You missed the latest events on the war in Ukraine? 20 Minutes summarizes for you every evening. Here’s the essential of this Thursday, March 26, 2026, the 1,491st day of the conflict.
The day’s event
It was an unannounced visit. Volodymyr Zelensky arrived Thursday in Djeddah, Saudi Arabia, where he hoped to conclude agreements on the sale of military drones with several Gulf countries.
The Saudi kingdom is one of the countries where the Ukrainian president recently sent military experts to share their experience in intercepting Iranian-designed Shahed drones.
Attacked almost daily by hundreds of these devices, now mass-produced by Moscow, Ukraine has developed a range of low-cost and quite effective defense systems, including interceptors.
Naturally, this expertise is in high demand by Gulf countries, the targets of the same model of drones launched by Iran in retaliation since the beginning of hostilities in the Middle East.
Figure of the day
8.5 billion euros. The amount that French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has included in the update of the Military Programming Law (LPM) to place additional orders for ammunition by 2030, considering the international context.
Quote of the day
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Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump have respect for each other […] They don’t always agree, far from it, but they are capable of coming to an agreement like great politicians
»
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, interviewed Thursday by Léa Salamé on France 2, explained that Europeans and NATO are working to “divert” peace talks in Ukraine initiated between Russia and the United States.
Trend
Finnish President Alexander Stubb, who maintains close ties with both Donald Trump (with whom he shares a love for golf) and Volodymyr Zelensky, fears that peace talks led by the United States may lead nowhere.
“It could be like the war in Iran, which is significantly diverting attention from the war in Ukraine. But it may also be that the negotiations are at a standstill because they have reached an impasse and are no longer progressing,” Stubb said in an interview with the Norwegian newspaper VG.
Our coverage on the war in Ukraine
“I think the American negotiators have done everything they could, and now it all comes down to one question: Donetsk and the territories. But the big problem is that I don’t think Russia wants peace,” Alexander Stubb added.
