Ukraine war briefing: Zelenskyy decries ‘absolutely unjust’ lack of warning from allies after Kyiv plant strike

A Russian ballistic missile struck a power plant in Kyiv on Tuesday evening without Ukraine receiving advance warning from its western allies, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. The president said Ukraine’s systems picked up the missiles only as they were nearing the city. “This is absolutely unjust: when they are destroying our infrastructure, and Ukraine is not even receiving early warnings about ballistic missile launches,” he added. US officials made explicit threats over the weekend to their Ukrainian counterparts that the Trump administration was on the brink of halting intelligence sharing with Kyiv.

Donald Trump has denied intelligence sharing had stopped, telling reporters on Tuesday: “We are helping them, and we are sharing intel. We want the war to end, so we’re working with them and Russia on getting the war to end.” Trump has demanded that Ukraine stop attacking Russian oil refineries and has blamed Zelenskyy for the rise in fuel prices in the US. On Friday the US president announced a deal with Vladimir Putin to import diesel from Russia, dropping previous US sanctions.

Two people also died in a strike on a high-rise apartment building in the capital on Tuesday night, according to Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko, who said apartments were on fire and being evacuated. A further 21 injuries were reported. Emergency ‌crews were battling fires in apartments throughout the building and residents were being ‌evacuated.

Zelenskyy has said he has proposed new talks with ⁠US ​envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. The proposal follows talks in ​the US last week ‌at which Witkoff and Kushner told ‌a Ukrainian delegation that a deal allowing Russian diesel exports was aimed at drawing Moscow back to negotiations. In a video ‌address on Tuesday night, Zelenskyy also reiterated that Ukraine supported president Donald Trump’s proposed ​energy truce as long as Russia observed it. “Our team has sent the American side the ⁠relevant proposals regarding possible next meetings and ​conversations,” he said.

Trump is facing cross-party calls on Capitol Hill to ditch his controversial diesel deal with Russia. A group of six Republican and six Democrat senators has jointly warned that the lifting of sanctions to allow Moscow to sell the fuel is “a gift to our adversary and a betrayal of our allies”. The US president has defended the decision as he seeks to increase supply and so bring down soaring pump prices ahead of critical stateside elections next month, which will decide control of Congress.

The EU has opened new areas of negotiations with Ukraine, marking a key step in Kyiv’s long path to join the bloc. Ukraine took a step forward in ⁠its membership bid on Tuesday, opening talks ⁠on ​internal market and competitiveness standards, Irish minister of state for ⁠European affairs Thomas Byrne said, after Hungary dropped its objections. The move came after Ukrainian lawmakers passed legislation protecting the rights of the Hungarian-speaking minority in western Ukraine, which has long caused tensions with Budapest. Hungary had blocked Ukraine’s EU membership bid, officially submitted days after Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Suspected Russian drones struck two cargo ships off Bulgaria on Tuesday, sinking one vessel and leaving 11 sailors missing in the latest spillover from the Ukraine war in the Black Sea. Bulgarian prime minister Rumen Radev summoned the Russian ambassador after drones struck a Ukrainian-owned cargo ship, the Chelsea 3, while another vessel, the Guinea-Bissau-flagged cargo ship Dignity, was also hit and sank farther north off the coast. Radev called the attacks “absolutely unacceptable” and said Bulgaria was seeking Nato and EU assistance. EU chief Ursula von der Leyen called the attacks “another front of escalation of the Russian war in Ukraine”.

The Russian Defence Ministry on Tuesday said its air defences overnight shot down 604 Ukrainian drones across the country and the Sea of Azov. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said 417 drones targeted the Moscow region. Most were downed far away, while 65 were intercepted as they approached the Russian capital. A school, two private houses and a car were damaged in the attack in the Kaluga region southwest of Moscow, governor Vladislav Shapsha said.