First Thing: Zelenskyy says he told Trump that Putin was ‘playing games’ with Washington

‘Victory in this war is when Russian society recognises that the war is awful,’ Zelenskyy said. Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian View image in fullscreen ‘Victory in this war is when Russian society recognises that the war is awful,’ Zelenskyy said. Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian First Thing: Zelenskyy says he told Trump that Putin was ‘playing games’ with Washington In an exclusive interview, Ukraine’s president says he believes the war will be won when Russian society feels its impact. Plus, why California’s election count is taking so long (hint: it’s not fraud) In the fifth year of Russia’s full-scale war on Ukraine, Volodymr Zelenskyy says he is feeling upbeat and has been grateful for military support from the US, but has a pointed message for Washington. Speaking to Luke Harding and Pippa Crerar in London, the Ukrainian president acknowledged that the priority of Trump’s second term in foreign policy had shifted away from Ukraine to conflict in the Middle East. “It’s a pity,” he said, that compared with the help given to the US’s Gulf allies and Israel after the US-Israel war against on Tehran began, Ukraine had never received “that volume of support”. What did Zelenskyy say about Trump’s relationship with Putin? He carefully praised US diplomatic efforts, despite his bruising encounter in the Oval Office and the fact that Trump has been willing to meet Vladimir Putin, saying: “I always said to President Trump that Putin is lying. He plays games with you, with the White House.” Does he see any prospect of the war ending? The military situation was the most promising it had been for Kyiv for two and a half years, Zelenskyy ssaid. “We can’t say Russia is losing this war. But we can say they are losing the initiative each day, day by day,” he added. “Victory in this war is when Russian society recognises that the war is awful, that the war is a tragedy not for someone, somewhere, but for themselves.” To that end, Zelenskyy said the purpose of long-range strikes – drones buzzing above apartment blocks in greater Moscow and St Petersburg – was to make residents “feel” what war meant. OpenAI confidentially files for initial public offering on US stock market View image in fullscreen Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images OpenAI has filed confidentially to go public on the US stock market , according to a company blogpost published on Monday. The artificial intelligence company’s debut on Wall Street is expected to be one of the most highly valued listings in market history, with a valuation at more than $850bn. OpenAI’s approaching IPO will mark the culmination of a meteoric rise since its founding as a non-profit research lab in 2015, led by Sam Altman. After working on generative artificial intelligence in beta for several years, the company publicly released ChatGPT in 2022 and converted to a for-profit structure. Which other AI companies are making market moves? In addition to Anthropic, which