What's new

The Russian invasion of Ukraine

Nato strengthens defences after Russian drones shot down over Poland

Several Nato members are sending troops, artillery, and air defence systems to secure its eastern flank after what Poland called an unprecedented Russian drone incursion into its airspace.

In the early hours of Wednesday, three Russian drones were shot down after crossing into Polish airspace.

Other drones crashed to the ground and were later found across eastern Poland.

Poland has requested a UN Security Council session about the incident, which will take place on Friday at 19:00 GMT.

In response to the drone incursion, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic said they would send defences to Poland, while Lithuania would receive a German brigade and greater warning of Russian attacks on Ukraine that could cross over.

Germany also said it would "intensify its engagement along Nato's eastern border" and extend and expand air policing over Poland.

Later France's Emmanuel Macron announced the country would send three Rafale fighter jets to help protect Poland's airspace.

"We will not yield to Russia's growing intimidation," Macron said.

US President Donald Trump, who has been trying unsuccessfully to broker a halt to the war in Ukraine, told reporters on Thursday that the alleged incursion might have happened by "mistake".

"I'm not happy about anything to do with the whole situation, but hopefully that's going to come to an end," Trump said.

Addressing parliament on Thursday, Polish Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz listed the offers of support from Poland's partners, saying the Dutch were going to deploy air defence systems, artillery and 300 troops, while the Czech would send helicopters and 100 soldiers.

He also said the French and the British could deploy aircraft to secure Nato's eastern flank.

"Poland has repeatedly heard words of solidarity and empty gestures throughout its history," Kosiniak-Kamysz said. "Today, we have concrete declarations."

Although Russian drones and missiles have trespassed into some Nato member countries before, this was the most serious incident of its kind since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The Kremlin said it had no further comment to make on claims that Russia had deliberately sought to stoke tensions in Poland.

Yet many Polish and European leaders believe the incursion was deliberate.

"This Russian provocation...is nothing more than an attempt to test our capabilities," Poland's President Karol Nawrocki said, echoing comments by his German and French counterparts.

However, experts' opinions are split on whether Moscow intended to launch the drones into Poland.

On Thursday, Nato's top military commander Alexus Grynkewich acknowledged it was not yet known whether the act had been intentional and said even the precise number of drones which had crossed into Polish airspace was still to be determined.

But in the face of growing nervousness from the countries bordering Russia, neither Nato nor Poland are taking any chances.

Warsaw will set restrictions for drones and small air traffic along its eastern borders with Belarus and Ukraine, and Latvia has announced its eastern airspace would be closed for a week.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky offered to provide guidance and training to Western military representatives on how to fend off Russian aerial attacks as Ukrainian defence forces do on a near-nightly basis.

Zelensky also called for a joint air defence system to act as an air shield over Europe as a response for Russia's "insolent" behaviour.

Adding to the anxiety felt in some quarters of eastern Europe are major joint military exercises between Belarus and Russia, dubbed Zapad 2025, due to start on Friday.

Poland is due to close its border on Thursday at 00:00 local time (22:00 BST) "for national security reasons... in connection with the Zapad manoeuvres," which it called "very aggressive".

Russia has urged Polish authorities to re-open its border with Belarus, warning its closure "will cause serious damage" to businesses and freedom of movement.

"We call on Warsaw to think about the consequences of such destructive steps and reconsider the decision as soon as possible", Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

The previous Zapad drills were staged several months before the start of the war in Ukraine and involved about 200,000 troops in total.

This year's exercise will be smaller in scale, according to Lithuanian military intelligence chief Mindaugas Mazonas, and involve up to 30,000 troops in total.

The response by US President Donald Trump to the drone incursion has so far been muted. "What's with Russia violating Poland's airspace with drones? Here we go!", he wrote on social media on Wednesday without elaborating further.

Polish President Nawrocki said he and his US counterpart had spoken as "part of a series of consultations" with allies and said the talks "reaffirmed our unity".

BBC
 
Ukraine launches 221 drones on Russia, Moscow says

Russia says it downed 221 Ukrainian drones launched on its territory overnight, in one of the largest aerial assaults since May.

More than half of the drones were intercepted over the Bryansk and Smolensk regions, south-west of Moscow, where Lukoil facilities were reportedly targeted, the defence ministry said.

Authorities in the Leningrad region said 28 drones were brought down and that a fire had broken out on a vessel in the Baltic port of Primorsk, Russia's largest oil terminal. They added that the blaze was extinguished without casualties or leaks.

Meanwhile, officials said two civilians were killed in Ukraine's Sumy region when a Russian glide bomb struck a village near the border.

Interceptions were reported across at least nine other regions of Russia, including Kaluga, Novgorod and the Moscow area, where nine drones were said to have been destroyed. Debris was recorded across several areas, though Russian officials insisted there had been no casualties.

Seven people, including five civilians and two military personnel, were injured when a drone struck a bus in Bryansk, the region's Governor Alexander Bogomaz said.

Moscow's figures, which the BBC has been unable to independently verify, suggest Thursday night's attack constituted one of the largest Ukrainian aerial bombardments in over four months.

Russia said it destroyed a record 524 drones on 7 May. By comparison, Ukrainian officials said Russia had deployed 818 drones against their territory in recent weeks.

The aerial assault is being described as one of the most significant for the Leningrad region since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine three-and-a-half years ago. The attack saw operations at St Petersburg's Pulkovo airport temporarily suspended.

Cross-border drone raids have become an increasingly prominent feature of the war. In July, a sustained Ukrainian drone attack forced the temporary closure of all of Moscow's airports.

In recent months Ukrainian strikes have reached deeper into Russian territory, hitting refineries, fuel depots and logistics hubs hundreds of miles from the frontlines.

Moscow has intensified its missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian cities and energy facilities over the summer as US-led efforts to reach a peace agreement stalled.

The attacks came ahead of the start of a major joint military exercise between Russia and ally Belarus on Friday, which is staged every four years.

But this time it is taking place just days after a number of Russian drones were shot down or fell on Poland, in what Warsaw called an unprecedented incursion into its airspace.

BBC
 
Kyiv can win all of Ukraine back from Russia, Trump says

US President Donald Trump has said Kyiv can "win all of Ukraine back in its original form", marking a major shift in his position on the war with Russia.

In a post on his Truth Social platform, he said Ukraine could get back "the original borders from where this war started" with the support of Europe and Nato, due to pressures on Russia's economy.

His comments came after talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, held after Trump had addressed the UN General Assembly in New York on Tuesday.

Trump has repeatedly expressed his desire to end the war, but has previously warned that process would likely involve Ukraine giving up some territory, an outcome Zelensky has consistently rejected.

In his post, Trump added Ukraine could "maybe even go further than that", but did not specify what he was referring to.

He also made no reference to Crimea, which was invaded and annexed by Russia in 2014. Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Trump said his position had changed "after getting to know and fully understand the Ukraine/Russia military and economic situation".

"Putin and Russia are in BIG Economic trouble, and this is the time for Ukraine to act," he added, labelling Russia as a "paper tiger".

Zelensky hailed the "big shift" in Trump's position, and speaking to reporters in the UN building, said he understood the US was willing to give Ukraine security guarantees "after the war is finished".

Pressed on what this would look like, he added: "I don't want to lie, we don't have specific details," but broached the possibility of more weapons, air defences and drones.

Speaking later on Fox News, Zelensky said that Trump's Truth Social post about Ukraine's positioning surprised him but he took it as a "positive signal" that Trump and the US "will be with us to the end of the war".

"I think the fact that Putin was lying to President Trump so many times also made a difference between us," he told Fox host Bret Baier.

Earlier on Tuesday, following his speech to the UN, Trump also said Nato nations should shoot down Russian planes breaching their airspace, following a series of recent incursions by Russian fighter jets and drones.

Last week, Estonia and Poland requested a consultation with other Nato members after Russia violated its airspace in separate incidents. Romania, another Nato member, also said Russian drones breached its airspace.

After meeting on Tuesday, Nato issued a statement condemning Russia's actions and warned that it would use "all necessary military and non-military tools" to defend itself.

"Russia bears full responsibility for these actions, which are escalatory, risk miscalculation and endanger lives. They must stop," it said.

The alliance added that Moscow's actions were part of a "pattern of increasingly irresponsible" behaviour.

Nato's secretary general Mark Rutte said: "We are a defensive alliance, yes, but we are not naive, so we see what is happening."

Speaking at the UN, Poland's president Karol Nawrocki echoed those comments, saying his country was prepared to "defend its territory" and "react adequately".

"Polish people, as well as countries of Central and Eastern Europe, will not be scared of Russian drones," he said.

Russia denied violating Estonia's airspace, while it insisted the Polish incursion was not deliberate and did not comment on the Romania incident.

Asked if the US would support its Nato allies if they shot down Russian aircraft, Trump said it "depends on the circumstance" and praised the military alliance for increasing defence spending.

"Nato has stepped up," he said, referring to an agreement by leaders to ramp up defence spending to 5% of their countries' economic output by 2035.

In his speech hours earlier, Trump criticised some Nato members for not ceasing the purchase of Russian energy, saying they were "funding a war against themselves".

Tuesday's Truth Social post represents an about-face after Trump spent most of the year insisting that Ukraine's situation was dire.

In February, Trump told Zelensky during their fiery Oval Office exchange that he did "not have the cards right now" to prevail against a larger, more populous nation in a war of attrition.

Before talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska in August, Trump said he would try to get some territory back for Ukraine but warned there would be "some swapping, changes in land".

There were reports he was planning to press Zelensky to surrender the entirety of the eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk in return for Russia freezing the rest of the front line - a proposal put forward by Putin in Alaska.

Trump has also repeatedly threatened to impose tougher measures on Russia, but has so far failed to take any action when the Kremlin ignored his deadlines and threats of sanctions.

Unpredictability has long been one of the US president's foreign policy trademarks, and perhaps this latest move is an attempt to shake up peace negotiations that have been stagnant for more than a month after Trump hosted Russian President Vladimir Putin at a summit in Alaska.

The most notable portion of Trump's post may be the way it ended - with an assurance the US would continue to sell arms to Nato that it could then pass along to Ukraine.

It is not the seemingly near open-ended commitment to the war effort that the Biden administration provided, but it is more than Trump seemed interested in offering at times this year.

BBC
 
Russia will expand aggression beyond Ukraine if not stopped, Zelensky warns

Vladimir Putin "will keep driving the war forward wider and deeper" if he is not stopped, Ukraine's President Zelensky has warned.

Speaking at the UN's General Assembly in New York, Zelensky said more countries would be met with Russian aggression unless allies displayed a united front and ramped up support.

He said all nations were threatened by a global arms race, as military technology advances, adding that "weapons decide who survives" and calling for global rules on AI.

His comments come after US President Donald Trump shifted his position on the Russia-Ukraine war, saying for the first time that Ukraine could win back all of its land.

Zelensky criticised international institutions, suggesting they are "too weak" to offer Ukraine safety guarantees, adding - in apparent reference to Nato - that being part of a long-standing military alliance "doesn't automatically mean you are safe".

"We are now living through the most destructive arms race in human history," he said.

He argued that "stopping Russia now" was cheaper than "wondering who will be the first to create a simple drone carrying a nuclear warhead".

Zelensky called for international rules around AI and its role in weaponry, and said the development of autonomous drones and unmanned planes represented a far greater risk than traditional warfare.

The Ukrainian leader also warned that Europe cannot afford to lose Moldova - which lies between Ukraine and EU-member Romania - to Russian influence. He said the West had missed a chance to save Georgia and Belarus from Putin's orbit.

On Thursday the pro-EU president of Moldova, Maia Sandu, accused the Kremlin of "pouring hundreds of millions of euros" into Moldova in an attempt to instigate violence and spread fear.

Voters in the former Soviet republic go to the polls on Sunday, amid what a BBC investigation found to be a barrage of disinformation spread by a network with ties to Moscow.

Last week, Estonia and Poland requested a consultation with other Nato members after Russia violated its airspace in separate incidents. Romania, another Nato member, also said Russian drones breached its airspace.

Earlier on Tuesday, following his speech to the UN, Trump said Nato nations should shoot down Russian planes breaching their airspace, following the recent incursions by Russian fighter jets and drones.

Zelensky praised Donald Trump and said he had a "good meeting" with the US president.

On Tuesday, he told reporters he understood the US was willing to give Ukraine security guarantees after the war is finished.

Pressed on what this would look like, he said he did not have specific details but broached the possibility of more weapons, air defences and drones.

Trump's suggestion on Tuesday that Kyiv could win, with support from the EU and Nato, marked an apparent U-turn after his previous comments that Ukraine would have to accept "land swaps" as a condition of peace.

The US president also described Russia as a "paper tiger" that had been "fighting aimlessly in Ukraine."

Kremlin spokesman Dimitry Peskov responded: "Russia is in no way a tiger. It's more associated with a bear. And there is no such thing as a paper bear."

Peskov told reporters the US president had made the comments "apparently under the influence of the vision put forward by Zelensky".

"This vision is in absolute contrast with our understanding of the current state of affairs."

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio held a meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday, marking the highest-level US encounter with Russia since Trump invited Putin to Alaska last month.

According to a brief statement from the US State Department, Rubio reiterated Trump's "call for the killing to stop and the need for Moscow to take meaningful steps toward a durable resolution of the Russia-Ukraine war".

The Kremlin did not immediately comment on the meeting.

BBC
 

Russia will give ‘decisive response’ if provoked by the West, says Lavrov​

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has warned NATO and the EU that “any aggression against my country will be met with a decisive response”.

Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York on Saturday, Lavrov insisted that Moscow had no plans to attack the West, but that it was prepared to act if provoked.

His comments came as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy blamed Russia for recent drone and plane incursions in Europe.

“Russia is testing their ability to defend themselves and trying to influence societies so people begin to ask: ‘If we can’t protect ourselves, why should we keep supporting Ukraine?’. This is intended to reduce assistance to Ukraine, especially ahead of winter,” he wrote on X.

Moscow continues to deny violating Polish airspace with drones and Estonian airspace with fighter jets this month. It also says it played no role in the rogue drones spotted near airports in Denmark this week, which forced several of them to shut temporarily.

‘Some hopes’ for US-brokered peace
In his UN speech, Lavrov hit out at accusations from the West, blaming it for scaremongering about the possibility of a “Third World War”.

“Russia is being accused of almost planning to attack NATO and EU countries. President Putin has repeatedly debunked these provocations,” he said.

But Lavrov also insisted that his country still has “some hopes” for ceasefire talks with the United States over its war in Ukraine, just days after US President Donald Trump appeared to align himself more closely with Kyiv by saying it could recapture all the territory seized by Moscow.

Trump’s comments, which were made after he met Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the UNGA, marked a significant change in tone. Previously, the US president had said Kyiv needed to make concessions, arguing that it would never reclaim occupied territory seized by Russia since 2014.

Despite Trump’s statement on Tuesday, Lavrov still expressed a belief in the role of the US as a potential mediator.

“We have some hopes for the continuation of the Russian-American dialogue, especially after the summit in Alaska,” he told delegates at the UN headquarters on Saturday.

Source: Al Jazeera
 
Poland says jets scrambled over Russian attack on Ukraine

Poland and Nato scrambled jets early on Sunday as Russia carried out strikes on western Ukraine, the Polish armed forces said.

With the whole of Ukraine under air raid alerts, the airspace near Poland's southeastern cities of Lublin and Rzeszow was closed until at least 0400 GMT due to "unplanned military activity related to ensuring state security", flight tracking site Flightradar24 said.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the city came under a "massive attack", with a five-storey building partially destroyed due to debris from a drone. At least three people were taken to hospital, he added.

Tensions have escalated after repeated Russian violations of Nato countries' airspace this month.

"In connection with the activity of the Russian Federation's long-range aviation carrying out strikes on the territory of Ukraine, Polish and allied aircraft have begun operating in our airspace," the Polish military said in a post on X.

"Allied" military assets refer to Nato ones, in military terms.

The Polish military further described the actions as preventive and aimed at securing airspace and protecting citizens.

Moscow has denied responsibility after Denmark said drones were flown over its airports. Denmark itself has said the incidents appeared to be the work of a "professional actor" but that there was no evidence of Russian involvement.

Meanwhile, Estonia has accused Russia of violating its airspace with warplanes, while a Nato air defence mission was recently carried out over Poland as part of an allied response to Russian drone incursions into Polish airspace.

Polish and Nato aircraft shot down three Russian drones in Poland's airspace on 10 September.

US President Donald Trump has gone as far as to say that Nato nations should shoot down Russian planes in their airspace, while Nato itself has warned it would use "all necessary military and non-military tools" to defend itself following the recent military incursions.

Trump also shifted his position on the Russia-Ukraine war, saying for the first time last week that Ukraine could win all of its land back from Moscow.

In a speech delivered at the UN General Assembly on Saturday, Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said his country had no intention of attacking EU or Nato member states but warned of a "decisive response" to any "aggression" directed towards Moscow.

BBC
 
Russia says it has taken control of two villages in Ukraine's Donetsk region

Russian forces have taken control of two more frontline settlements in key areas of eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region, the Russian Defence Ministry said on Monday.

Ukrainian officials did not address the Russian announcement concerning the two villages, but President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Kyiv's counter-offensive operation near the town of Dobropillia, also in Donetsk region, made progress.

The Russian Defence Ministry said its forces were now in control of Shandryholove and Zarichne, both northeast of the city of Sloviansk - one of the centres Moscow hopes eventually to capture in its drive westward through Donetsk region.

It then issued a second statement saying Defence Minister Andrei Belousov had congratulated the unit for the "bold and decisive" actions that led to the capture of Zarichne, identified by its Soviet-era name, Kirovsk.

Video released by Russia's Ministry of Defence purports to show Russian troops moving from building to building and holding aloft a Russian flag as they take control of Shandryholove.


www.reuters.com

Russia says it has taken control of two villages in Ukraine's Donetsk region

Russian forces have taken control of two more frontline settlements in key areas of eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region, the Russian Defence Ministry said on Monday.
www.reuters.com www.reuters.com
 

Russia advances in Ukraine as Zelenskyy touts ‘mega’ US weapons deal​


As tensions between Russia and Europe continue to grow, Moscow has tried to present its ground war in Ukraine as unstoppable.

The Kremlin claimed last week to be in control of two-thirds of the buildings in Kupiansk, a city in Ukraine’s northern Kharkiv region.

“Russian troops have blocked a large group of the enemy from the northern and western sides, taking it in a half-ring,” said the Ministry of Defence in Moscow.

Russia has been trying to capture Kupiansk for most of this year, believing it will unlock a northern gateway for its forces to descend to the eastern region of Donetsk, whose complete capture Moscow has prioritised.

“Taking control over Kupiansk will allow the Russian troops to advance towards the Sloviansk-Kramatorsk agglomeration,” said the Defence Ministry, referring to Ukraine’s best-fortified towns in Donetsk.

People walk next to a damaged building and vehicles in a residential neighbourhood hit during a Russian drone and missile strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, September 28, 2025.

Russian officials have been saying they are on the cusp of seizing Kupiansk since March. Ukrainian military observer Konstantyn Mashovets estimated Russia needed another one to two more divisions to do so.
www.aljazeera.com

Russia advances in Ukraine as Zelenskyy touts ‘mega’ US weapons deal

Trump gets closer to Ukraine as top European official warns 'we are no longer at peace' amid airspace rows with Russia.
www.aljazeera.com www.aljazeera.com
 

French photojournalist killed in drone strike in Ukraine​


French photojournalist Antoni Lallican has been killed in a Russian drone strike in eastern Ukraine, the Ukrainian military has said.

Grigoriy Ivanchenko, a Ukrainian photojournalist working alongside Mr Lallican, was injured in the same attack on the outskirts of Komyshuvakha, a village in the Donetsk region.

The European and International Federations of Journalists (EFJ and IFJ) said this was the first instance of a journalist being killed by a drone in Ukraine.

Mr Lallican, a Paris-based photojournalist, had been documenting the war since March 2022 - a month after Russia launched its full-scale invasion - earning him the prestigious Victor Hugo Prize for photography in 2024.

The two journalists had been embedded with the 4th Mechanised Brigade near Komyshuvakha, around 15km (12 miles) from the frontline, at the time of the attack.

According to a statement from the Hans Lucas photo agency, both journalists were wearing personal protective equipment, and their bulletproof vests had identification marks with the word "PRESS" on them.

A witness told the BBC that the noise of chainsaws - being used to build defensive positions - may have prevented them from hearing the drone overhead.

The brigade's press officer, Anastasia Haletska - who was also wounded in the attack - said she managed to apply tourniquets to Mr Ivanchenko, before both of them were taken to a hospital in nearby Kramatorsk.

Mr Lallican was killed instantly, she said. Mr Ivanchenko is in a stable condition, but had to have his leg amputated.

French President Emmanuel Macron shared a tribute to Mr Lallican and said he had been a victim of a Russian drone attack.

"I express my sincere condolences to his family, loved ones, and all his colleagues who, risking their lives, inform us and bear witness to the reality of war," he wrote on X.

Mr Lallican's work has been published by numerous outlets, including French newspapers Le Monde and Le Figaro.

His work in Ukraine, which traces the "consequences of the war", has taken him across the country, from Odesa, in the south-west, to Kharkiv, in the north-east, according to his website.

Families fleeing in the early days of the invasion, elderly men and women refusing to leave their homes under Russian bombardment, and soldiers fighting and living on the frontline populate his photographs, among many others whose lives have been upended by the war.

According to the EFJ and IFJ, 17 journalists have been killed since the invasion began.

In a joint statement, they said: "We pay tribute to the courage of Antoni Lallican and all the journalists who continue to cover the war. We demand that the perpetrators of his crime be brought to justice.

Sergiy Tomilenko, president of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU), accused Russia of "deliberately hunting those trying to document war crimes".

"For journalists, every trip to the frontline zone is a deadly risk. Antoni Lallican took this risk again and again, coming to Ukraine, traveling to Donbas, documenting what many prefer not to see," he said in a statement.

"He built a visual bridge between the world and Ukrainian reality. Now he himself has become part of this tragic story".

The Kremlin has not commented on the attack.

Source: BBC
 
Poland scrambles jets as Russia strikes western Ukraine

Russia pounded Ukraine with missile and drone attacks overnight on Saturday and into Sunday morning, focusing on the major western city of Lviv.

Ukraine's neighbour Poland scrambled fighter jets in order to ensure the safety of Polish airspace, the Polish military confirmed. Allied Nato aircraft were also deployed.

Lviv's regional head Maksym Kozytskyi said two people were killed in strikes in the region, and two more injured.

Elsewhere, Russia again targeted Ukraine's power plants - and one was struck in an overnight attack on Zaporizhzhia, where the mayor said one person died and more than 73,000 people were without electricity.

The Russian assaults came days after a US official said the US would support Ukraine launching deep strikes inside Russian territory.

"Polish and allied aircraft are operating in our airspace, while ground-based air defence and radar reconnaissance systems have been brought to the highest state of readiness," Poland's operational command said in a post on X.

At 05:10 (02:10 GMT), all of Ukraine was under air raid alerts following Ukrainian Air Force warnings of Russian missile and drone attacks.

Russia has stepped up its attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure.

Lviv's mayor Andriy Sadovyi said part of the city - 70 km (43 miles) from the border with Poland - had no power, adding that city's air defence systems were engaged heavily in repelling first a drone and then a Russian missile attack.

As of 07:30 (04:30 GMT), parts of the city were left without power and public transport was yet to start running, with Sadovyi stressing on Telegram that it was "dangerous to go out into the streets".

In Zaporizhzhia, Russia's overnight attack left "more than 73,000 consumers... without electricity", according to Ivan Fedorov, the regional governor.

One person was killed, and nine injured, Fedorov said.

A 16-year-old girl was among those receiving medical assistance, he added, posting photos apparently showing a partly destroyed multi-storey block and a burnt-out car from the site of the attack.

Public transport in Ivano-Frankivsk, another western city, would "start running later than usual" on Sunday, its mayor said.

The multiple strikes were part of Russia's threats against the whole of Ukraine overnight.

At around 06:00 (03:00 GMT), Ukraine's Air Force said all of the country was under the threat of fresh Russian missile attacks, following hours of air raid alerts and warnings of drone and missile attacks.

Russian forces have occupied most of Ukraine's eastern Donbas region, including Luhansk and Donetsk, since the start of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Russia currently controls around a fifth of Ukrainian territory, including the Crimean peninsula, which it annexed in 2014.

Since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, its forces have occupied most of Ukraine's eastern Donbas region, including Luhansk and Donetsk.

Russia currently controls around a fifth of Ukrainian territory, including the Crimean peninsula, which it annexed in 2014.

In Russia, air defence units destroyed 32 Ukrainian drones overnight, the state-owned RIA news agency reported on Sunday, citing data from Russia's defence ministry.

Last week, US Special Envoy to Ukraine Keith Kellogg said on Fox News that the US would support Ukraine launching deep strikes inside Russian territories.

"The answer is yes, use the ability to hit deep, there are no such things as sanctuaries," Kellogg said when asked if it was President Donald Trump's position that Ukraine could conduct long-range strikes.

Meanwhile, another Nato member - Lithuania - had to close its airspace briefly after objects were spotted, following recent incidents in Denmark, Norway and Germany.

Lithuania suspended flights at its largest and busiest Vilnius airport for several hours, before reopening it at 04:50 (01:50 GMT) on Sunday.

The airport's operator said the flight suspensions and diversions were "due to a possible series of balloons heading toward Vilnius Airport".

BBC
 
Five killed in large Russian missile and drone attack, Zelensky says

Five people have died and tens of thousands have been left without power in Ukraine after intense Russian missile and drone attacks overnight, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said.

Ukraine's neighbour Poland scrambled fighter jets in order to ensure the safety of Polish airspace, the Polish military confirmed. Allied Nato aircraft were also deployed.

Four members of one family, including a 15-year-old girl, were killed by a strike in the village of Lapaivka as attacks focused on the nearby western city of Lviv.

Russia's defence ministry said it had successfully carried out a "massive" strike on Ukrainian military and infrastructure targets.

Another family member was injured, as were two neighbours, in the strike that killed their relatives in Lapaivka.

One person also died in Zaporizhzhia. Zelensky said Russia fired more than 50 missiles and around 500 attack drones.

Lviv endured several hours of strikes, leading to the suspension of public transport services and the cutting of electrical supplies.

The Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Kherson, Odesa, and Kirovohrad regions were also targeted as well as Lviv and Zaporizhzhia, according to Zelensky.

He added: "We need more protection and faster implementation of all defense agreements, especially on air defense, to deprive this aerial terror of any meaning.

"A unilateral ceasefire in the skies is possible - and it is precisely that which could open the way to real diplomacy."

The Russian assaults came days after a US official said the US would support Ukraine launching deep strikes inside Russian territory.

"Polish and allied aircraft are operating in our airspace, while ground-based air defence and radar reconnaissance systems have been brought to the highest state of readiness," Poland's operational command said in a post on X.

At 05:10 (02:10 GMT), all of Ukraine was under air raid alerts following Ukrainian Air Force warnings of Russian missile and drone attacks.

Russia continues to focus its attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure as winter approaches.

Kyiv's energy ministry said overnight attacks caused damage in Zaporizhzhia, Chernihiv and Sumy.

In Zaporizhzhia, Russia's overnight attack left "more than 73,000 consumers... without electricity" after a power plant was struck, according to Ivan Fedorov, the regional governor.

A woman was killed and several others injured in the region.

A 16-year-old girl was among those receiving medical assistance, Fedorov added, posting photos apparently showing a partly destroyed multi-storey block and a burnt-out car from the site of the attack.

Emergency outages were implemented in Chernihiv and Sumy, the energy ministry added.

Lviv's mayor Andriy Sadovyi said part of the city - 70 km (43 miles) from the border with Poland - had no power, adding that city's air defence systems were engaged heavily in repelling first a drone and then a Russian missile attack.

Public transport in Ivano-Frankivsk, another western city, would "start running later than usual" on Sunday, its mayor said.

At around 06:00 (03:00 GMT), Ukraine's Air Force said all of the country was under the threat of fresh Russian missile attacks, following hours of air raid alerts and warnings of drone and missile attacks.

Since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, its forces have occupied most of Ukraine's eastern Donbas region, including Luhansk and Donetsk.

Russia currently controls around a fifth of Ukrainian territory, including the Crimean peninsula, which it annexed in 2014.

In Russia, air defence units destroyed 32 Ukrainian drones overnight, the state-owned RIA news agency reported on Sunday, citing data from Russia's defence ministry.

Ukraine has also been stepping up strikes on Russian oil refineries, leading to petrol shortages in parts of the country.

Last week, US Special Envoy to Ukraine Keith Kellogg said on Fox News that the US would support Ukraine launching deep strikes inside Russian territories.

"The answer is yes, use the ability to hit deep, there are no such things as sanctuaries," Kellogg said when asked if it was US President Donald Trump's position that Ukraine could conduct long-range strikes.

Meanwhile, another Nato member - Lithuania - had to close its airspace briefly after objects were spotted, following recent incidents in Denmark, Norway and Germany.

Lithuania suspended flights at its largest and busiest Vilnius airport for several hours, before reopening it at 04:50 (01:50 GMT) on Sunday.

The airport's operator said the flight suspensions and diversions were "due to a possible series of balloons heading toward Vilnius Airport".

BBC
 
British parts found in Russian drones, Zelensky says

British microcomputers were among more than 100,000 foreign-made parts contained in Russian missiles and drones used in Sunday's deadly strikes on Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky has said.

The Ukrainian president called for further "effective" sanctions after saying parts originating in allied countries including Germany, Japan and the US have been identified in Russian weapons.

The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) said it had recently undertaken efforts to crack down on UK firms whose products have continued to make their way into Russia's military supply chain.

"We take reports of goods from UK companies being found in Russian weaponry incredibly seriously," a government spokesperson said.

The spokesperson said the government had "banned the export of thousands of goods to Russia including every battlefield item Ukraine has brought to our attention," adding that they have imposed "the most severe package of sanctions".

Any person or firm that does not comply with sanctions could face "large financial penalties or criminal prosecution".

Over £20bn ($26.9bn) of UK trade with Russia is now under sanctions, according to the DBT.

Writing on X, Zelensky said "microcomputers for drone flight control are produced in the United Kingdom".

He added it was "crucial to shut down every scheme that circumvents sanctions", and said countries which support Ukraine "already possess the detailed data on each company and each product" still being used by Russia.

Components originating in China, Taiwan and the Netherlands have also been identified in Russian weapons, he continued.

Four members of one family, including a 15-year-old girl, were killed by a strike in the village of Lapaivka on Sunday, as Russia launched 549 missiles and drones overnight, primarily against the western region of Lviv.

Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, it has become the most-sanctioned nation in the world.

However, it has adapted its economy and manufacturing to avoid collapse, with massively increased military spending resulting in continued growth.

Russia has also found willing buyers in China and India for its energy exports after European nations slashed how much they purchased, continuing an important revenue source for the Kremlin.

However, a number of western experts have recently pointed to what they say are growing signs that the economy is now under an ever increasing strain.

In June, Russia's Minister for Economic Development, Maxim Reshetnikov, warned that the country's economy was teetering "on the brink of recession".

BBC
 
British parts found in Russian drones, Zelensky says

British microcomputers were among more than 100,000 foreign-made parts contained in Russian missiles and drones used in Sunday's deadly strikes on Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky has said.

The Ukrainian president called for further "effective" sanctions after saying parts originating in allied countries including Germany, Japan and the US have been identified in Russian weapons.

The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) said it had recently undertaken efforts to crack down on UK firms whose products have continued to make their way into Russia's military supply chain.

"We take reports of goods from UK companies being found in Russian weaponry incredibly seriously," a government spokesperson said.


www.bbc.com

British parts found in Russian drones, Zelesnky says

The Ukrainian leader says British-made microcomputers were used in weapons launched at Ukraine this weekend.
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com
 

Russia says prospects for Ukraine peace deal now faded as its war rages on​


Russia appears resigned to the collapse of peace efforts for the war it instigated, and prosecutes to this day, in Ukraine following President Vladimir Putin’s summit with his United States counterpart Donald Trump in Anchorage, Alaska, in August, saying whatever progress emerged from the historic meeting has all but unravelled.

Speaking to Russia’s federal assembly on Wednesday, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said, “Unfortunately, we must admit that the powerful momentum generated by Anchorage in favour of agreements … has largely been undermined.”

Ryabkov blamed European countries for much of the impasse, accusing them of wanting to wage “a war to the last Ukrainian”, according to Russia’s state-owned TASS news agency.

His comments appeared to dash any faint hopes for a quick end to the war in Ukraine, now in its fourth year, whose rapid resolution Trump had made a key campaign promise.

Casting himself as a mediator, the US president made early overtures to Moscow and pressured Ukraine to make painful territorial concessions, once even berating its President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the White House and accusing him of “gambling with World War III”.

Trump’s diplomatic push culminated in the historic Alaska summit, but it failed to produce a truce or meaningful compromises from Moscow.

www.aljazeera.com

Russia says prospects for Ukraine peace deal now faded as its war rages on

Senior official Sergey Ryabkov says 'momentum generated' from the Trump-Putin summit has 'largely been undermined'.
www.aljazeera.com www.aljazeera.com
 
Thousands in Kyiv plunged into darkness after mass Russian attack

Large parts of Kyiv were plunged into darkness in the early hours of Friday after Russian drones and missiles struck Ukrainian energy facilities, cutting power and water to homes and halting a key metro link across the Dnipro river.

In the latest mass attack targeting the energy system as winter approaches, electricity was interrupted in nine regions and over a million households and businesses were temporarily without power across the country.

In southeastern Ukraine, a seven-year-old was killed when his home was hit and at least 20 people were injured. In Kyiv, an apartment block in the city centre was damaged by a projectile, while on the left bank of the Dnipro that divides the capital, crowds waited at bus stops with the metro out of action and people filled water bottles at distribution points.

"We didn't sleep at all," said Liuba, a pensioner, as she collected water. "From 2:30 a.m. there was so much noise. By 3:30 we had no electricity, no gas, no water. Nothing."

According to Ukraine's energy ministry, over 800,000 customers temporarily lost power in Kyiv.


www.reuters.com

Thousands in Kyiv plunged into darkness after mass Russian attack

Large parts of Kyiv were plunged into darkness in the early hours of Friday after Russian drones and missiles struck Ukrainian energy facilities, cutting power and water to homes and halting a key metro link across the Dnipro river.
www.reuters.com www.reuters.com
 
Trump says he may send Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine

US President Donald Trump is considering sending long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine.

Asked by reporters on Air Force One on Sunday whether he would provide Kyiv with Tomahawks, Trump replied: "We'll see... I may". The missiles would be "a new step of aggression" in Ukraine's war with Russia, he said.

The comments follow a phone call at the weekend between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who pushed for stronger military support to launch counter-attacks against Russia.

Zelensky has said he will meet Trump in Washington on Friday for talks that will include air defence and long-range capabilities.


www.bbc.com

Trump says Ukraine may get Tomahawk missiles to use against Russia

Ukraine wants long-range missiles to hit back at Russia - and Donald Trump says he may send Tomahawks.
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com
 
Ukraine imposes blackouts in most regions after Russian power grid attacks

Russian missile and drone attacks have knocked out power in regions across Ukraine
Emergency power outages have been brought in across almost all of Ukraine after a intensive campaign of Russian air strikes on energy infrastructure.

This will be the fourth consecutive winter of blackouts throughout Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

The energy ministry said all but two regions were affected. Only the eastern Donetsk region at the forefront of the war is exempt, while the northern Chernihiv region is already facing hourly outages.

As well as targeting the power network, Russia has increasingly targeted Ukraine's railways. Ukraine has meanwhile ramped up attacks on Russian oil refineries, in border regions and beyond.

One oil depot in the Crimean peninsula - which Moscow illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014 - has been burning for three days following a second Ukrainian drone attack in a week.

The Marine Oil Terminal in Feodosia is the largest in Crimea and an important logistical link for Russian troops operating in Ukraine.

Telegram channel Supernova+ Smoke and flames billow from an oil terminal in CrimeaTelegram channel Supernova+
Images of the fire at Feodosia were posted on Ukrainian Telegram channels
Kyiv's armed forces general staff said on Wednesday that 16 fuel tanks were damaged and that a large-scale blaze was continuing to burn.

The surge in drone attacks on oil refineries and pipelines has also led to fuel shortages and price rises in some parts of Russia - a development that Ukrainian leaders hope will hit Russia's war effort and help bring the Kremlin to the negotiating table.

The strikes have reduced Russian fuel exports to their lowest level since the start of the war, according to figures from the International Energy Agency.

Ukraine's energy ministry said emergency restrictions were being brought in "because of the complicated situation". Emergency work was taking place in all regions affected by Russian attack, grid operator Ukrenergo said, and it urged consumers who still had power to use it sparingly.

Temperatures in parts of Ukraine were forecast to fall to 3C overnight into Thursday.

The electricity company in Lviv in western Ukraine said that because the outages were under emergency conditions there was no possibility to warn consumers in advance.

Source: BBC
 
Russia intensifies attacks on Ukraine's trains in 'battle for the railways'

Propped up in her hospital bed, railway conductor Olha Zolotova speaks slowly and quietly as she talks about the day her train was hit by a Russian drone.

"When the Shahed [drone] hit I was covered in rubble. I was in the second car. People pulled me out," she says.

"My eyes went dark. There was fire everywhere, everything was burning, my hair caught fire a little. I was trapped."

Olha is a victim of Russia's increasingly frequent attacks on the Ukrainian railway system – vital infrastructure that keeps the country moving three and a half years since Moscow's full-scale invasion.

Ukraine's 21,000km-long (13,000-mile) railway system is not merely a mode of transport, it is a central pillar of Ukraine's war effort and a powerful national symbol of resilience.

Olha's injuries were severe, so she was transported more than 300km (185 miles) to a special hospital in the capital, Kyiv, dedicated to railway workers.

She has just had surgery on her hip and a metal plate inserted into her leg.

Her train was hit earlier this month at a station in Shostka in the northern Sumy region.

As rescue workers sought to tend to the injured, a second Russian drone struck the station – a type of hit known as a "double tap".

Ukraine says civilians and rescue teams were directly targeted, which would constitute a possible war crime under international law.

Thirty people in total were hurt. Of those treated in hospital, three were children, and one man was found dead, possibly from a heart attack.

According to national rail operator Ukrzaliznytsia (UZ), there were twice as many attacks in September as there were in August - not just on trains but on the infrastructure that supports the rail network.

In fact, half of the attacks on the railways since the beginning of the war have taken place in the past two months, says Oleksiy Balesta, a deputy minister at the department that oversees the rail network.

"Almost every day for the last two months, we have been experiencing targeted attacks on Ukrzaliznytsia infrastructure and on power transmission facilities," he says.

Balesta suggests Russia has been "hunting for locomotives - deliberately targeting both freight and passenger trains".

Behind the deputy minister is a wrecked locomotive, part of Ukraine's intercity fleet that was targeted in eastern Kyiv on one particularly devastating night at the end of August.

The attack also included a strike on a key rail junction in Koziatyn in the central Vinnytsia region, creating delays and forcing significant diversions.

As he speaks, Balesta receives a message from his assistant. There has been another attack on a train between Kramatorsk and Sloviansk in the eastern Donetsk region, close to the front line.

Already today there have been three bomb threats on other services, forcing staff to evacuate the trains until explosives experts have given the all clear.

Officials here point to two principal factors which they believe have led to this intensified spate of attacks.

First, Russia's increasing capacity to produce large numbers of relatively cheap Shahed-type drones each day, which are increasingly able to fly greater distances.

Then there is the near stalemate on the front line - and the consequent shift in focus by the Russian army to disrupt supply lines instead.

"It's a very clear battle for the railways," says Oleksandr Pertsovskyi, chief executive of UZ.

"The enemy is trying to stop us completely. This is part of a war tactic meant to cause panic among civilians, destroy our economy, and make the country unliveable."

Repairing damage as fast as possible, co-ordinating with the military and training its staff to recognise potential sabotage threats are all key to Ukraine's response, says Pertsovskyi.

"Lastly, we always have Plan B, C and D. The goal is never to cancel a single service or destination. If a train can't run, we combine trains and buses."

On top of the practicalities, there is also a clear eye on the morale of passengers.

"Recently, a train from Kyiv to Sumy had to be rerouted, adding six hours due to safety reasons," says the UZ chief.

"A passenger posted on social media that she'd be spending her birthday on the train instead of with her boyfriend - but said she understood. We sent her a cake and flowers."

The constant threat of missiles and drones means flying people and supplies around the country is nearly impossible.

Much of the grain and iron ore exports that Ukraine's economy depends on is moved by train to the southern Black Sea ports, and westward through Poland.

Visiting political leaders from all around the world also all enter the country by train – "iron diplomacy", as Ukrainians call it. The workers who have been caught up in attacks are called "iron heroes".

In the grandeur of Kyiv's central station, another government minister awards certificates of bravery to the latest group of Iron Heroes - those who fought the fires on the night the intercity depot was attacked.

"It was very scary because there was a lot of fire and damage," says Oleksandr Leonenko, who helped extinguish the flames. He proudly shows me his certificate and says it will mean some extra pay.

The uptick of attacks on the railway has coincided with Russia targeting Ukraine's power infrastructure. One recent set of attacks left hundreds of thousands without electricity.

Ukraine has meanwhile launched a series of attacks on Russian oil refineries and claims to have inflicted petrol shortages in many areas.

As Ukrainians eye their fourth winter since Russia's full-scale invasion began, UZ's Oleksandr Pertsovskyi believes the attacks on their infrastructure could bring about the hardest winter yet.

In a message echoed by many Ukrainian officials, he calls on the country's allies to supply stronger air defences.

"But we're not desperate. We're preparing mentally and practically. Ukrainians remain strong in spirit."

That spirit looks set to be tested to the limit in the coming months.

BBC
 
President Donald Trump says "great progress" was made during a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday, with the pair agreeing to face-to-face talks in Hungary

He said the call, the first with Putin since mid-August, was "very productive", adding that teams from Washington and Moscow will meet next week.

Trump did not confirm a date for his meeting with Putin in Budapest. The Kremlin said work on the summit would begin "immediately" after the "extremely frank and trustful" call.

The talks came a day before Ukraine's President Zelensky was to visit the White House, and with Trump weighing whether to arm Ukraine with Tomahawk missiles capable of striking deep into Russia.

Writing on his Truth Social platform after the call concluded, Trump said he and Putin "spent a great deal of time talking about Trade between Russia and the United States when the War with Ukraine is over".

He said "high level advisors" from both countries would meet at an unspecified location next week, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio leading the American delegation.

Trump also said he would update Zelensky on his talks with Putin on Friday, adding: "I believe great progress was made with today's telephone conversation."

Trump has taken a much tougher line towards Putin over the Ukraine war since a face-to-face summit in Alaska in August failed to produce a decisive breakthrough in attempts to broker a peace deal.

The pair met on US soil on 15 August for a summit which the US president hoped would help convince the Russian president to enter comprehensive peace talks to end the Ukraine war. Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The pair spoke again days later when Trump interrupted a meeting with Zelensky and European leaders to call Putin.

Since then, neither the White House or Kremlin have public confirmed any communications between the two.

During his presidential election campaign, Trump claimed he would be able to end the war in Ukraine within days but has since admitted resolving the conflict has been more challenging than any he has been involved in since returning to power.

Trump had been seen as more sympathetic to Russia than his predecessor Joe Biden, and strained relations with Zelensky came to a head on 28 February when he and Vice-President JD Vance berated the Ukrainian president in the Oval Office on live television.

But public relations with Zelensky have vastly improved in recent months.

In September, Trump signalled a major shift in his view of the conflict, saying he believed Kyiv could "win all of Ukraine back in its original form", a far cry from his public calls for Kyiv to cede territory occupied by Russia.

During Zelensky's upcoming visit to Washington on Friday, his third since January, the subject of Tomahawk missiles is likely to be high on the agenda.

Zelensky has called on the US to provide Ukraine with the advanced missiles, which have a range of 2,500 km (1,500 miles).

Asked earlier this week if he was considering giving Ukraine the missiles, he said: "We'll see... I may."

Source: BBC
 
Donald Trump says he will meet Vladimir Putin in Hungary for more talks on ending the war in Ukraine, following a "very productive" phone call between the pair.

Trump says fresh talks will be held between "high level advisers" next week, led on the US side by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

A Kremlin aide says the talks were "substantive" and took place at Russia's request.

BBC
 
Zelensky to make missile case in US after Trump-Putin phone call

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will meet with US President Donald Trump in Washington on Friday, as Trump weighs whether to arm Ukraine with Tomahawk missiles capable of striking deep into Russia.

Their meeting comes a day after Trump said "great progress" was made during a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, with the pair agreeing to face-to-face talks in Hungary.

Trump said the call, the first with Putin since mid-August, was "very productive", adding that teams from Washington and Moscow will meet next week.

As Zelensky arrived in the US, his third visit since January, he said Moscow was "rushing to resume dialogue as soon as it hears about Tomahawks".

Zelensky has called on the US to provide Ukraine with the advanced missiles, which have a range of 2,500 km (1,500 miles).

Asked earlier this week if Trump was considering giving Ukraine Tomahawks, he said: "We'll see... I may."

But asked about the same prospect after his call with Putin, Trump said "we can't deplete" the US stockpile of Tomahawks, adding "we need them too... so I don't know what we can do about that".

Writing on his Truth Social platform after his call with Putin concluded, Trump said he and the Russian president "spent a great deal of time talking about Trade between Russia and the United States when the War with Ukraine is over".

He said "high level advisors" from both countries would meet at an unspecified location next week, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio leading the American delegation.

Trump also said he would update Zelensky on his talks with Putin on Friday, adding: "I believe great progress was made with today's telephone conversation."

He later told reporters he expected to meet Putin in Hungary "within two weeks".

Hours before the Trump-Putin call, Russia launched one of its largest attacks of the year on Ukraine, including 28 ballistic missiles, and 320 drones, according to Ukraine's ambassador to the US, Olga Stefanishyna.

Stefanishyna said Russia launching overnight strikes on Ukraine before the call "exposes Moscow's real attitude toward peace".

In a statement to the BBC's US partner CBS, she added: "These assaults show that Moscow's strategy is one of terror and exhaustion. The only effective response is pressure - through tougher sanctions, reinforced air defense, and the supply of long-range capabilities."

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on X the planned Budapest meeting was "great news for the peace-loving people of the world".

Earlier, he also said: "Peace requires patience, strength, and humility. Europe must shift its stance. Instead of arrogance and fanning the flames of endless war, we need negotiations with Russia. Only dialogue can bring peace to our continent."

Trump has taken a much tougher line towards Putin over the Ukraine war since a face-to-face summit in Alaska in August failed to produce a decisive breakthrough in attempts to broker a peace deal.

The pair met on US soil on 15 August for a summit which the US president hoped would help convince the Russian president to enter comprehensive peace talks to end the Ukraine war. Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

They spoke again days later when Trump interrupted a meeting with Zelensky and European leaders to call Putin.

Since then, neither the White House or Kremlin have publicly confirmed any communications between the two.

During his presidential election campaign, Trump claimed he would be able to end the war in Ukraine within days but has since admitted resolving the conflict has been more challenging than any he has been involved in since returning to power.

Trump had been seen as more sympathetic to Russia than his predecessor Joe Biden, and strained relations with Zelensky came to a head on 28 February when he and Vice-President JD Vance berated the Ukrainian president in the Oval Office on live television.

But public relations with Zelensky have vastly improved in recent months.

In September, Trump signalled a major shift in his view of the conflict, saying he believed Kyiv could "win all of Ukraine back in its original form", a far cry from his public calls for Kyiv to cede territory occupied by Russia.

In late July, Trump set Putin a deadline of less than a fortnight to agree to a ceasefire or face sweeping sanctions, including measures against countries which still trade with Russia.

But he did not follow through the threat after Putin agreed to meet Trump in Alaska, which the US president hailed as a significant diplomatic success at the time, despite it not producing any tangible outcome.

Earlier on Thursday, India's foreign ministry cast doubt on a claim made by Trump a day earlier saying Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had agreed to stop purchasing Russian oil.

An Indian government spokesman said he was "not aware of any conversation between the two leaders" taking place the previous day, after Trump said Modi had assured him purchases would stop "within a short period of time".

The US has pushed for countries - in particular India, China and Nato members - to stop buying Russian energy in an effort to increase economic pressure on the Kremlin. Zelensky has also repeatedly echoed those calls.

BBC
 

China welcomes planned US–Russia engagement over Ukraine war​


China on Friday said it was “glad” to see continued engagement between Russia and the US over the war in Ukraine, which has lasted for more than three years.

Beijing “supports all efforts conducive [to the] peaceful settlement of the crisis,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian told a news conference in Beijing.

Lin was responding to questions about US President Donald Trump’s plans to meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Hungary within the next two weeks.

China “is glad to see Russia and the US keep in contact, improve their relations, and advance the political settlement of the Ukraine crisis,” Lin added.

Trump said Thursday that Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov would meet next week to set the time and venue for the presidential meeting.

Both meetings were publicly discussed after Trump and Putin held a bilateral telephone call earlier Thursday.

“Maybe it’s already set up. They’ve already spoken,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, referring to his expected meeting with Putin.

Trump is scheduled to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House on Friday, saying he would brief him on his “very good” call with Putin.

“We have a problem. They don’t get along too well, those two, and it’s sometimes tough to have meetings. So, we may do something where we’re separate, but separate but equal,” Trump said.

The US president added that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban would host his meeting with Putin in Budapest.

Trump’s announcement of his meeting with Putin — which would be their second since the two leaders met in Alaska in August — comes as Washington has urged China and India to curb imports of Russian crude.

Beijing has rejected the pressure, warning that it would take countermeasures if its interests were harmed over its ties with Moscow.

Source: Anadolu Agency
 
Zelensky guarded on Tomahawk missile talks with Trump after White House meeting

President Volodymyr Zelensky appears to have come away empty-handed from a White House meeting after US President Donald Trump indicated he was not ready to supply sought-after Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine.

Zelensky said after the cordial bilateral that he and Trump had talked about long-range missiles, but decided not to make statements on the issue "because the United States does not want an escalation".

Following the meeting, Trump took to social media to call for Kyiv and Moscow to "stop where they are" and end the war.

The Trump-Zelensky meeting came a day after Trump spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin by phone, and agreed to meet him in Hungary soon.

Zelensky believes using Tomahawks to strike at Russian oil and energy facilities would severely weaken Putin's war economy.

While Trump did not rule it out, his tone at the White House on Friday was non-committal.

"Hopefully they won't need it, hopefully we'll be able to get the war over without thinking about Tomahawks," the US president said, adding that America needed the weapons.

Trump said sending the missiles would be "an escalation, but we'll be talking about it".

Asked by the BBC if the Tomahawks had prompted Putin to meet Trump, the US president said: "The threat of that [the missiles] is good, but the threat of that is always there."

The Ukrainian leader suggested his country could offer drones in exchange for the Tomahawks, prompting smiles and nodding from Trump.

Zelensky also complimented Trump on his role in securing the first phase of a peace deal in the Middle East, suggesting the US leader could build on that momentum to help end Russia's war in Ukraine.

Outside afterwards, Zelensky was asked by a reporter if he thought Putin wanted a deal or was just buying time with the planned meeting with Trump in Budapest.

"I don't know," he said, adding that the prospect of Ukraine having Tomahawks had caused Russia to be "afraid because it is a strong weapon".

Asked if he was leaving Washington more optimistic that Ukraine would get the Tomahawks, he said: "I am realistic."

In a post on X, Zelensky said he had called European leaders to share details of the meeting with Trump, adding that the "main priority now is to protect as many lives as possible, guarantee security for Ukraine, and strengthen all of us in Europe."

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the call with European leaders was "productive" and promised that "the UK will continue to send humanitarian aid and military support".

In recent days, Trump had shown an openness to the idea of selling the Tomahawks, although Putin warned that such a move would further strain the US-Russian relationship.

On Thursday, Trump said "great progress" was made during a phone call with Putin, with the pair agreeing to face-to-face talks soon in Hungary.

Asked whether Zelensky would be involved in those talks, Trump said before his meeting sitting alongside the Ukrainian president that there was "bad blood" between Putin and Zelenksy.

"We want to make it comfortable for everybody," he said. "We'll be involved in threes, but it may be separated." He added that the three leaders "have to get together".

Trump said his call, the first with Putin since mid-August, was "very productive", adding that teams from Washington and Moscow would meet next week.

Trump had hoped a face-to-face summit in Alaska in August would help convince Putin to enter into comprehensive peace talks to end the war, but that meeting failed to produce a decisive breakthrough.

They spoke again days later when Trump interrupted a meeting with Zelensky and European leaders to call Putin.

Back in Ukraine, the BBC spoke on Friday to a couple repairing the small store they own in a suburb of Kyiv, after it was obliterated by Russian missiles last month.

When the store-owner, Volodymyr, was asked about Trump's forthcoming summit meeting with Putin, he began to say: "We appreciate all support".

But he stepped away as tears welled up in his eyes. After a long pause, he composed himself and started again.

"Truth and democracy will win, and all the terrorism and evil will disappear," he said. "We just want to live, we don't want to give up, we just want them to leave us alone."

BBC
 
Ukrainian drones cause fire at major Russian gas processing plant, governor says

Ukrainian drones attacked the Orenburg gas processing plant, the world's largest facility of its kind, and damaged part of it but no employees were hurt in the attack, the region's governor said on Sunday.

The governor, Yevgeny Solntsev, said on his official Telegram channel that the drone strike had caused a fire to break out at a workshop at the plant which emergency services were working to put out.

It is the first time that the plant, part of the Orenburg gas chemical complex, which includes Gazprom's production and processing facilities in the Orenburg region with an annual capacity of 45 billion cubic metres of gas, has been reported to have been hit.

The plant processes gas condensate from the Orenburg oil and gas condensate field, as well as from Kazakhstan's Karachaganak field.

Separately, the governor of Russia's Samara region, Vyacheslav Fedorishchev, said on social media that air defences had been in action overnight against Ukrainian drones and that the local airport and mobile internet services had been temporarily suspended.

Ukraine has previously tried to strike an oil refinery in the Samara region.

Russia's Defence Ministry said in a statement that its air defence forces had shot down 45 Ukrainian drones overnight, including 12 over the Samara region, 11 over the Saratov region, and one over the Orenburg region.

There was no immediate comment from Ukraine which has stepped up its attacks on Russian refineries and other energy facilities since August to try to disrupt petrol supplies and deprive Moscow of funding.

www.reuters.com

Ukrainian drones cause fire at major Russian gas processing plant, governor says

Ukrainian drones attacked the Orenburg gas processing plant, the world's largest facility of its kind, and damaged part of it but no employees were hurt in the attack, the region's governor said on Sunday.
www.reuters.com www.reuters.com
 
Starmer sets out agenda to put 'maximum pressure' on Putin

Sir Keir Starmer tells fellow leaders that they are "united as a group of countries in the coalition of the willing, united with President Trump in our calls to end the bloodshed" in Ukraine, as today's summit starts.

The UK prime minister continues: "We all agree that the fighting must stop, and negotiations must begin from the current line of contact."

He says Trump is "right" to impose sanctions on Russia's oil companies, and the pressure must be maintained until Putin shows that "he's actually serious about peace".

Starmer reiterates that Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been saying "for months" that he is ready for a ceasefire and to meet Putin, but the Russian president is "stonewalling and playing for time".

"In the last few days alone, Putin has rejected the opportunity for talks once again," Starmer says, adding that he has "made ludicrous demands for Ukrainian land which he could not take by force", which is "of course a non-starter", and has continued to target Ukrainian civilians and energy infrastructure.

"So this is the time for pressure, because that's the only way to change Putin's mind, the only way to bring him to the table and stop the killing," Starmer says.

Source: Sky News
 
Ukraine allies pledge to take Russian oil and gas off global market

More than 20 nations supporting Ukraine have pledged to "take Russian oil and gas off the global market" as part of efforts to pressure President Vladimir Putin to end the war.

"We're choking off funding for Russia's war machine," said UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, after hosting a summit of the "coalition of the willing" in London.

The UK and US have in recent days sanctioned Russia's two biggest oil companies, while the EU targeted Moscow's liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was also in London, said "pressure" on Russia was the only way to stop the fighting. However, no long-range missile deliveries to Ukraine were announced at the summit.


www.bbc.com

Ukraine allies pledge to 'take Russian oil and gas off global market'

A "coalition of the willing" meeting in London seeks to increase pressure on Russia to end its war in Ukraine.
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com
 
At least four killed in Russian strikes overnight on Ukraine

Russian missile and drone attacks on Ukraine overnight into Saturday killed at least four people and wounded 20, officials said, and prompted fresh pleas from Ukraine’s president for western air defence systems.

In the capital, Kyiv, two people were killed and 13 were wounded in a ballistic missile attack in the early hours of Saturday, Kyiv’s police said.

A fire broke out in a nonresidential building in one location, while debris from intercepted missiles fell in an open area at another site, damaging windows in nearby buildings, Ukraine’s state emergency service wrote on the message app Telegram.

“Explosions in the capital. The city is under ballistic attack,” the mayor, Vitali Klitschko, wrote on Telegram during the onslaught.

In the Dnipropetrovsk region, two people were killed and seven wounded, the acting regional governor, Vladyslav Haivanenko, said, adding that apartment buildings and private homes were damaged in the strikes.

Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched nine missiles and 62 drones, of which four missiles and 50 drones were intercepted.

In Russia, the defence ministry said its air defences shot down 121 Ukrainian drones over Russia overnight.

Donald Trump said on Saturday that he would not schedule any talks with Vladimir Putin unless it was clear that the Russian leader was serious about making a deal to end the war in Ukraine.

“I’m going to have to know that we’re going to make a deal. I’m not going to be wasting my time,” Trump told reporters on board Air Force One as he headed to Asia.

On Wednesday, the US slapped sanctions on Russia’s two largest oil companies and complained that his talks with Putin over the conflict in Ukraine “don’t go anywhere”.

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said on Saturday that Russia’s attacks intensified Ukraine’s need for Patriot defence systems.

“It is precisely because of such attacks that we pay special attention to Patriot systems – to be able to protect our cities from this horror. It is critical that partners who possess relevant capability implement what we have discussed in recent days,” he wrote in English on X.

“America, Europe and the G7 countries can help ensure that such attacks no longer threaten lives,” he said.

As plumes of smoke from the attack in Kyiv rose in the background, Ukrainians went about their day shopping in a popular nearby farmers’ market unhindered, having become accustomed to frequent Russian air assaults.

“We didn’t know the attack was right here, but even when we figured it out we still came. Despite the Russians’ strike, there are still a lot of people here who need to eat. I knew that people would come to shop,” said Halyna Stetsiura, 54.

The fruit and vegetable vendor arrived very early in the morning to prepare her stall, while the attacks were still under way.

Serhi Lihus, 53, a beekeeper, said he was driving to the market when he heard the explosions. “It was still dark, approximately 6.30, everything was on fire,” he said. He still showed up to the market to sell his honey.

Svitlana Shyshlovska, 40, a customer, said despite the threat of attacks, “you still need to buy food to have something to eat and such markets are not an everyday occasion”.

Zelenskyy is hoping Ukraine can buy 25 Patriots from the US to fortify its air defences, particularly in cities.

www.theguardian.com

At least four killed in Russian strikes overnight on Ukraine

Attacks come after Volodymyr Zelenskyy appeals to US for long-range missiles and urges allies to expand sanctions on Russian oil
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
 
Kyiv is ready for peace talks but will not cede territory, Zelenskyy says

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said Kyiv is ready for peace talks but its forces would "take no steps back" on the battlefield to cede territory.

The Ukrainian president said the talks could take place anywhere besides Russia or Belarus if they ended the war.

He also urged US politicians to pass tougher sanctions on Russia and said Ukraine would need stable financing from its European allies for another two to three years.

Source: Sky News
 
Key town faces 'multi-thousand' Russian force, top Ukraine commander admits

Ukraine's top military commander has admitted his soldiers are facing "difficult conditions" defending Pokrovsk - a key eastern front-line town - against massed Russian forces.

Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi said Ukrainian troops were facing a "multi-thousand enemy" force - but denied Russian claims that they were surrounded or blocked.

He confirmed that elite special forces had been deployed to protect key supply lines which, army sources said, were all under Russian fire.

The defence ministry in Moscow reported that Ukrainian troops were surrendering and 11 of their special forces had been killed after landing by helicopter, something denied by Kyiv.

In Saturday's posts on Telegram, Gen Syrskyi said he was "back on the front" to personally hear the latest reports from military commanders on the ground in the eastern Donetsk region.

In a short video, Syrskyi is seen studying battlefield maps with other commanders, including the head of Ukraine's military intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov.

It is unclear when and where the footage was recorded.

Ukrainian media earlier reported that Budanov was in the region to personally oversee the operation by the special forces.

The deployment of special forces suggests officials in Kyiv are determined to try to hold on to the town, which Russia has been trying to seize for more than a year.

Ukraine's 7th Rapid Response Corps said on Saturday Ukrainian troops "have improved [their] tactical position" in Pokrovsk - but the situation remained "difficult and dynamic".

Late on Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stressed that the defence of Pokrovsk was a "priority".

There have been growing reports of Russian advances around the strategic town to the west of the Russian-seized regional capital of Donetsk.

Images shared with news agencies late on Friday appear to show a Ukrainian Black Hawk helicopter deploying about 10 troops near Pokrovsk, although the location and date could not be verified.

Russia's defence ministry said it had thwarted the deployment of Ukrainian military intelligence special forces north-west of the town, killing all 11 troops who landed by helicopter.

DeepState, a Ukrainian open-source monitoring group, estimates about half of Pokrovsk is a so-called "grey zone" where neither side is in full control.

A military source in Donetsk told the BBC that Ukrainian forces were not surrounded but their supply lines were under fire from Russian troops.

The US-based Institute for the Study of War said Ukrainian forces had "marginally advanced" during recent counter-attacks north of Pokrovsk, but said the town was "mainly a contested 'grey zone'".

Moscow wants Kyiv to cede the Donetsk and the neighbouring Luhansk regions (collectively known as Donbas) as part of a peace deal, including the parts it currently does not control.

Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and currently controls about 20% of Ukrainian territory, including the Crimean peninsula Moscow annexed in 2014.

Pokrovsk is a key transport and supply hub whose capture could unlock Russian efforts to seize the rest of the region.

But Kyiv also believes its capture would help Russia in its efforts to persuade the US that its military campaign is succeeding - and, therefore, that the West should acquiesce to its demands.

Washington has grown increasingly frustrated with the Kremlin's failure to move forward with peace negotiations - culminating in US President Donald Trump placing sanctions on two largest Russian oil producers and axing plans for a summit with President Vladimir Putin.

Zelensky has publicly agreed with Trump's proposal for a ceasefire that would freeze the war along the current front lines.

Putin is refusing to do so, insisting on his maximalist pre-invasion demands that Kyiv and its Western allies see as a de facto capitulation of Ukraine.

BBC
 

Why the fall of Pokrovsk would matter to Ukraine and Russia​


Ukraine could be facing its biggest loss for months, if the key eastern city of Pokrovsk falls to Russian forces. The battle for this strategic point on a big road and rail artery in the Donetsk region has been going on for well over a year.

If Russia's Vladimir Putin were able to claim victory there, three years and 10 months into his full-scale war, he would be a step closer to his goal of controlling Ukraine's entire industrial east - the Donbas, made up of the neighbouring regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.

How close is Pokrovsk to falling?
Claims and counter-claims abound, so it is difficult to say. But we do know Russia has amassed tens of thousands of troops in the area, and hundreds of its soldiers have infiltrated the city in the past few weeks, gradually taking over buildings and streets and overwhelming Ukrainian positions.

On Wednesday, Kyiv denied its forces in and around the town had been encircled and maintained they were still involved in "active resistance" and blocking out Russian troops. One Ukrainian regiment said it had cleared the city council building and posted video with the Ukrainian flag.

Image caption,Ukraine's "Skelya" assault regiment said they had cleared the city council building in Pokrovsk and raised the national flag
However, open-source intelligence maps suggest Moscow's troops are probably occupying large areas of Pokrovsk.

While Ukraine's official position is that it is holding its own against Russia, military personnel cited by a war correspondent for Ukraine's Hromadske website said Ukrainian troops were outnumbered and more than 1,000 soldiers were at risk of becoming surrounded.

For its part Russia said it was continuing to advance northwards and thwarting attempts by Ukraine to break its troops out of encirclement. Ukrainian units were trapped in "cauldrons", the defence ministry said, although several commentators said that was not the case.

www.bbc.com

Why the fall of Pokrovsk would matter to Ukraine and Russia

The battle for this strategic point on a big road and rail artery in the Donetsk region has been going on for well over a year.
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com
 

Russia accuses Britain of escalating conflict in Ukraine​


Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused the UK on Friday of escalating the conflict in Ukraine.

Commenting on media reports claiming Britain sent Storm Shadow missiles to Ukraine to show support as US President Donald Trump hesitates to supply American Tomahawks, Zakharova asserted that from the onset of the conflict, London has consistently acted to obstruct peace efforts.

"Therefore, the positions of Britain and official London in this case have not changed in any way. We understand perfectly well what they are doing. They are escalating the conflict. That's all they need in the context of Ukraine," she argued.

The remarks follow Trump's statement on Nov. 3, in which he said he was "not really" considering the possibility of transferring Tomahawks to Ukraine but noted that he might change his position.

At the same time, in late October, the Pentagon had approved the delivery of Tomahawks to Ukraine and notified the White House that they would not damage American arsenals, contradicting Trump's previous remarks that the US would not like to give Tomahawks to Ukraine, because it needs them "to protect the country."

Meanwhile, in a separate statement, Ukrainian Ambassador to the US Olha Stefanishyna said on Friday that negotiations with Washington on the purchase of Tomahawk cruise missiles and other long-range weapons are continuing.

According to her, there are positive developments in the talks.

"The discussion is still ongoing, but we have many delegations that are working to increase the available financial resources to acquire more military capabilities in the United States," Stefanyshina said.

Source: Anadolu Agency
 
Six dead as Russia hits energy and residential sites in Ukraine

At least six people have died after Russia launched hundreds of missile and drone attacks on energy infrastructure and residential targets in Ukraine overnight.

A strike on an apartment building in the city of Dnipro killed two people and wounded 12, while three died in Zaporizhzhia.

In all, 25 locations across Ukraine, including the capital city Kyiv, were hit, leaving many areas without electricity and heating. Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said on Telegram that major energy facilities were damaged in the Poltava, Kharkiv and Kyiv regions, and work was under way to restore power.

In Russia, the defence ministry said its forces had shot down 79 Ukrainian drones overnight.

The Ukrainian air force said Russia had launched more than 450 exploding bomber drones and 45 missiles. Nine missiles and 406 drones were reportedly shot down.

The Ukrainian Energy Ministry said there were power cuts in the Dnipropetrovsk, Chernihiv, Zaporizhzhya, Odesa and Kirovohrad regions, but restoration work was ongoing.

Svyrydenko said critical infrastructure facilities have already been reconnected, and water supply is being maintained using generators.

Russia argues its attacks on energy targets are aimed at the Ukrainian military.

Russian attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure ahead of winter are now a familiar part of this war. But ministers in Kyiv are acutely concerned that Moscow is not just trying to damage the morale of Ukraine's people but also bring its economy to a standstill by collapsing its energy network.

Analysts say this fourth winter of Russia's full scale invasion will prove a significant test of Ukraine's defensive resilience.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said the attacks showed there must be "no exceptions" to Western sanctions on Russian energy as a way of putting pressure on Moscow.

The missile strikes came only hours after the US gave Hungary a one-year exemption from restrictions on buying oil and gas from Russia.

In October, the US effectively blacklisted two of Russia's largest oil companies, threatening sanctions on those who buy from them.

But on Friday, during a visit to Washington by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban - a close personal and political ally of Donald Trump - the US president announced the exemption for Budapest.

In a message on Telegram, Zelensky said the overnight attacks showed that "pressure must be intensified" on Russia.

He said "for every Moscow strike on energy infrastructure - aimed at harming ordinary people before winter - there must be a sanctions response targeting all Russian energy, with no exceptions".

He said Ukraine expected "relevant decisions from the US, Europe and the G7".

Debates about sanctions can sometimes seem technical or diplomatic. But for people in Ukraine, they are very real.

If Russia can sell its oil to Hungary, it can use the money earned to build more drones and missiles, like those it launched against Ukraine on Friday night.

BBC
 

Zelenskyy meets troops on front line as Russia, Ukraine battle in key areas​


President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has visited troops near the front line in the southern Zaporizhia region, as Ukraine’s military said it carried out an attack on a Russian-occupied oil facility in the area.

Zelenskyy posted on X that he visited the “command post of the 65th Separate Mechanised Brigade” on Thursday near the front-line town of Orikhiv, publishing photographs of his meeting with troops.

The Ukrainian military said earlier this week that the situation at the Zaporizhia front line had deteriorated, with Russian troops accelerating their advance there.

“I listened to a report on the operational situation in this sector, enemy activity, and losses among the occupiers,” Zelenskyy said.

“We are doing everything to strengthen our warriors.”

Coinciding with Zelenskyy’s visit to boost troop morale, the Ukrainian military said its forces hit an oil terminal in Crimea, which Russia seized and annexed in 2014, as well as an oil depot in the occupied Zaporizhia region.

The Ukrainian general staff said on Telegram that Russian oil facilities and other military targets were hit by domestically produced weapons, including Flamingo ground-launched cruise missiles and drones.

Meanwhile, at least three people were killed in a Russian drone attack near the village of Bohuslavka in Ukraine’s eastern region of Kharkiv, authorities said on Thursday.

According to Governor Oleh Syniehubov, two people were immediately killed in the strike, and one person succumbed to injuries in a hospital. Another person was injured, he said.

The Russian Ministry of Defence said on Thursday its units “continued their advance deep into the enemy’s defence” and took control of the village of Danylivka in the Dnipropetrovsk region. It said troops also took control of the settlement of Synelnykove in Kharkiv.

Earlier this week, Russian forces captured three villages in the southern region, partially occupied by Moscow, with the fighting largely frozen.

Ukraine will return to peace talks: Moscow
Kyiv will “sooner or later” have to return to negotiations with Moscow and from a “much worse position”, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday, a day after Ukraine announced suspending peace talks to end the war that has continued since 2022.

Peskov, responding to comments from the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the situation for Kyiv is “deteriorating day by day”, asserting that Ukraine would eventually be compelled to re-engage in dialogue with Russia.

Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergiy Kyslytsya, in remarks published on Wednesday, told British daily The Times that Kyiv has formally halted the peace talks, citing a lack of meaningful progress during the rounds held earlier this year in Istanbul.

“Since the peace talks ended this year without significant progress, they have been suspended,” Kyslytsya said, adding that Ukraine has asked allies to help secure a direct meeting between Zelenskyy and Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Putin has shown no interest in such a summit, rebuffing entreaties from United States President Donald Trump.

Source: Al Jazeera
 

Europe’s defense chiefs: We’re with Ukraine for the long haul​

BERLIN — Europe’s top defense officials used a meeting in Berlin on Friday to send a unified message of support for Ukraine.

The main takeaways: Backing for Kyiv will remain open-ended, hybrid threats against Europe are accelerating, and the continent’s biggest military powers intend to take on a larger share of their own defense as the war enters another hard winter.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius opened the session by emphasizing continuity. “Germany is prepared to continue taking the lead in supporting Ukraine,” he said, stressing that Berlin will maintain its multi-year funding for U.S.-made Patriot air defense systems and interceptors under the Ukraine-focused PURL mechanism, which coordinates deliveries of U.S. arms and tech to Ukraine via NATO members.

Germany has already financed a €500 million air-defense package through this instrument and will contribute at least €150 million to a new package agreed this week. Berlin, he added, aims to present “something substantial” on joint procurement with the U.K. at the group’s next meeting in Warsaw.

France stressed that long-term military and economic pressure on Moscow must intensify. French Armed Forces Minister Catherine Vautrin pledged that Paris “will continue to support Ukraine for as long as it takes,” and pointed to France’s work preparing security guarantees for Kyiv in the Franco-British “coalition of the willing.”

She also called for stricter enforcement of sanctions, warning that Russia’s sanctions-evading “ghost fleet” finances a significant share of its war effort. “We have to increase the pressure to break this economic model,” she said.

Italy highlighted its own set of assistance measures. Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said Italy will deliver €800 million in civilian support, including generators needed to navigate winter energy shortages, as well as additional military assistance through its fourth and 12th aid packages. “Our commitment to Kyiv will continue — always,” he said.

Representing Poland, Deputy Defense Minister Paweł Zalewski linked Europe’s security directly to Ukrainian resilience. He underlined that Poland provides Kyiv with military equipment, financial support and political backing, insisting: “We believe that the security line of Europe lies on the Russo-Ukrainian front line.”

Warsaw plans to submit more than €40 billion in defense-industrial projects under the EU’s new investment scheme, including joint ventures with Ukrainian defense companies inside Poland to help boost Ukraine’s long-term capacity.

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas delivered the meeting’s sharpest warning, citing a surge in “daily” hybrid attacks — sabotage, cyberattacks, drone incursions — and urging capitals not to normalize them.

“It is clear that Ukraine needs more air defense and more ammunition,” she said, arguing that the EU must help Kyiv keep pace with Russia’s escalating strikes. She stressed that EU capability planning complements that of NATO: “We cannot accept this as the new normal.”

Threaded throughout the meeting was a shared conclusion: Europe expects a long war, and is preparing accordingly. As Pistorius put it, “Our measures are having an effect — and we must not ease up.”

www.politico.eu

Europe’s defense chiefs: We’re with Ukraine for the long haul

Meeting in Berlin, Europe’s five leading military powers argued the continent must take more responsibility for its own security.
www.politico.eu www.politico.eu
 

Russian drone slams into block of flats in deadly wave of strikes across Kyiv​

A Russian drone has slammed into a block of flats in eastern Kyiv, killing six people and wounding dozens of others, during a wave of strikes throughout the Ukrainian capital.

As emergency workers sifted through the wreckage in the Lisovyi area, one Kyiv resident called Vita described how the drone had pierced the building, exploding on the other side.

Meanwhile, Ukraine stepped up its attacks on Russia's oil infrastructure, with drone strikes on one of its biggest export terminals in Novorossiysk, on the Black Sea coast.

Fire broke out at the Sheskharis oil refinery, and a ship and a block of flats were hit, officials said.

Krasnodar governor Veniamin Kondratyev said three crew members and another man were hurt in the attack which damaged the main oil depot and a container terminal.

Mayor Andrei Kravchenko declared a state of emergency and Reuters reported that oil exports were suspended.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine had fired long-range "Long Neptune" cruise missiles during its attacks on Russia overnight, without specifying what they targeted.

Condemning Russia's overnight attacks as vile and calculated, Zelensky said about 430 drones and 18 missiles had been launched and dozens of high-rise buildings damaged.

"This was a deliberately calculated attack aimed at causing maximum harm to people and civilian infrastructure," he said.

A drone attack on a market at Chornomorsk in the south of the country killed two people.

In Kyiv, residential buildings came under attack "in practically every district", the head of the city's military administration Tymur Tkachenko said on Telegram.

He issued a warning to take shelter a minute after midnight local time on Thursday night, writing "it's loud in Kyiv".

The fire service in the Lisovyi neighbourhood said later the drone had hit the seventh floor of the residential building. When it exploded all the floors - from the eighth down to the fourth - collapsed, a spokesman told the BBC.

Vita said she saw four bodies being pulled out of the apartment a few doors down from hers: "I saw it with my own eyes."

Two cranes hoisted emergency workers outside the block, as crews combed through the destroyed building, throwing broken sections of wall and shattered glass to the ground.

Falling debris and fires damaged several high-rise apartment buildings, a hospital, school and administrative buildings, according to emergency services.

More than 40 people were rescued, they added, including 14 from a fire in a residential building. Another person was rescued after being pulled from beneath the rubble, they said.

Kyiv's energy infrastructure was badly hit, leaving some buildings in the capital without heat, officials said.

"The attack was massive, with drones, with ballistic [missiles], with lots of air defence working," Ukrainian MP Lisa Yasko told the BBC. "Very often there was the feeling that your bed was just shaking together with the windows."

Medical teams were deployed to all fires, officials said, while Mayor Vitali Klitschko said nine people were being treated in hospital with one man in an "extremely serious condition".

Ukraine's air force warned drones and guided bombs had been targeting several other regions, including Sumy.

The overnight strikes follow the deaths of six people in another Russian offensive less than a week ago that also damaged residential buildings and energy infrastructure.

Russia says its attacks on energy targets - now a familiar part of the war - are aimed at the Ukrainian military, although Kyiv has long rejected that claim.

Source: BBC
 

Russian missile strike kills three, wounds 10 in Kharkiv region, Ukraine says​


A Russian missile strike on the eastern Ukrainian city of Balakliia killed three people, with three teenagers among the 10 wounded, Kharkiv regional officials said on Monday.

The overnight attack damaged multi-storey residence blocks and destroyed scores of cars in the city centre, Oleh Synehubov, the governor of the region bordering Russia, said on the Telegram messaging app.
A photograph provided by regional authorities showed the damaged facade of a multi-storey brick building with windows blown out, as flames burned on an upper floor and debris and broken tree branches littered the area.

The teenagers were among the injured, Vitali Karabanov, head of Balakliia's military administration, said on Telegram, while nine of the injured were admitted to hospital.

Moscow made no immediate comment on the attack. Reuters could not independently verify Karabanov's comments.
Russia has rained down regular missile, drone and artillery strikes on Ukraine's second-largest city of Kharkiv, smashing homes and infrastructure, severing power links and subjecting residents to constant air-raid alerts.

Both sides deny targeting civilians in the war that Russia launched nearly four years ago, but thousands have been killed in the conflict, the vast majority of them Ukrainian.

 

Ukraine to get up to 100 French-made Rafale fighter jets​

Ukraine will get up to 100 of France's Rafale F4 fighter jets as well as advanced air defence systems in a major deal to boost Kyiv's ability to protect itself against deadly Russian attacks.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky hailed the move as "historic", after signing the letter of intent with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron at an air base near Paris.

Deliveries of the Rafale F4's are planned to be completed by 2035, while the joint production of interceptor drones is starting this year.

Financial details are yet to be worked out, but reports say France plans to attract EU financing and also access frozen Russian assets - a controversial move that has split the 27-member bloc.

"This is a strategic agreement which will last for 10 years starting from the next year," Zelensky said at a joint briefing with Macron on Monday.

Ukraine would also get "very strong French radars", eight air defence systems and other advanced weaponry, he added.

Zelensky stressed that using such advanced systems "means protecting someone's life... this is very important".

Russia has in recent months increased its drone and missile attacks against Ukraine, targeting energy and rail infrastructure and causing massive blackouts across the country.

Dozens of civilians have been killed in the strikes, in what Kyiv and its Western allies describe as war crimes. In the latest overnight Russian missile attack, three people were killed and 15 injured, in the north-eastern Ukrainian city of Balakliya, local officials said.

Speaking alongside Zelensky, Macron said: "We're planning Rafales, 100 Rafales - that's huge. That's what's needed for the regeneration of the Ukrainian military".

The French president added that he wanted to help Ukraine prepare for whatever was coming next.

These Rafale fighter jets are seen as crucial to protecting Ukraine's skies, because the country is almost powerless in preventing long-range air strikes on its border towns and cities.

"The Russians are using 6000 glide bombs per month," Serhiy Kuzhan, a Ukrainian defence analyst, told the BBC. "It would be important to have a French air to air system, with a 200km range, because Russians have their own system with a range of 230km."

While this announcement between Kyiv and Paris is sizeable, Justin Bronk from the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) points out: "The difference they'll make will depend on the timeframe and the missiles that come with them".

This is a long-term political agreement, rather than a detailed purchase order, so few are expecting this announcement to dramatically change the dynamics of Russia's grinding invasion.

The promises of Western military hardware are only as effective as the training and logistics they come with. Whether it's a German-made Leopard 2 Tank or an American F-16 fighter jet, they all require intensive training, sizable support crews and a lot of spare parts.

With the Rafales, further complexities arise around the question of who pays. It's thought France will dip into its own budget contributions for Kyiv, as well as look as joint EU borrowing mechanisms to help pay for the deal.

But what you hear privately admitted in EU's corridors of power in Brussels, is that the money is slowing running out.

The bloc has agreed to help support Ukraine's battered economy for the next two years, but there is less consensus on whether to unlock €140bn ($162bn; £123bn) of frozen Russian assets to help support Ukraine financially and militarily.

The proposals are currently illegal under international law, and some members are nervous about the prospect of having to pay Russia back when the war ends.

Ukraine's air force is already using France's Mirage warplanes as well as US-made F-16s. Kyiv has also recently provisionally agreed to obtain Sweden's Gripen fighter jets.

After France, Zelensky will travel to Spain to seek further military and other support for Ukraine.

Over the weekend, he secured a gas deal with Greece. Vital supplies of US liquefied natural gas are now expected to start flowing into Ukraine this winter via a pipeline across the Balkans.

Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Moscow currently controls about 20% of Ukraine's territory and Russian troops have been making slow advances along the vast front line - despite reported huge combat casualties.

Source: BBC
 
hassan918 said:

Ukraine to get up to 100 French-made Rafale fighter jets​

Ukraine will get up to 100 of France's Rafale F4 fighter jets as well as advanced air defence systems in a major deal to boost Kyiv's ability to protect itself against deadly Russian attacks.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky hailed the move as "historic", after signing the letter of intent with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron at an air base near Paris.

Deliveries of the Rafale F4's are planned to be completed by 2035, while the joint production of interceptor drones is starting this year.

Financial details are yet to be worked out, but reports say France plans to attract EU financing and also access frozen Russian assets - a controversial move that has split the 27-member bloc.

"This is a strategic agreement which will last for 10 years starting from the next year," Zelensky said at a joint briefing with Macron on Monday.

Ukraine would also get "very strong French radars", eight air defence systems and other advanced weaponry, he added.

Zelensky stressed that using such advanced systems "means protecting someone's life... this is very important".

Russia has in recent months increased its drone and missile attacks against Ukraine, targeting energy and rail infrastructure and causing massive blackouts across the country.

Dozens of civilians have been killed in the strikes, in what Kyiv and its Western allies describe as war crimes. In the latest overnight Russian missile attack, three people were killed and 15 injured, in the north-eastern Ukrainian city of Balakliya, local officials said.

Speaking alongside Zelensky, Macron said: "We're planning Rafales, 100 Rafales - that's huge. That's what's needed for the regeneration of the Ukrainian military".

The French president added that he wanted to help Ukraine prepare for whatever was coming next.

These Rafale fighter jets are seen as crucial to protecting Ukraine's skies, because the country is almost powerless in preventing long-range air strikes on its border towns and cities.

"The Russians are using 6000 glide bombs per month," Serhiy Kuzhan, a Ukrainian defence analyst, told the BBC. "It would be important to have a French air to air system, with a 200km range, because Russians have their own system with a range of 230km."

While this announcement between Kyiv and Paris is sizeable, Justin Bronk from the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) points out: "The difference they'll make will depend on the timeframe and the missiles that come with them".

This is a long-term political agreement, rather than a detailed purchase order, so few are expecting this announcement to dramatically change the dynamics of Russia's grinding invasion.

The promises of Western military hardware are only as effective as the training and logistics they come with. Whether it's a German-made Leopard 2 Tank or an American F-16 fighter jet, they all require intensive training, sizable support crews and a lot of spare parts.

With the Rafales, further complexities arise around the question of who pays. It's thought France will dip into its own budget contributions for Kyiv, as well as look as joint EU borrowing mechanisms to help pay for the deal.

But what you hear privately admitted in EU's corridors of power in Brussels, is that the money is slowing running out.

The bloc has agreed to help support Ukraine's battered economy for the next two years, but there is less consensus on whether to unlock €140bn ($162bn; £123bn) of frozen Russian assets to help support Ukraine financially and militarily.

The proposals are currently illegal under international law, and some members are nervous about the prospect of having to pay Russia back when the war ends.

Ukraine's air force is already using France's Mirage warplanes as well as US-made F-16s. Kyiv has also recently provisionally agreed to obtain Sweden's Gripen fighter jets.

After France, Zelensky will travel to Spain to seek further military and other support for Ukraine.

Over the weekend, he secured a gas deal with Greece. Vital supplies of US liquefied natural gas are now expected to start flowing into Ukraine this winter via a pipeline across the Balkans.

Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Moscow currently controls about 20% of Ukraine's territory and Russian troops have been making slow advances along the vast front line - despite reported huge combat casualties.

Source: BBC
Click to expand...

Will they lose those jets like India? :inti

Let's see.
 

Russian strike on flats kills 10 in one of deadliest attacks on western Ukraine​


At least 10 people have been killed and dozens more wounded in a Russian attack on two blocks of flats in the western city of Ternopil, says Ukraine's interior minister Ihor Klymenko.

Among the wounded were 12 children, Klymenko said, in one of the deadliest Russian strikes on western Ukraine since the full-scale war began in February 2022.

Two other western regions were hit, Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk, and a drone attack targeted three districts of the northern city of Kharkiv, wounding more than 30 people. Photos posted online showed buildings and cars ablaze.

Power cuts were affecting a number of regions across the country, Ukraine's energy ministry said.

Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia had fired more than 470 drones and 47 missiles, leaving "significant destruction". He warned that people could be trapped under the rubble in Ternopil.

The devastation caused by the Russian strikes soon became clear. A video shared by Zelensky showed that one of the two blocks of flats had completely caved in. The interior minister said it had been destroyed between the third and the ninth floor.

Plumes of smoke poured from windows and small fires burned outside the tenement.

A giant smoke cloud rose in the distance behind the Church of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Ternopil, as sirens blared throughout the city.

Energy facilities, transport and civil infrastructure were damaged elsewhere in western Ukraine.

The energy sector came under attack in Ivano-Frankivsk region where two of three people reported wounded were children.

The head of Lviv region said an energy facility had been struck.

The Russian strikes came a day after Ukraine's military said it had fired US-supplied longer-range Atacms missiles at military targets inside Russia, the first time they have admitted using the Atacms on Russian soil.

Russia's defence ministry accused Ukraine of firing four of the missiles at the southern city of Voronezh but said they had all been shot down by air defences.

Meanwhile, Zelensky is heading to the Turkish capital Ankara, in an attempt to revive a US bid to end the war. He will hold talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan amid reports that President Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff has been working on a plan with Russian counterpart Kirill Dmitriev.

The Kremlin said no Russian representative would be joining the talks in Ankara. Spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on a media report that the US and Russia had been secretly working on a peace plan for Ukraine.

"In this case, there is nothing new that we can inform you about," Peskov told journalists on Wednesday.

His comments came amid reports that Zelensky was due to meet two top US army officials in Kyiv on Thursday. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll and Army Chief of Staff General Randy George are the most senior US military officials to visit the Ukrainian capital since President Donald Trump took office, Reuters reports.

In a separate development, Romania's defence ministry said a Russian drone had flown for about 8km (5 miles) through its airspace in the early hours of Wednesday. The drone then crossed into Ukraine and Moldova before returning to Romania, it said.

Romanian and German air force planes were scrambled in response to the incursion and the defence ministry said it was unclear where the drone had come down.

Poland also deployed jets early on Wednesday and temporarily closed two airports in the southeast in response to the strikes in western Ukraine.

As the fourth anniversary of the start of Russia's full-scale invasion approaches next February, Moscow and Kyiv remain fundamentally opposed in their views of how to end the war.

Earlier this month Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Russia's conditions for a peace deal had not changed since Putin laid them out in 2024.

www.bbc.com

Russian attack on Ternopil hits flats in one of deadliest strikes on western Ukraine

At least 16 people have been killed and dozens more wounded in the attack on the western region of Ternopil.
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com
 
I am surprised this conflict is still going on. It is obvious this has reached a military stalemate.

What's the endgame? :inti
 

Children among 25 killed in one of Russia's deadliest strikes on western Ukraine​


At least 25 people have been killed including three children in a Russian missile and drone attack that hit two blocks of flats in the western city of Ternopil, Ukrainian officials say.

They say another 73 people were wounded, 15 of them children, in the strike early on Wednesday - one of the deadliest in the region since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Ukraine's air force later said Russian X-101 cruise missiles had hit the residential flats.

The neighbouring Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk regions were also struck, and a drone attack on three districts of the north-eastern city of Kharkiv wounded more than 30 people. Photos posted online showed buildings and cars ablaze.

Ukraine's air force said it had shot down 442 of 476 drones and 41 of 48 missiles launched by Russia, including 10 missiles destroyed by F-16 and Mirage 2000 fighter jets supplied to Kyiv by its Western allies.

But in a reference to how stretched Ukraine's air defences currently are, the air force pleaded for "the uninterrupted and timely supply of aviation weapons from Western partners".

Ternopil, a city closer to the Polish border than the capital Kyiv, has rarely faced attacks since the full-scale invasion. Social media footage of this strike shows missiles shooting across the sky towards the city, though very little sign of air defences reacting from the ground.

The devastation caused by the Russian strikes on Ternopil soon became clear. A video shared by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky showed one of the blocks of flats had completely caved in. Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said it had been destroyed between the third and ninth floors.

The attack had caused "significant destruction", said Zelensky, and many victims were reported to be in the rubble. Plumes of smoke poured from windows and small fires burned outside the tenement.

A giant smoke cloud rose in the distance behind the Church of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Ternopil, as sirens blared throughout the city.

With limited defence systems, and a vast country to defend every night, no matter how effective Ukraine becomes at shooting down Russian missiles and drones, there is always a risk some will get through – to devastating effect, as happened in Ternopil.

Energy facilities, transport and civil infrastructure were damaged elsewhere in western Ukraine.

The energy sector came under attack in Ivano-Frankivsk region where two of the three people reported wounded were children.

The head of Lviv region said an energy facility had been struck.

Russia has recently upped its attacks on Ukraine's energy grid - as the fourth winter of the war approaches - hoping to damage morale as well as logistics and Ukraine's own defence industry.

Electrical supplies are already being rationed and, after the latest attacks, the energy ministry announced more power cuts across the country.

Russia's defence ministry said it had carried out its "massive strike using long-range precision weapons", claiming it had targeted Ukraine's "military-industrial complex and energy sector" in response to Ukrainian attacks on "civilian targets".

Ukraine's military said on Tuesday it had fired US-supplied longer-range Atacms missiles at military targets inside Russia, the first time they had admitted using Atacms on Russian soil.

Russia's defence ministry accused Ukraine of firing four of the missiles at the southern city of Voronezh but said they had all been shot down by air defences.

Meanwhile, Zelensky has travelled to the Turkish capital Ankara, in an attempt to revive a US bid to end the war. He held talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan amid reports President Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff has been working on a plan with Russian counterpart Kirill Dmitriev.

The Kremlin said earlier that no Russian representative would be joining the talks in Ankara.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman appeared to dismiss US media reports that Washington and Moscow had been working on a peace plan for Ukraine - without any involvement of Kyiv and its European allies.

"In this case, we have no additional innovations to what we call 'the spirit of Anchorage'," Dmitry Peskov told Russia's state-run media, referring to the August summit between Putin and Trump in the US state Alaska.

Any agreements reached during the one-day meeting have not been made public.

Peskov's comments came as Zelensky was reportedly due to meet two top US army officials in Kyiv on Thursday. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll and Army Chief of Staff General Randy George are the most senior US military officials to visit the Ukrainian capital since President Donald Trump took office, Reuters reports.

In a separate development, Romania's defence ministry said a Russian drone had flown about 8km (5 miles) through its airspace in the early hours of Wednesday. The drone then crossed into Ukraine and Moldova before returning to Romania, it said.

Romanian and German air force planes were scrambled in response to the incursion and the defence ministry said it was unclear where the drone had come down.

Poland also deployed jets early on Wednesday and temporarily closed two airports in the southeast in response to the strikes in western Ukraine.

As the fourth anniversary of the start of Russia's full-scale invasion approaches next February, Moscow and Kyiv remain fundamentally opposed in their views of how to end the war.

Ukraine and its Western allies, including the US, have called for an immediate ceasefire along the vast front line – but Russia has repeatedly ruled that out, repeating demands that Ukraine says amount to its de facto capitulation.

Earlier this month, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow's pre-conditions for a peace deal - including tough curbs on the size of Ukraine's military and the country's neutrality - had not changed since Putin laid them out two months before the full-scale invasion.

Source: BBC
 
US military officials in Ukraine for talks on ending war

Senior Pentagon officials have arrived in Ukraine to "discuss efforts to end the war" with Russia, the US military has said.

The team, led by US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, is expected to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv on Thursday when he returns from a trip to Turkey.

Reports began surfacing on Wednesday that the US and Russia had prepared a new peace plan, containing major concessions from Ukraine. Neither Washington nor Moscow has officially confirmed the plan.

Earlier in the day, at least 26 people were killed in a Russian missile and drone attack on Ukraine's western city of Ternopil, officials there said. Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

"Secretary Driscoll and team arrived this morning in Kyiv on behalf of the administration on a factfinding mission to meet Ukrainian officials and discuss efforts to end the war," Army spokesman Col David Butler said in a statement.

Driscoll is joined by the US Army's chief of staff Gen Randy George, top US army commander in Europe Gen Chris Donahue, and Srg Maj of the Army Michael Weimer.

Driscoll and Gen George are the most senior US military officials to hold talks in the Ukrainian capital since President Donald Trump took office in January.

An image on Wednesday showed Driscoll meeting and shaking hands with Ukrainian Defence Minister Denys Shmyhal.

In a post on X afterwards, Shmyhal said: "We focused on the next steps for implementing the historic defence agreements reached by President Zelensky and President Trump".

He also thanked Washington for "approving the sale of a support package for the PATRIOT air-defence system worth approximately $105m (£80m)".

Earlier, a Ukrainian official told CBS, the BBC's US media partner, that talks on the trip would focus on the military situation on the ground - as well as plans for a possible ceasefire.

The official - who was not named - said: "Presidents Zelensky and Trump have already agreed to stop the conflict along the existing lines of engagement, and there are agreements on granting security guarantees".

It comes as a number of outlets are reporting that the US and Russia have privately drawn up proposals on how to end the war.

Citing people familiar with the matter, Axios, the Financial Times and Reuters reported that the plans call for Kyiv to give up some territories and weapons, as well as to significantly cut Ukraine's Armed Forces.

Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian leader Vladimir Putin's envoy Kirill Dmitriev are believed to have been involved in working on the 28-point peace plan.

The BBC has asked the White House and a representative for Witkoff to comment.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov appeared to downplay the reports.

"In this case, we have no additional innovations to what we call 'the spirit of Anchorage'," he told Russia's state-run media on Wednesday - referring to the August summit between Putin and Trump in the US state of Alaska.

Any agreements reached during the one-day meeting have not been made public.

President Zelensky has repeatedly ruled out any territorial concessions to Russia.

Kyiv and its Western allies, including the US, have been calling for an immediate ceasefire along the vast front line, but Moscow has ruled that out, repeating demands that Ukraine says amount to its de facto capitulation.

Earlier this month, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow's pre-conditions for a peace deal - including ceding territory, tough curbs on the size of Ukraine's military and the country's neutrality - had not changed since Putin laid them out two months before the full-scale invasion.

Meanwhile, a White House official confirmed to the BBC that special envoy to Ukraine Keith Kellogg will leave his post in January.

He reportedly decided that this would be a natural end to his time in the post, which requires Senate approval beyond 360 days.

Kellogg has been seen as an important advocate for Ukraine in the White House during a time when Trump has often appeared to side with Russia in the conflict.

BBC
 
Zelensky ready for 'honest work' with US to end Ukraine war

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says he is ready for "honest work" with the US after receiving a draft peace plan to end the war with Russia.

Several US media outlets report that under the plan, Kyiv would give up areas of the Donbas in eastern Ukraine that it still controls, cut the size of its army, and pledge not to join Nato.

It was unclear how involved Ukraine has been in drafting the plan, but White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the US had engaged "equally with both sides".

In a separate statement, Zelensky's office said that Ukraine had "agreed to work on the plan's provisions in a way that would bring about a just end to the war".

According to a draft of the plan, which has been published in full by the Financial Times and Axios, Ukraine's military will be limited to 600,000 personnel, but European fighter jets will be stationed in Poland.

It states that Kyiv will receive "reliable security guarantees", although further details are not given.

The draft also says Russia will be "reintegrated into the global economy", through the lifting of sanctions and by inviting Russia to rejoin the G7 - a forum of the world's most powerful countries - making it the G8 again.

If confirmed in full, the demands in the plan would appear to favour Moscow's interests.

Zelensky said he expected to speak with US President Donald Trump in the coming days about the proposals, which also include plans for Ukraine to forgo many of its weapons.

But in a press briefing at the White House, Leavitt rejected suggestions that the plan demanded major concessions from Ukraine, and said the US president "supports" it.

US special envoy Steve Witkoff and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had been working on a proposal quietly for about a month, and had engaged both sides "to understand what these countries would commit to in order to see a lasting and durable peace", Leavitt said.

"It's a good plan for both Russia and Ukraine," she added, without providing further details. "We believe that it should be acceptable to both sides. And we're working very hard to get it done."

An unnamed senior US official told CBS News that the plan "was drawn up immediately following discussions with one of the most senior members of President Zelensky's administration, Rustem Umerov, who agreed to the majority of the plan, after making several modifications, and presented it to President Zelensky".

In a statement on X, Zelensky wrote: "The American side presented points of a plan to end the war—their vision. I outlined our key principles. We agreed that our teams will work on the points to ensure it's all genuine."

The statement came after a meeting in Kyiv on Thursday between Zelensky and senior US military figures, including US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, army chief of staff Gen Randy George and top US army commander in Europe Gen Chris Donahue.

Despite Kyiv's tepid reaction to the draft, Zelensky said he "appreciated the efforts of President Trump and his team to return security to Europe" – perhaps a way to keep the US president onside despite his administration's apparent soft approach to Russia.

In his nightly address on Thursday, Zelensky said Ukraine needs a "worthy peace," and that the "dignity of the Ukrainian people" must be respected.

When asked if Europe was involved in the process of drafting the plan, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said: "Not that I know of."

"For any plan to work, it needs Ukrainians and Europeans on board," she added.

Moscow downplayed the significance of the plan, which is rumoured to include 28 points.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that while there had been "contacts" with the US there was "no process that could be called 'consultations'".

Peskov warned that any peace deal would have to address the "root causes of the conflict" - a phrase Moscow has used as shorthand for a series of maximalist demands which, to Ukraine, are tantamount to surrender.

UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said: "The future of Ukraine must be determined by Ukraine and we must never lose sight of that principle underpinning the just and lasting peace that we all want to see."

Since starting his second term earlier this year, Trump has launched into various initiatives aimed at ending the war in Ukraine, including a bilateral summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska, several visits by his envoy Witkoff to Moscow, and rounds of talks with Zelensky and other Western leaders.

But as the fourth anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine nears, the two sides remain deeply at odds over how to end the conflict.

While Ukraine has become adept at targeting Russian military infrastructure and energy facilities with long-range drones, Moscow's attacks on Ukrainian targets continue unabated.

Late on Thursday, a Russian attack on the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia killed at least five people, according to the regional governor. Hours later, Russia's defence ministry said it had intercepted and destroyed 33 Ukrainian drones over several Russian regions.

Earlier this week, at least 26 people were killed in a Russian missile and drone attack on blocks of flats in Ukraine's western city of Ternopil. Another 17 people were still missing at the site on Thursday, Zelensky said as he offered his condolences.

BBC
 
Zelensky warns Ukraine risks losing US support over White House peace plan

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned that Kyiv risks losing US support over a White House plan on how to end the war with Russia.

Addressing the nation on Friday, Zelensky said Ukraine "might face a very difficult choice: either losing dignity, or risk losing a key partner", adding that "today is one of the most difficult moments in our history".

The widely leaked US peace plan includes proposals that Kyiv had previously ruled out: ceding eastern areas it now controls, significantly cutting its army size, and pledging not to join Nato.

These provisions are seen as heavily slanted towards Russia, whose President Vladimir Putin said the plan could be a "basis" for peace settlement.


www.bbc.com

Zelensky warns Ukraine risks losing US support over White House peace plan

Vladimir Putin says the plan could be the "basis" for peace but warns Russia is prepared to fight on.
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com
 
US insists it authored Ukraine peace plan ahead of talks on ending war

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has insisted that a proposed plan to end the Ukraine war, which has been widely viewed as favourable to Russia, was "authored by the US".

It comes after a group of senators said they had been told by Rubio that the draft - which one said he described as a Russian "wish list" - did not reflect Washington's position.

Rubio later distanced himself from those claims and said the plan came from the US, and was "based on input" from both Russia and Ukraine.

His intervention came as he flew to Geneva in Switzerland for talks with Ukrainian and European security officials on the plan, which US President Donald Trump has called for Kyiv to agree to swiftly.

Ukraine's allies in Europe have pushed back on major provisions in the draft, which has not been made public but details of which have been widely leaked.

It includes Ukraine agreeing to withdraw troops from eastern areas which Russia has been unable to take by force, and to limit the size of its armed forces.

On Saturday, Republican senator Mike Rounds said Rubio had told a group of lawmakers that the draft plan was not US policy.

Speaking at the Halifax Security Forum, he said: "What [Rubio] told us was that this was not the American proposal."

Rounds said he had been assured that the plan was presented to Steve Witkoff, who acts as Trump's overseas diplomatic envoy, by "someone... representing Russia". The senator continued: "It is not our recommendation. It is not our peace plan."

Shortly after, State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said Rounds's account of his conversation with Rubio was "blatantly false".

Writing on X, he said: "As Secretary Rubio and the entire Administration has consistently maintained, this plan was authored by the United States, with input from both the Russians and Ukrainians."

Rubio then posted on social media himself, saying: "The peace proposal was authored by the US. It is based on input from the Russian side. But it is also based on previous and ongoing input from Ukraine."

On Saturday, Trump - who has made securing a deal to end the conflict a central foreign policy goal during his second term - said the plan did not represent a "final offer" for Ukraine, having previously said President Volodymyr Zelensky "will have to" approve it.

When details of the 28-point plan first emerged, Zelensky warned that his country faced "one of the most difficult moments in our history" over US pressure to accept it, while Russian President Vladimir Putin said it could form the "basis" of an agreement.

Trump previously gave Ukraine until Thursday to approve the proposal, though said that deadline could be extended if talks progress.

Both Rubio and Witkoff will attend the Geneva meeting on Sunday alongside security officials from the UK, France and Germany, as well as Ukraine.

Ukraine's allies have already publicly pushed back against the plan, saying in a joint statement issued at the G20 summit in South Africa that it "would leave Ukraine vulnerable to attack".

It said the plan had elements "essential for a just and lasting peace" but would "require additional work", citing concerns over border changes and caps on Ukraine's army.

The statement was signed by the leaders of Canada, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, the UK, Germany and Norway. Two senior EU officials were also among the signatories.

Speaking at the gathering in Johannesburg, French President Emmanuel Macron said the plan "cannot simply be an American proposal", adding that any agreement had to also guarantee security for "all Europeans".

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said "we are still quite a long way from a good outcome for everyone".

Meanwhile, UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer spoke to both Zelensky and Trump on Saturday. No 10 said he briefed the US president on European talks about the plan.

Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, after which Ukraine became heavily dependent on US-manufactured weapons.

In its current form, the plan would see Ukrainian troops withdraw from the part of the eastern Donetsk region that they currently control, and de facto Russian control of Donetsk, as well as the neighbouring Luhansk region and the southern Crimea peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014.

The plan also includes freezing the borders of Ukraine's southern Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions along the current battle lines. Both regions are partially occupied by Russia.

Kyiv would receive "reliable security guarantees", the plan says, although no details have been given. The document says "it is expected" that Russia will not invade its neighbours and Nato will not expand further.

On Saturday, Zelensky announced that his head of office Andriy Yermak would lead Ukraine's negotiating team for future talks on a peace deal, including any that may involve Russia.

"Our representatives know how to defend Ukraine's national interests and exactly what must be done to prevent Russia from launching a third invasion, another strike against Ukraine," the president said in a video statement posted on social media.

BBC
 
Zelensky welcomes amendments to proposed peace plan

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has welcomed proposed changes to the controversial 28-point peace plan for ending the war with Russia.

It appears Ukraine's European allies produced an amended version of the plan after rejecting parts which favoured Russia's war aims.

"Now the list of necessary steps to end the war can become doable..." Zelensky said on Telegram. "Many correct elements have been incorporated into this framework."

Later, in the early hours of Tuesday, Kyiv's mayor Vitali Klitschko said a wave of Russian missile and drone attacks hit an apartment building in the capital and disrupted electricity and water supplies.

Ukraine's Ministry of Energy also confirmed a "massive, combined enemy attack" on the country's energy infrastructure facilities.

"Energy officials will begin assessing the consequences and restoration work as soon as the security situation permits," it said in a statement.

US and Ukrainian officials met in Geneva on Sunday to discuss the plan, drafted by American and Russian officials in October, which had caused consternation in Kyiv and among its European allies.

Russian representatives did not take part in the meeting in Switzerland.

A Kremlin official rejected the amendments on Monday as "completely unconstructive".

In another development, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt insisted that the Trump administration was not favouring Russia in its efforts to end the war.

"The idea that the United States of America is not engaging with both sides equally in this war to bring it to an end is a complete and total fallacy," she told reporters.

President Donald Trump was "hopeful and optimistic" that a plan could be worked out for ending the war, Leavitt added.

Following the end of the talks in Geneva, Trump suggested on social media that "something good just may be happening" but added: "Don't believe it until you see it."

In Geneva, the talks began with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio having to deny the 28-point plan advocated by Trump had been written by the Kremlin, as several of its elements seemed heavily geared towards Moscow's longstanding demands.

Zelensky said on Monday evening that the revised plan was "truly the right approach".

"The sensitive issues, the most delicate points, I will discuss with President Trump," he added, without saying when.

According to an official in Zelensky's office, the 28-point plan leaked on Friday no longer existed.

Speaking to the Financial Times, Ukraine's First Deputy Foreign Minister, Sergiy Kyslytsa, who attended the weekend talks in Geneva, said the latest plan consisted of just 19 points, with some of the most politically sensitive elements, including territorial concessions, now due to be decided by the leaders themselves.

A virtual "coalition of the willing" meeting of Ukraine's European allies will take place on Tuesday to discuss developments, UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced.

There was, he said, still work to do for a "just and lasting peace" in Ukraine.

In Moscow, Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters: "The European plan, at first glance... is completely unconstructive and does not work for us."

Zelensky said earlier on Monday that the "main problem" remained Putin's demand for legal recognition of territory Russia had taken.

Comments by Trump which suggested Ukraine had until 27 November to accept the deal or risk losing US support created a sense of urgency across Europe on Friday, and talks between Ukraine and US officials were hastily convened.

The counter-proposals - reportedly drafted by the UK, France and Germany - excluded any recognition of Russian-held regions, raised Ukraine's permitted army size, and left the door open to Ukraine joining Nato.

Russia has consistently demanded full Ukrainian withdrawal from the whole of the eastern Donbas, made up of Donetsk and Luhansk regions. It also controls Crimea and large parts of two other regions, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.

Tens of thousands of soldiers and thousands of civilians have been killed or injured, and millions of people have fled their homes, since Russia's full-scale invasion began nearly four years ago.

BBC
 
Ukraine says 'understanding' reached on US peace plan, as Trump envoy to meet Putin

Ukraine has said a "common understanding" has been reached with the US on a peace deal aimed at ending the war with Russia.

The proposal is based on a 28-point plan presented to Kyiv by the US last week, which American and Ukrainian officials worked on during weekend talks in Geneva.

In a post on social media, US President Donald Trump said the original plan "has been fine-tuned, with additional input from both sides".

He said he had directed his special envoy Steve Witkoff to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow next week, while the US Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll is expected to meet Ukrainian leaders this week.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday that he was ready to meet Trump to discuss outstanding "sensitive points", with his administration aiming for a meeting before the end of the month.

"I am counting on further active cooperation with the American side and with President (Donald) Trump. Much depends on America, because Russia pays the greatest attention to American strength," he said.

A day earlier, Zelensky said the 28-point plan had been slimmed down, with some provisions removed.

Trump wrote on social media that he looked forward to meeting with presidents Zelensky and Putin "soon, but ONLY when the deal to end this War is FINAL or, in its final stages".

The president later told reporters the deal would involved land concessions "both ways" and "trying to clean up the border".

Trump said he had not given either side a date to agree a deal by, saying "the deadline for me is when it's over".

The Kremlin previously said that Russia had not yet been consulted on the new draft deal, warning it may not accept amendments to last week's plan.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that while Moscow had been in favour of the initial US framework, the situation would be "fundamentally different" if it had undergone substantial changes.

As of Tuesday morning the Kremlin had not received a copy of the new plan, Lavrov said, accusing Europe of undermining US peace efforts.

American officials did not publicly address Russia's concerns, although Driscoll and Russian representatives held meetings on Monday and Tuesday in Abu Dhabi.

Some of the issues which Russia and Ukraine are still deeply at odds over have reportedly remained unaddressed so far, including security guarantees for Kyiv and control of several regions in Ukraine's east where fighting is taking place.

Despite the White House's relative optimism, European leaders seemed doubtful that, after almost four years of war, peace could be within reach. French President Emmanuel Macron said he saw "no Russian will for a ceasefire", while Downing Street warned there was "a long way to go – a tough road ahead."

On Tuesday, Macron and UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer chaired a meeting of the so-called coalition of the willing, a loose grouping of Ukraine's allies in Europe and beyond who have pledged continued defence support in the event of a ceasefire, including tentative talks on a potential peacekeeping force.

During the call – which was also joined by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio – the leaders agreed to set up a task force with the US to "accelerate" work on the security guarantees that could be offered to Ukraine.

The issue of security guarantees is only one of the areas on which Moscow and Kyiv are at odds. On Monday, Zelensky said the "main problem" blocking peace was Putin's demand for legal recognition of the territory Russia had seized.

Moscow has consistently demanded full Ukrainian withdrawal from the whole of the eastern Donbas, made up of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Russian forces also control the Crimean peninsula - which Russia annexed in 2014 - and large parts of two other regions, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.

After weeks in which diplomacy appeared to have stalled, there has been a flurry of activity since the US-backed plan was leaked.

The original draft included Ukraine agreeing to cede areas it continues to control, pledging not to join Nato and significantly cutting the size of its armed forces - elements which seemed to reflect key Kremlin demands.

While Putin said the original draft could form the "basis" for a deal, Zelensky responded by saying Ukraine faced a choice between retaining the US as a partner and its "dignity". European leaders pushed back on several elements.

On the eve of talks over the plan in Geneva on Sunday between American, European and Ukrainian officials, Rubio was forced to publicly insist it was "authored by the US" after a group of senators claimed he had told them it was effectively a Russian draft, not the White House's position.

Since then, both the US and Ukraine have hailed progress on the draft, with Zelensky saying it represented "the right approach" after securing changes.

While Trump had originally pushed for Ukraine to accept the plan swiftly, the president told reporters on Tuesday that the original version "was just a map", adding: "That was not a plan, it was a concept."

Also on Tuesday, Bloomberg published a transcript of what it said was a call on 14 October between Trump's diplomatic envoy Steve Witkoff and Yuri Ushakov, Putin's foreign policy aide.

Asked about the transcript - in which Witkoff reportedly discussed how the Kremlin should approach Trump, and said Ukraine would have to give up land to secure a peace deal - Trump told reporters it represented a "very standard form of negotiations". BBC News has not independently verified the reported leaked call.

Meanwhile, the fighting continues. Both Russia and Ukraine said strikes had been carried out on Tuesday night in Zaporizhzhia.

Ukraine's regional head there, Ivan Federov, said at least seven people had been injured, while Yevgeny Balitsky, the Kremlin-installed governor, reported that Kyiv had hit energy grids in areas it controls, leaving up to 40,000 people without electricity.

Tens of thousands of soldiers and thousands of civilians have been killed or injured, and millions of people have fled their homes since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022.

BBC
 

Russia says it will not make major concessions in potential Ukraine peace plan: Report​

A senior Russian diplomat has said Moscow will not make major concessions in any potential peace plan for Ukraine, signalling limited room for compromise ahead of expected talks with the United States, according to Reuters.

Moscow’s latest remarks indicate it is preparing to enter talks while maintaining firm red lines, even as the US and European countries step up diplomatic efforts.

Earlier, we reported that Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said it was “premature” to suggest a deal is imminent.

Source: Al Jazeera
 

Putin doubles down on demands for Ukrainian territory ahead of talks with US in Moscow​


President Vladimir Putin has doubled down on his core demands for ending the war in Ukraine, stating that Russia will lay down arms only if Kyiv's troops withdraw from territory claimed by Moscow.

Putin has long pushed for legal recognition of the Ukrainian territories Russia has seized by force.

They include the Crimean peninsula, which it illegally annexed in 2014, and the Donbas, made up of Luhansk and Donetsk, which Moscow now occupies for the most part.

For Kyiv, which has ruled out relinquishing the parts of the Donbas it still holds, rewarding Russia for its aggression is a non-starter.

Speaking to reporters during a trip to Kyrgyzstan, Putin repeated his view that Russia has the initiative on the battlefield and the fighting would only end when Ukrainian troops withdrew from the embattled territories.

"If they don't withdraw, we'll achieve this by force of arms," he said.

Yet Russia's slow gains in eastern Ukraine have come at significant cost of manpower. According to the US-based Institute for the Study of War, at this rate it would take Moscow almost two more years to seize the rest of the Donetsk region.

Thursday's remarks were the first time that Putin addressed the hectic diplomatic moves of the last week, which saw the US and Ukraine hold intense discussions over a peace plan reportedly drafted in October by American and Russian officials.

The plan, which was heavily slanted towards Moscow's demands, was subsequently revised. However, it is thought it does not address the issue of the occupied territories which - alongside security guarantees for Ukraine - is the biggest sticking point between Moscow and Kyiv.

Putin said that new draft plan has now been shown to Russia, and that it could become the "basis" for a future agreement to end the war.

However, he added it was "absolutely necessary" to discuss "certain specific points that need to be put in diplomatic language".

Asked about the possibility of Crimea and the Donbas being recognised as under Russian de facto control but not legally, Putin said: "This is the point of our discussion with our American counterparts".

A US delegation including special envoy Steve Witkoff was expected in Moscow in the first half of next week, he confirmed. US President Donald Trump told reporters that Witkoff may be joined in Moscow by the president's son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Meanwhile, Ukraine's top presidential aide Andriy Yermak said that US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll is due to visit Kyiv later in the week.

On Wednesday Trump said there were "only a few remaining points of disagreement" between Russia and Ukraine – indicating that any meeting with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky to discuss these points was contingent on a peace deal being agreed upon.

During his comments to reporters Putin again expressed his contempt for the Ukrainian leadership, which he said he considered illegitimate. There was therefore "no use" signing any documents with them, he added.

Ukraine has been under martial law since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022 and has therefore been unable to hold scheduled elections. Earlier this year, the Ukrainian parliament voted unanimously to affirm the legitimacy of President Zelensky, whose term in office ended in the spring.

Putin also dismissed warnings by European leaders that Russia could attack the European continent within the next decades.

"That sounds laughable to us, really," he said.

The White House and Donald Trump have sounded optimistic about the recent diplomatic push for peace talks, but Europeans have repeatedly expressed their scepticism over whether Putin truly intended to end the war.

On Wednesday European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen accused Russia of upholding a post-World War Two mindset and of seeing the European continent as a "sphere of influence" in which sovereign nations could be "carved up".

Source: BBC
 

Zelensky's chief of staff resigns after Ukrainian anti-corruption police raid home​


Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said his chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, resigned following an anti-corruption raid on his home.

Yermak, 54, has been Zelensky's closest adviser throughout Russia's full-scale war, but has come under increasing pressure over a corruption scandal - even though he was not accused of any wrongdoing.

Ukraine's anti-corruption agencies raided his apartment in Kyiv's government quarters early on Friday and Yermak said on social media that "from my side there is full co-operation".

Zelensky had recently appointed his chief of staff to lead crucial negotiations in the coming days, with US President Trump spearheading a new drive to end the war with Russia.

"I'm grateful to Andriy that Ukraine's position on the negotiating track was always presented as required: it was always a patriotic position," Ukraine's leader said in an address in Kyiv on Friday.

"But I want there to be no rumours and speculation. Regarding a new office head, tomorrow I'll hold consultations with those who might lead this institution. When all the attention is focused on diplomacy and the defence in a war, inner strength is required."

Source: BBC
 
Russian drone strike hits Kyiv residential areas despite peace moves

A Russian drone and missile strike on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv has killed at least one person and injured seven others, city officials say.

Early on Saturday morning residential buildings in several districts were hit and loud explosions could be heard across the city.

Kyiv's mayor Vitaly Klitschko said a 13-year-old child was among the injured and four people had been taken to hospital.

Earlier this week a similar attack on Kyiv killed seven people, Ukrainian officials said. The latest bombardment came as Ukrainian negotiators were preparing for talks with US officials this weekend on an amended US peace plan.

The head of Kyiv's military administration, Tymur Tkachenko, confirmed Saturday's strike hit "multiple targets on the capital's outskirts".

"Enemy drones are over the city, with air defence responding," he wrote on Telegram.

"Currently, in Kyiv there is a total of one dead and seven injured, including one child."

The body of a man was recovered by rescuers in the Sviatoshynskyi district west of the city, Tkachenko confirmed.

Two women were among the wounded in the town of Brovary east of Kyiv, with the regional governor saying "missiles and drones" targeted residential areas.

Klitschko said the strike had started a fire in the lower floors of a high-rise apartment block west of the city centre, while another blaze was brought under control in a central district.

Earlier this week, Russia and Ukraine traded deadly strikes overnight, which set fire to apartment buildings and killed seven people in Kyiv, while Russia's Rostov region reported three deaths.

Saturday's attack comes amid President Donald Trump's push for the two sides to accept a draft peace plan, which was initially slanted heavily towards Moscow's demands. It was subsequently revised during talks between Ukrainian and US negotiators in Geneva.

On Thursday, President Vladimir Putin doubled down on his core demands for ending the war, saying Russia will halt its offensive only if Ukraine's troops withdraw from territory claimed by Moscow.

Putin also confirmed a US delegation including special envoy Steve Witkoff is expected in Moscow in the first half of next week to discuss the draft peace plan at the centre of negotiations.

Zelensky said in a video address late on Thursday that Ukrainian and US delegations would meet "to translate the points we secured in Geneva into a form that puts us on the path to peace and security guarantees".

BBC
 
Ukraine hits tankers in Black Sea in escalation against Russia

Ukrainian naval drones hit two oil tankers from Russia's so-called "shadow fleet" as they travelled through the Black Sea, Ukrainian officials have said.

Footage verified by the BBC shows waterborne drones speeding through the waves into the vessels, before detonating into a ball of flame, sending black smoke into the air.

The targeted tankers were named by Turkish authorities as the Kairos and Virat, both flagged to Gambia. Both were hit off the Turkish coast on Friday, with the Virat reportedly struck again on Saturday. No casualties were reported.

The attacks appear to be an escalation by Kyiv as it tries to hit Russia's oil revenues, which are critical for funding its war in Ukraine.

The two ships are reportedly part of Russia's "shadow fleet" - a term that refers to the hundreds of tankers used by Russia to bypass Western sanctions imposed after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The shadow fleet is largely made up of aged tankers, many with obscure ownership or insurance.

The Kairos was struck in the south-west area of the Black Sea and the Virat in a central area further east. Both are on a list of ships subject to sanctions, according to London Stock Exchange data.

Sources told BBC Ukrainian that Sea Baby drones were used in the attack - a type of naval drone produced by Ukraine's security services, known as the SBU.

Turkish authorities said they had been assisting the vessels, and released footage showing two Turkish boats trying to extinguish the fire on the Kairos.

The attacks are seen as a warning by Ukraine, suggesting that ships carrying Russian oil in the Black Sea face the risk of direct attack, not just Western sanctions.

Separately, a major consortium transporting oil from the Caspian region said it had suspended loading in the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, after an attack by unmanned boats overnight.

The Caspian Pipeline Consortium said the attack had caused significant damage to a mooring point. Russia and Kazakhstan are major stakeholders in the company, which is also part-owned by Western firms like Exxon Mobil, Chevron and Shell.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday that a delegation led by top security official Rustem Umerov was on its way to the US to continue talks on an agreement to end the war.

Umerov is set to lead the Ukrainian delegation after the previous lead negotiator, Zelensky's influential chief of staff Andriy Yermak, resigned after anti-corruption detectives searched his apartment on Friday.

The Ukrainian delegation is expected to meet American officials in Florida on Sunday. Steve Witkoff, US President Donald Trump's overseas envoy, will hold talks in Moscow next week.

BBC
 
Kremlin signals no Ukraine breakthrough after Putin talks with US

Five hours of talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump's senior negotiator appear to have failed to produce a breakthrough on securing a Ukraine peace deal.

A Kremlin spokesman said the Moscow meeting was "constructive", but parts of the plan remained unacceptable to Russia.

Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner attended the talks after weeks of intensive diplomacy aimed at ending the war. The US team has not commented since leaving Moscow.

Earlier on Tuesday, Putin said changes proposed by Kyiv and Europe to a US-backed draft peace plan were unacceptable, adding if Europe "wants to go to war and starts one, we are ready right now".

Ukraine and its allies have been lobbying the US to amend its draft peace deal, which the White House has sought to secure rapid agreement on and the Kremlin has previously indicated it was receptive to.

That plan, which was widely seen as being favourable to Russia after being leaked to the media in November, has undergone several changes in recent weeks.

Asked about the proposal after the Moscow meeting, Putin's senior aide Yuri Ushakov said the Kremlin "agreed with some points… but some things we criticised". He added: "We have not come up with a compromise version yet... A lot of work lies ahead."

Key disagreements between Moscow and Kyiv remain, including over Ukraine agreeing to cede territory it continues to control and security guarantees provided by Europe.

Moscow and Ukraine's European allies also remain starkly at odds over their expectations of what a peace settlement should look like.

Speaking ahead of the talks, Putin lashed out at leaders on the continent who have supported Kyiv's defensive war effort since Russia launched a full-scale invasion in 2022.

He said European leaders were under the illusion they could inflict a strategic defeat on Russia. His country, he said, "wasn't planning to go to war with Europe - but if Europe suddenly wants to go to war and starts one, we are ready right now".

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he expected to be briefed on the Kremlin talks by the US team after the meeting, though it was unclear whether Witkoff and Kushner would fly to Kyiv or other European capitals for further in-person negotiations.

Speaking before the Kremlin talks took place, the Ukrainian leader said on Tuesday there was an opportunity to end the war "now more than ever", but that elements of the proposals still needed to be worked out.

"Everything depends on today's discussions," Zelensky told a press conference during an official visit to Ireland.

Zelensky said there were "no simple solutions", repeating his country's insistence that Kyiv take part in peace discussions, and that clear security guarantees be agreed, such as Nato membership - a move long opposed by Russia and ruled out by Trump.

"We have to stop the war in such a manner that in one year, Russia would not come back", Zelensky added.

Ukrainian representatives have held two rounds of high-level talks on the draft plan in recent weeks, which have been attended by Witkoff, Kushner and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

The White House said the proposals had been "very much refined" as a result, although details of the updated plan have not been confirmed.

Putin - who believes Russia has the initiative on the battlefield - had appeared immovable on his demands as recently as last week, while Zelensky has repeatedly said he would never relinquish control of eastern Ukrainian regions.

While Tuesday's talks were under way, Trump told his cabinet in Washington that the conflict had not been easy to resolve, describing the conflict as "a mess".

In a Fox News interview broadcast on Tuesday, Rubio said the US had "made some progress" in recent weeks, but refused to be drawn on how confident he was that a deal could be reached, saying much rested with the Russian president.

He continued: "The decisions have to be made, in the case of Russia, by Putin alone - not his advisers, Putin only. Putin can end this war on the Russian side."

Kyiv's European allies had countered the US-backed 28-point plan with their own document - removing many of the most contentious elements, such as Washington's recognition of Donetsk and Luhansk as de facto Russian.

Zelensky had met French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday, with several European leaders joining the meeting virtually.

Macron said there was "no finalised plan to speak of" and that it could only be achieved with input from Ukraine and Europe.

Meanwhile, fighting continued on the front lines on Tuesday. Ukraine's military said it was still engaging Russian troops in the key eastern city of Pokrovsk - contradicting Moscow's claim to have captured it.

Russia's Ministry of Defence shared a video on Telegram claiming to show its troops holding up flags in the strategically important city, which they have been trying to seize for over a year.

Ukraine's eastern military command claimed Russia had tried to "flag-plant" in the city so that "propagandists" could say it had been captured. "They fled in a hurry, and the mopping up of enemy groups continues," it said in a statement on social media.

Ukraine's military said its forces still controlled the northern part of the city, with Russian units suffering heavy losses, while international observers also disputed Russia's claim to the area.

The military in Kyiv also dismissed Russia's claims to have captured the north-eastern Ukrainian border town of Vovchansk and said it had "significantly improved" its position in the northeastern city of Kupyans, which Russia claimed to have conquered a fortnight ago.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022, tens of thousands of soldiers have been killed or injured - alongside more than 14,000 civilians, according to the UN.

Civilian targets including kindergartens, hospitals and residential buildings have been destroyed or heavily damaged by nightly drone or missile attacks.

The conflict between the two ex-Soviet states stretches back to 2014 when Ukraine's pro-Russian president was overthrown and Russia responded by annexing Crimea and supporting armed uprisings in eastern Ukraine.

BBC
 
Ukraine and US negotiators to meet in Florida after Moscow talks, White House says

US special envoy Steve Witkoff will meet the head of Ukraine's national security council, Rustem Umerov, for talks in Miami on Thursday, the White House has confirmed.

The meeting comes after Witkoff spent almost five hours with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Tuesday, negotiations which the Kremlin said produced "no compromise" on ending the war in Ukraine.

US President Trump said the talks - also attended by his son-in-law Jared Kushner - were "reasonably good", but added that it was too soon to say what would happen because "it does take two to tango."

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybhia said Russia must "end the bloodshed", and accused Putin of "wasting the world's time".

When asked by a reporter whether Witkoff and Kushner believed Putin genuinely wanted to end the war, Trump said: "[Putin] would like to end the war. That was their impression."

Earlier on Wednesday, Zelensky had said a meeting between US and Ukrainian negotiators would take place "in the coming days".

In a statement on X, Zelensky said: "Right now, the world clearly feels that there is a real opportunity to end the war."

But he added that negotiations must be "backed by pressure on Russia".

The US-Russia talks at the Kremlin followed days of US meetings with Ukrainian and European leaders, after concerns had been expressed that the draft of a peace deal was too slanted towards Russia's demands.

"Some of the US proposals look more or less acceptable, though they need to be discussed further", Ushakov said, while adding that others had been openly criticised by Russia's leader.

Although Ushakov did not elaborate further, at least two major points of contention remain between Moscow and Kyiv - the fate of Ukrainian territory seized by Russian forces and security guarantees for Ukraine.

Kyiv and its European partners believe that, even in the event of a peace deal, the most effective way to deter Russia from attacking again in the future would be to grant Ukraine membership of Nato.

Russia is vehemently opposed to such a proposal, and Trump too has repeatedly signalled he has no intention of letting Kyiv into the alliance.

The prospect of Ukraine joining Nato was a "key question" that was tackled in Moscow, the Kremlin said on Wednesday.

Ushakov, a senior foreign policy adviser to Putin, implied that the Russian negotiating position had been strengthened thanks to recent successes on the battlefield.

Russian soldiers had "helped make the assessments of our foreign partners regarding the paths to a peace settlement more appropriate," he said.

Ahead of the US visit to the Kremlin, Putin was filmed in army fatigues at a Russian command post, being briefed by commanders claiming the conquest of the key strategic city of Pokrovsk, in eastern Ukraine, as well as other nearby settlements.

Fighting in Pokrovsk is continuing and Russian forces do not control the whole city, but Russian officials clearly believe their message of military gains has been heard by the US.

Russian forces have made some incremental advances in the east and appear to have stepped up their campaign in recent weeks. They seized about 701 sq km (270 sq miles) of Ukrainian territory in November, according to AFP analysis of data from the US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW), and they now control 19.3% of Ukrainian territory.

The Kremlin on Wednesday said Putin was ready to keep meeting with the Americans "as many times as needed".

But as Russian-American relations appear to grow more cordial, the gulf between Moscow and Europe widens.

Putin has accused Europe of sabotaging Russia's relations with the US, of putting forward demands Moscow could not accept and of blocking the peace process. Shortly before meeting Witkoff and Kushner, Putin told a forum in Moscow that while he did not want conflict with Europe, he was "ready for war".

UK government officials rejected Putin's message as "yet more Kremlin claptrap from a president who isn't serious about peace".

Nato foreign ministers met in Brussels on Wednesday and Secretary-General Mark Rutte said that it was positive that peace talks were taking place but Ukraine had to be put in "the strongest position to keep the fight going".

EU member states have reached a deal with members of the European Parliament to make Europe fully independent of Russian gas before the end of 2027.

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen hailed "the dawn of a new era", under a deal that means long-term gas pipeline contracts with Russia will be banned from September 2027 and long-term contracts for liquefied natural gas will be banned from January 2027.

"We've chosen energy security and independence for Europe. No more blackmail. No more market manipulation by Putin. We stand strong with Ukraine," EU Energy Commissioner Dan Jorgensen said on Wednesday.

The Commission is also proposing to raise €90bn for Ukraine to fund its military and basic services while Russia's war continues.

The plan would either require Belgium to agree to a "reparations loan" using frozen Russian assets held in a financial institution in Brussels, or the money would be funded by international borrowing.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko has welcomed the proposal, which would cover two-thirds of Ukraine's financing needs for the next two years.

Belgium has resisted the plan to use frozen assets held on its territory, over concerns about legal repercussions from Moscow. The European Central Bank (ECB) has also opposed the idea, saying it would not act as a backstop for a reparations loan.

The proposed loan is smaller than the planned €140bn loan initially planned and German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said "we support this and, of course, take Belgium's concerns seriously".

Meanwhile in New York on Wednesday, the United States joined 90 other countries at the United Nations to demand Russia "ensure the immediate, safe and unconditional return of all Ukrainian children who have been forcibly transferred or deported", urging Moscow to stop the practice.

According to the Ukrainian government, more than 19,000 Ukrainian children have been forcibly deported to Russia. The UK government estimates that some 6,000 Ukrainian children have been relocated to a network of "re-education camps" in Russia.

In 2023, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Putin, in part for the unlawful deportation of children. Putin and his government deny the charges.

BBC
 
Putin says Russia will take Donbas by force or Ukraine's troops will withdraw

President Vladimir Putin has warned again that Ukrainian troops must withdraw from Ukraine's eastern Donbas region or Russia will seize it, rejecting any compromise over how to end the war in Ukraine.

"Either we liberate these territories by force, or Ukrainian troops will leave these territories," he told India Today. Moscow controls some 85% of Donbas.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has ruled out ceding territory.

Putin's comments come after Donald Trump said his negotiators discussing a US peace plan believed Russia's leader "would like to end the war" after Tuesday's talks in Moscow.

Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff, who was in Moscow, was due to meet Ukraine's team in Florida.

Trump said Tuesday's talks in the Kremlin were "reasonably good", adding it was too soon to say what would happen as "it does take two to tango".

The original iteration of the US peace plan proposed to hand over areas of the Donbas still under Ukrainian control to the de facto control of Putin - but the Witkoff team presented a modified version in Moscow.

In his India Today interview ahead of a state visit to Delhi, Putin said he had not seen the new version before his talks with Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law.

"That's why we had to go over every point, that's why it took so long," the Kremlin leader said.

He also said Moscow disagreed with parts of the US plan.

"At times we said that yes, we can discuss this, but to that we can't agree," Putin said.

He did not name the sticking points. At least two significant points of contention remain - the fate of Ukrainian territory seized by Russian forces and security guarantees for Ukraine.

Putin's senior foreign policy adviser and key negotiator Yuri Ushakov earlier said straight after the talks that they produced "no compromise" on ending the war.

Ushakov also implied that the Russian negotiating position had been strengthened thanks to what Moscow said were its recent successes on the battlefield.

Ukraine has repeatedly accused Russia of stalling any ceasefire agreements, saying Moscow is seeking to seize more Ukrainian territory.

Commenting on the Kremlin talks, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybhia said Putin was "wasting the world's time".

Ukraine has long insisted on firm security guarantees for Ukraine in any deal.

On Wednesday, Zelensky said "the world clearly feels that there is a real opportunity to end the war" - but negotiations must be "backed by pressure on Russia", which Kyiv and its European allies accuse of deliberately stalling any ceasefire agreements.

The Ukrainian president said last week his top negotiators had managed to make some key changes in the original US peace plan - seen as strongly favouring Moscow - during talks with an American delegation in Geneva on 23 November.

In a joint statement, US and Ukrainian negotiators said at the time that they had drawn up an "updated and refined peace framework" - but provided no further details.

Top negotiators from Europe - who had voiced concern over the original US plan - were also in the Swiss city last week, meeting separately with the Ukrainian and the US teams.

In a separate development on Thursday, Germany's Der Spiegel news website said it had obtained a confidential transcript of a conference call in which European leaders expressed concern over the US negotiations.

"There is a possibility that the US will betray Ukraine on the issue of territory without clarity on security guarantees," French President Emmanuel Macron reportedly said, according to an English transcript of Monday's conference call.

Meanwhile, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz was quoted as warning that Zelensky had to be "extremely careful in the coming days".

"They are playing games, both with you and with us," Merz reportedly said.

Finnish President Alexander Stubb was also quoted as saying: "We mustn't leave Ukraine and Volodymyr alone with these guys."

The BBC has not seen the reported transcript.

In response to a Der Spiegel inquiry, France's Élysée Palace stated that "the president did not express himself in those terms". The presidential office declined to provide details on how Macron expressed himself, citing confidentiality.

Stubb declined to comment to Der Spiegel, and Merz has not commented on the issue.

In a statement to the BBC, the White House said: "Secretary [Marco] Rubio, Special Envoy Witkoff, Mr Kushner, and the President's entire national security team are working tirelessly to stop the killing between Russia and Ukraine."

"They have held productive meetings to gather feedback from both sides on a plan that can foster a durable, enforceable peace," the statement read.

Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and Moscow currently controls about 20% of Ukrainian territory.

In recent weeks, Russian troops have been slowly advancing in south-east Ukraine, despite reported heavy combat casualties.

BBC
 
US and Ukraine negotiators say 'real progress' toward peace depends on Russia

Top negotiators from the US and Ukraine said on Friday that they had constructive discussions on ending the Ukraine war, but the path toward peace depended on Russia.

"Real progress toward any agreement depends on Russia's readiness to show serious commitment to long-term peace, including steps toward de-escalation and cessation of killings," US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner said in a joint statement with Ukraine's negotiators.

During the meeting, the two sides "agreed on the framework of security arrangements" and discussed deterrence.

Talks in Moscow on Tuesday did not lead to a compromise on a possible peace deal in the near four-year war.

The two-day meeting between Witkoff and Kushner and Ukraine's national security secretary, Rustem Umerov, and Brig Gen Andriy Hnatov was the sixth round of talks in two weeks. They will meet again in Florida on Saturday.

In the statement the four said Ukraine's priority is "securing a settlement that protects its independence and sovereignty, ensures the safety of Ukrainians, and provides a stable foundation for a prosperous democratic future".

They also discussed the US meeting earlier this week with Russian President Vladimir Putin, as well as Ukraine's post-war future, which includes reconstruction of the battered country and economic initiatives with the US.

Reaching a ceasefire and de-escalating tensions are needed to "prevent renewed aggression and to enable Ukraine's comprehensive redevelopment plan, designed to make the nation stronger and more prosperous than before the war," they said.

At least two major points of contention remain between Moscow and Kyiv - the fate of Ukrainian territory seized by Russian forces and security guarantees for Ukraine.

Witkoff spent almost five hours with Putin in Moscow on Tuesday in negotiations that the Kremlin said produced "no compromise" on ending the war. Kushner, a businessman and real estate investor who advised Trump during the president's first term, was also in attendance.

Trump said those talks were "reasonably good", but it was too soon to say what would happen.

On Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said "the world clearly feels that there is a real opportunity to end the war", but negotiations must be "backed by pressure on Russia".

BBC
 

Russia bombards Ukraine as US says progress made in talks with Kyiv​


Russia has launched a major aerial bombardment against Ukrainian infrastructure targets as talks between the US and Ukraine in Florida are set to enter a third day.

Overnight Russia launched 653 drones and 51 missiles, most of which were downed, authorities said. One strike hit a railway hub at the town of Fastiv outside Kyiv, destroying the main station building and damaging rolling stock.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said the attack had been "meaningless from a military point of view, and the Russians could not have been unaware of this".

Earlier US and Ukrainian negotiators urged Russia to show a "serious commitment to long-term peace" after talks in Moscow failed to produce a breakthrough.

Moscow has intensified attacks on Ukraine's energy sector and infrastructure in recent weeks.

On Saturday Ukraine's energy ministry said Russian attacks had hit energy facilities in eight regions, causing blackouts.

Meanwhile the UN's nuclear watchdog said the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant temporarily lost all external power overnight - the 11th time this has happened since Russia's full-scale invasion of its neighbour.

The Russian defence ministry said it had launched a "massive strike" in response to what it called Ukrainian attacks on civilian targets.

"Russia continues to disregard any peace efforts and instead strikes critical civilian infrastructure," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said.

"This shows that no decisions to strengthen Ukraine and raise pressure on Russia can be delayed. And especially not under the pretext of peace process," he added.

In Florida, a statement posted by US special envoy Steve Witkoff said two days of talks with Rustem Umerov, secretary of Ukraine's national security council, had been "constructive".

Witkoff and Umerov "agreed on the framework of security arrangements" that could such an agreement and "discussed necessary deterrence capabilities to sustain a lasting peace", their statement said without giving details.

The prospect of ending the war depended on Russia's readiness to take "steps towards de-escalation and cessation of killing", the statement added.

The negotiations, which are also attended by US President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, will continue for a third day on Saturday.

The Florida talks saw Ukraine's team briefed on a recent meeting between Witkoff, Trump's most senior overseas envoy, and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Witkoff spent almost five hours with Putin in Moscow on Tuesday, after which the Kremlin said "no compromise" had been reached on a draft US peace plan.

The Kremlin said Putin was ready to continue meeting the Americans "as many times as needed", but Ukraine and its allies in Europe have called into question the Russian leader's commitment to ending the war.

On Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he wanted to "obtain full information about what was said in Moscow and what other pretexts Putin has come up with to drag out the war".

Kyiv pushed for revisions to the initial US peace plan, which was widely seen as favourable to Moscow when an initial version leaked to the media. An updated version has not been shared publicly.

Major points of contention remain between the two sides, including security guarantees for Ukraine post-war and territorial concessions.

Russia currently controls roughly one-fifth of Ukraine's territory, including swathes of the Donbas area in the east – made up of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

In an interview with India Today on Friday, Putin warned Ukrainian troops to withdraw fully from the region this week, saying Russia would otherwise "liberate these [Donbas] territories by force".

Kyiv and its European allies believe the most effective way to deter Russia from attacking again in the future would be to grant Ukraine membership of Nato, or to provide comprehensive security guarantees.

Russia is staunchly opposed, while Trump too has repeatedly signalled he has no intention of letting Ukraine join the military alliance.

The prospect of Ukraine joining Nato was a "key question" that was tackled in Moscow, the Kremlin said on Wednesday.

Trump said those talks were "reasonably good", but it was too soon to say what would happen as "it does take two to tango".

www.bbc.com

Russia bombards Ukraine as US says progress made in talks with Kyiv

President Zelensky says an attack on a rail hub near Kyiv was "meaningless from a military point of view".
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com
 
Ukrainian city hit by 'massive' strike as peace talks in US conclude

Russia continued its air strikes on Ukraine overnight, hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he had a "very constructive" phone call with Donald Trump's negotiating team following three days of talks in Florida.

Early on Sunday the mayor of Kremenchuk, a major industrial hub in central Ukraine, said the city had been repeatedly struck in a "massive" attack. No deaths have been confirmed so far.

Meanwhile, Russia said it had shot down 77 Ukrainian drones in several locations.

Aerial assaults have continued even as efforts to negotiate an end to the war have intensified, including detailed Ukraine-US talks in Miami aimed at drafting a peace settlement acceptable to both sides.

On Saturday, Zelensky said he was "determined" to continue working with the US after speaking to Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, and the US president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, at the conclusion of those negotiations.

Zelensky said they had discussed how to ensure that Russia stuck to any potential deal to end the war.

Hours later, Kremenchuk Mayor Vitaliy Maletsk said his city had sustained a "massive combined strike" on its infrastructure. The extent of the damage was unclear as of Sunday morning but the mayor said water, electricity and heat had been cut off for some.

The city, which is roughly halfway between Kyiv and the frontline in the east, has been repeatedly targeted since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

The White House has pushed Kyiv and Moscow to agree to a multi-point plan to end the war but there has been little sign of a breakthrough, despite both sides engaging with the US-led process.

"Ukraine is determined to keep working in good faith with the American side to genuinely achieve peace," Zelensky said on X.

"We covered many aspects and went through key points that could ensure an end to the bloodshed and eliminate the threat of a new Russian full scale invasion."

The Russian strikes in the early hours of Sunday followed a wider attack 24 hours earlier, which drew condemnation from Kyiv's European allies.

In a social media post, French President Emmanuel Macron said he had spoken to Zelensky and offered his "full solidarity".

"France is determined to work with all partners to secure de-escalation measures and to impose a ceasefire," Macron added.

Macron, Zelensky, UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz are due to hold in-person talks in London on Monday.

Europe has pushed back against early versions of the US-led peace plan and has sought to win support from the White House for its own proposals, including comprehensive security guarantees for a post-war Ukraine, including the possibility of a peacekeeping force.

Sir Keir has led the push for a so-called coalition of the willing, a loose collection of Ukrainian allies who are committed to continuing to underwrite Kyiv's defence in the event of a ceasefire to deter a second invasion. He has called that proposal "vital" for Ukraine's long-term security.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has rejected the idea of such a force saying any troops deployed to Ukraine would be "legitimate targets".

Also on Saturday, US and Ukrainian negotiators urged Russia to show a "serious commitment to long-term peace".

The joint statement was issued days after Witkoff returned from talks with Putin at the Kremlin which failed to produce a breakthrough.

Witkoff and Rustem Umerov, newly installed as Zelensky's most senior negotiator, said they had "agreed on the framework of security arrangements" and "discussed necessary deterrence capabilities to sustain a lasting peace".

BBC
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Cricket Warrior
Pakistan (131/3) cruise past Sri Lanka (128/7) by 7 wickets in third match of the T20I Tri-Series
2 3 4
Replies
297
Views
2K
shamaan
S
Cricket Warrior
Sri Lanka (184/5) edge past Pakistan (178/7) by 6 runs in the sixth match of the Tri-Series in Rawalpindi
2
Replies
156
Views
2K
Human786
H
Bhaijaan
The Swing State of the Century: Why Global Geopolitics Now Runs Through India?
Replies
38
Views
782
Hikaru
Hikaru
Cricket Warrior
Pakistan battle to stay in the contest, reaching 94/4 with a 23-run lead on Day 3 of the second Test against South Africa
8 9 10
Replies
796
Views
7K
DeadlyVenom
D
MenInG
The mystic, the cricketer and the spy: Pakistan’s game of thrones (Economist)
Replies
9
Views
371
Bewal Express
B
Back
Top