Ukraine calls for global restrictions on Russia’s access to advanced technologies

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called for strict curbs on the export of advanced technologies to Russia, urging the international community to block access to ready-made AI models with military applications, cloud-based AI training services, high-performance computing equipment and specialised datasets such as commercial satellite imagery.

Meanwhile, President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Russia was looking to cut its military expenditure from next year, contrasting that with NATO’s plan to ramp up defence spending over the next decade.

NATO allies on Wednesday agreed to raise their collective spending goal to 5% of gross domestic product in the next 10 years, citing what they called the long-term threat posed by Russia and the need to strengthen civil and military resilience.

In his first reaction to that move, Putin told a press conference in Minsk that the NATO spending would go on “purchases from the USA and on supporting their military-industrial complex”, and this was NATO’s business, not Russia’s.

“But now here is the most important thing. We are planning to reduce defence spending. For us, next year and the year after, over the next three-year period, we are planning for this,” he said.

Putin said there was no final agreement yet between the defence, finance and economy ministries, “but overall, everyone is thinking in this direction. And Europe is thinking about how to increase its spending, on the contrary. So who is preparing for some kind of aggressive actions? Us or them?”

Putin’s comments are likely to be greeted with extreme scepticism in the West, given that Russia has massively increased defence spending since the start of the Ukraine war.

The conflict shows no sign of ending and has actually intensified in recent weeks, as negotiations have made no visible progress towards a ceasefire or a permanent settlement.

Putin said Russia appreciated efforts by U.S. President Donald Trump to bring an end to the war.

“He recently stated that it turned out to be more difficult than it seemed from the outside. Well, that’s true,” Putin said.

Trump said this week that he believed Putin wanted to find a way to settle the conflict, but Ukraine and many of its European allies believe the Kremlin leader has no real interest in a peace deal and is intent on capturing more territory.

Putin said Russian and Ukrainian negotiators were in constant contact, and Moscow was ready to return the bodies of 3,000 more Ukrainian soldiers.

With inputs from agencies