UKMTO
The UKMTO (United Kingdom Maritime Trade and Security Operations Centre) is a British military facility based in Dubai. It monitors merchant shipping in the Middle East and Indian Ocean, particularly in the Gulf of Aden and off the coast of Yemen, and shares information about maritime security threats with shipping companies.
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Trump announces Russian diesel deal with Putin and "energy ceasefire" between Ukraine and Russia
On 9 October 2026, US President Donald Trump said he had agreed in a phone call with Vladimir Putin to supply Russian diesel fuel to American and global markets. The US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control issued a temporary general licence permitting the shipments, suspending related sanctions. Two days later Trump announced via Truth Social an "energy ceasefire" he said both Ukraine and Russia had agreed to, understood by the White House as mutual restraint on oil refinery strikes only. President Volodymyr Zelensky said the ceasefire was news to him and that Russia violated it almost immediately by striking a power station in Kharkiv. Canadian PM Mark Carney and EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas publicly sided with Kyiv, and EU foreign ministers prepared to approve a new sanctions package against Russia on 12 October.