Russian forces attacked the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv with missiles early on Tuesday, officials said, with initial reports saying apartment blocks and other buildings had suffered damage. Officials reported Russian air attacks on other Ukrainian regions, including Kharkiv, the country’s second-largest city, where the regional governor said two people were injured. Witnesses reported loud explosions in Kyiv after midnight and said missiles and drones were being deployed. Several apartment buildings, an education establishment and a commercial building had been damaged in districts east of the Dnipro River, the city’s military administration chief, Tymur Tkachenko, said on Telegram. Mayor Vitali Klitschko said a building housing a kindergarten had been set on fire and he ordered emergency medical crews to affected parts of the capital. The governor of south-eastern Dnipropetrovsk region said his region was also under attack and anti-aircraft units were in action in neighbouring Zaporizhzhia region.
Donald Trump said earlier that his administration may have some good news soon on its push to end the war in Ukraine. “I think we’re doing very well with Ukraine and Russia. For the first time, I’m saying that,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday. “I think we’re going to, maybe, have some good news.”
Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday that Russia had largely observed a temporary ceasefire on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. Russia had not carried out any targeted missile or drone strikes on the infrastructure in the past 24 hours but steady Russian shelling had hit energy facilities near the front line, the Ukrainian president said. “The de-escalation measures … are helping to build public trust in the negotiation process and its possible outcome. The war needs to be ended.”
Zelenskyy said Russia’s continued shelling of Ukrainian positions and logistics had damaging transmission lines and other sites in parts of the south-eastern Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia regions. Speaking in his nightly video address on Monday, he said the pause in strikes on energy infrastructure underscored the fact that US efforts to pursue negotiations to end the war were having an impact. “This demonstrates that when the United States has the motivation to genuinely change the situation, the situation can indeed change.”
Zelenskyy said it was “realistic to achieve a dignified and lasting peace”, ahead of the next round of peace talks with Russian and US officials due this week in Abu Dhabi. “Ukraine is ready for real steps,” he said. The talks are scheduled to take place over two days from Wednesday. A White House official said Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff would attend. Zelenskyy said the Ukrainian delegation would also hold bilateral meetings with US officials during the two days.
Russia has repeated that it would regard the deployment of any foreign military forces or infrastructure in Ukraine as unacceptable foreign intervention and treat those forces as legitimate targets, the Russian foreign ministry said on Monday, citing foreign minister Sergei Lavrov. Moscow has repeatedly said it will not tolerate such troops’ presence there.
The EU’s decision last week to ban Russian gas imports was “100% legally sound”, the bloc’s energy commissioner said, adding it would prevent Russia from weaponising energy. “We’ve said we will no longer help indirectly finance [Russian president Vladimir] Putin’s war in Ukraine by buying gas there,” Dan Jorgensen told reporters in Lisbon on Monday after meeting with Portugal’s energy minister. “That also means it’s no longer possible for Russia to blackmail EU member states to weaponise energy against us.”
Germany has detained five people suspected of operating a network that exported goods to Russian defence companies, contravening EU sanctions imposed over the war, German federal prosecutors said on Monday. The federal prosecutors’ office estimated the group had allegedly arranged 16,000 shipments, worth a combined €30m ($36m) since February 2022, and that Russian state agencies were suspected of directing the procurement activities. The Russian embassy in Berlin did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the accusations.
