British journalist becomes one of most prominent appointments made by embattled editor-in-chief Bari Weiss
CBS News has hired the prominent British broadcaster Trevor Phillips, as its senior global affairs correspondent, in a significant hire for embattled top editor Bari Weiss.
The network said that reporting by Phillips, who currently presents the flagship Sunday political show on the UK’s Sky News channel, would appear “on all CBS News programs and platforms”.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is willing to stop the war along the current line of contact and move to negotiations, he said in a Sky News interview. He presented the idea as the quickest route to a ceasefire, while rejecting any deal that hands Russia Ukrainian land. He also urged allies to close Ukraine's air defense gaps.
Russia has rejected every ceasefire Ukraine and the US have put forward and keeps refusing to halt an all-out war it has waged since its full-scale invasion in 2022. Whether a freeze ever takes hold rests with the Kremlin, whose demands still stretch far beyond the territory its army has managed to seize.
"The quickest way" to stop the fighting
Asked where he would freeze the lines if Russia agreed to a ceasefire, Zelenskyy said he is ready to accept today's positions.
"Yes, it's the quickest way," he said.
He insisted this is not a giveaway. He does not want to simply freeze the conflict, but to stop the war so it cannot restart "because of some crazy people." A freeze would let Ukraine save children's lives and bring soldiers home. Any ceasefire must be total and free of Russian games, watched by American and European partners. Only then would the sides sit down to end the war through diplomacy. A ceasefire, he added, is "the biggest compromise from our side."
The most urgent need from allies is air defense, Zelenskyy said. Ukraine faces a large deficit in anti-ballistic missiles, with US transfers slowed by the war in the Middle East. He again asked for more Patriot systems. Russia attacks daily, usually with around 300 long-range explosive drones. On the heaviest nights it launches 600 to 850 drones and dozens of missiles.
Ukraine's interceptors now down most of them, but the gaps remain dangerous.
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Ukraine's own arsenal
Ukraine has built more than 400 defense companies since the full-scale invasion, Zelenskyy said. Dozens rank among the world's strongest. They produce drones and missiles, some underground, and the country is close to its own ballistic missile. Ukraine can now share that expertise with allies and even build air defenses for Europe, he said. Kyiv aims to mass-produce drones on a scale few countries can match.
Bringing the war back to Russia
Ukraine's recent strikes on St. Petersburg and the Moscow region answer Russian attacks on Ukrainian energy, Zelenskyy said. St. Petersburg was hit twice last week. He wants Russians far from the front to feel the war they started. Russian President Vladimir Putin understands only "total pressure," he said. Sanctions on Russia's shadow fleet of sanctions-dodging tankers and its oil and gas exports hit hardest.
Zelenskyy said Putin does not want to stop the war and is signaling he wants to win. Whether the fighting ends "100% depends on his decision," he said. His 4 June open letter, which Moscow called rude and rejected, was meant to force an answer and pierce a Russian public living in "some fantastic world." Russian businessman Roman Abramovich came to Kyiv to carry messages to Putin, Zelenskyy said.
The so-called Donbas is a historic name for Ukraine’s two easternmost regions, Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts. Russia still failed to occupy a small part of Luhansk Oblast, as well as a significant swathe of Donetsk Oblast, which contains the so-called “Fortress Belt” that Russia has failed to break through despite its years-long ongoing offensive campaign. Map: ISW
His key message was on the Donbas: Ukraine will not leave its land, and compromises come only after a ceasefire. He is ready to meet in any format, but not in Moscow, Belarus, or Minsk. Leaders cannot decide "without us about us," he said, in a message aimed at Washington. Russia, by contrast, keeps insisting that Ukraine surrender all of the Donbas first.
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