Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev said Washington "is beginning to better understand" the significance of Russian oil following "productive conversations" with American negotiators about the Ukraine conflict. The meetings were held in Florida without Ukrainian representatives.

Dmitriev wrote on Telegram that the discussions were constructive: "We discussed promising initiatives that could help restore Russian-American relations and address the current global crisis in the energy market."

Just a few hours later, the US issued a 30-day license for the purchase of Russian oil and derivatives at sea, aimed at stabilizing energy markets disrupted by Middle East tensions. Russia earned 6 billion euros from fossil fuel sales in just the first two weeks of the US-Iran conflict.

On side topics discussed: Hungary returned two seized armored banking vehicles to Ukraine but retained cash and gold worth millions of euros, citing money laundering investigations. Kyiv condemned this as theft.