burial team member, said that his family worries that he might bring the virus home. For him, though, a bigger priority is ensuring the proper burial of victims, he said.

“Burials during this Ebola epidemic are very complicated, as we are working under pressure and constantly racing against the clock,” Muhindo said.

Trauma experts say the high number of cases and the deaths are only one side of the impact at personal and communal levels.

“The trauma of this outbreak doesn’t stop with the case count,” said Rose Tchwenko, Mercy Corps country director in Congo. The chain of transmission will only be broken by “an integrated holistic response,” which includes a social response to bereaved families and front-line workers, she added.

After the burial on Friday, Adolphe said that he’s very tired but more worried about the community than anything else.

“We have no choice,” he said. “We are here to safeguard our community.”

LONDON — King Charles III has reiterated that Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, remain nonworking members of the royal family following their return to the United Kingdom.

A letter sent on behalf of the king to senior government officials said the couple will continue to refrain from using their royal titles as they have done since stepping back from official royal duties in 2020. Any charity work the couple undertakes will be carried out in a private capacity, and operational security decisions are matters for the relevant police agencies, the letter adds.

The letter was sent by the Lord Chamberlain, the most senior official in the royal household, to senior officials in the government and military, as well as lord lieutenants, the king’s personal representatives around the country.

“To help avoid doubt or confusion, The King has directed that (this) information be shared,” the letter says.

While the communication simply confirms that Harry and Meghan’s status remains unchanged, the decision to send the letter and release it publicly demonstrates the concern among some palace observers that the couple’s status could allow them to become a sort of parallel royal court, competing with working members of the royal family.

The security question is particularly sensitive because Harry has fought a long-running battle with the government for the restoration of publicly funded police protection, which was canceled when the couple gave up their royal roles.

The decision about whether to restore the couple’s round-the-clock police protection is a matter for a government panel known as RAVEC, or the Royal and VIP Executive Committee.

“Any specific questions from official and State organizations about the courtesies which should be extended to the Duke and Duchess, and particularly where recourse to public funds may be required, should be directed to Buckingham Palace,” the Lord Chamberlain said in his letter.

BRUSSELS — The European Union on Monday sought to reassure a jittery Greenland with the promise of a stronger partnership and hundreds of millions of euros in investment following repeated threats from U.S. President Donald Trump to take control of the island.

During a visit to the capital Nuuk, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen offered 200 million euros ($232 million) in support over the next two years to help Greenland tackle climate change, boost internet connections, and improve hydropower plants, fisheries, and education.

The EU has increased its focus on Greenland since Trump began insisting that the United States should take control of the island for security reasons. His persistent claims raised sovereignty concerns and pushback from Greenlandic and Danish leaders and heightened tensions among NATO allies.

“Greenland’s future is for the people of Greenland and Denmark to decide. No one else,” von der Leyen said. “Territorial integrity, sovereignty, the inviolability of borders. These are fundamental principles of international law.”

EU promises money for Greenland’s development

Funds are also earmarked for better housing, support to small businesses, and sustainable tourism. Von der Leyen also said that she wants to double EU budget support to Greenland to around half a billion euros ($580 million) from 2028.

“Greenland can count on the EU,” she said, after signing an EU-Greenland declaration with Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen. Greenland is a semiautonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark.

Nielsen described the 27-nation EU as “a loyal and trusted friend,” notably at a time when the island faces “new challenges that we cannot tackle alone.”

“Through these challenging times, your support to us is unfailing,” he said. “You have stood by us and continue to stand by us. We feel it and are deeply grateful.”

Denmark and European allies resist Trump’s pressure

The Trump administration also leaned on Denmark. “We have been under pressure,” Frederiksen told reporters. “It has been very clear, and we are very thankful for the great support we have received from our European partners but, by the way, also globally.”

Denmark and seven of its European allies sent a small group of military personnel to the island in January, publicly for military exercises focused on strengthening Arctic security, but with the intention of showing support for Greenland’s sovereignty.

In response, Trump threatened to slap new tariffs on them all: Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. They condemned the move as undermining trans-Atlantic relations, and Trump eventually backed down after NATO agreed to boost security in the Arctic region.

Von der Leyen’s visit came as 11 NATO countries began military exercises in Greenland on Monday involving around 400 military personnel, including special forces troops trained to operate in Arctic conditions from Canada, Denmark, and Finland. No U.S. troops are taking part in the Arctic Shield drills, which run Sept. 7-18.