WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Zelenskiy opts for more formal, calibrated wardrobe ahead of Trump meeting

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has retuned his wardrobe since a disastrous Oval Office meeting with Donald Trump in February, switching his typical khaki military-style tee-shirts and long-sleeved tops for more formal, but still rugged, black suit-style jackets and shirts.

The media-savvy leader had wanted to show solidarity with the troops fighting Russia on the frontline. But he was chided by a U.S. reporter for not wearing a suit at the White House event, which descended into a shouting match over whether he was showing sufficient gratitude for U.S. wartime support.

Since then, Zelenskiy has worked to rebuild relations with Washington, whose military help Kyiv still badly needs, even though the U.S. president has shown no sign of resuming the donations of weaponry that his predecessor Joe Biden had instituted.

When Zelenskiy met Trump at Pope Francis's funeral in Rome in April, he wore a heavy black field jacket and black shirt buttoned to the collar, with no tie.

He sported a similar look when meeting British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in London on Monday, and again at the dinner hosted on Tuesday by the Dutch king that preceded Wednesday's NATO summit in The Hague.

Although he was not invited to the meeting itself, he met with Trump afterwards, with an agenda including a wish-list of arms purchases.

The subtle switch, stopping short of white shirt or tie, has captured attention on social media and from the Ukrainian edition of ELLE magazine, which on Wednesday described his changed look as "visual diplomacy of a new kind".

The negative focus on Zelenskiy's attire at the White House was widely criticised by Ukrainians, who have largely rallied around their leader since Moscow's February 2022 invasion.

A communications adviser for the president's office did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Kiev-orchestrated bomb plot thwarted in Moscow Region – FSB

Two Russian citizens who were collecting an improvised explosive from a cache outside Moscow, have been killed after opening fire on law enforcement, the Federal Security Service (FSB) reported on Wednesday.

The deceased were identified by the agency as “accomplices of Ukrainian special services,”who allegedly planned to use the device in a terrorist attack targeting a Russian military service member.

According to the FSB, video footage appearing to show surveillance scenes along with the alleged IED proves that the bomb was ready for activation when it was seized.

Plot details were subsequently discovered on suspects’ phones and investigators are reportedly treating the case as a felony involving unlawful possession of explosives.

The FSB frequently reports having disrupted terrorist operations allegedly coordinated by Ukrainian intelligence services, though suspects are typically apprehended alive. Exceptions have occurred, particularly when Kiev is believed to rely on radicalized individuals with links to international terrorist organizations.

One such case was reported in April 2024, when two Central Asian Islamists allegedly planned to use first-person-view drones armed with explosive devices to target an oil refinery in Nizhny Novgorod Region.

The FSB claimed the suspects were directed to retrieve the equipment from a cache and were given operational instructions by a “Ukrainian handler.”

Reuters/RT