
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,228
Fighting
Ukraine's military claimed an attack on the Borisoglebsk airbase in Russia's Voronezh region, hitting a depot containing glide bombs and training aircraft. Russian officials did not immediately comment on the attack.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said Russian air defences shot down four Ukrainian drones headed for the Russian capital, forcing one of Moscow's main airports to temporarily halt outgoing flights.
This came as Russia's Ministry of Defence said its air defences had intercepted 48 Ukrainian drones in a period of just over five hours into Saturday evening, and 45 more during the day. Earlier, the ministry said that 94 drones had been destroyed over Russia overnight.
In Ukraine, the Air Force said Russia fired 322 drones and decoys into the country overnight into Saturday. Of these, 157 were shot down and 135 were lost, likely having been electronically jammed.
Ukraine's western Khmelnytskyi region was the main target of the attack, according to Ukraine's Air Force. Regional Governor Serhii Tyurin said no damage, injuries or deaths had been reported.
Russian forces occupied the Ukrainian settlements of Zelenyi Kut and Novoukrainka near the administrative border between the Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk regions, Ukrainian military blog DeepState reported on Telegram.
Ukraine's top military commander, Oleksandr Syrskii, warned on Saturday of a possible new Russian offensive in the Kharkiv region, in northeastern Ukraine.
The Kyiv Independent reported that explosions damaged a gas pipeline and destroyed a water pipeline that supplied military facilities in Russia's Vladivostok, citing an unnamed intelligence source.
Politics and diplomacy
After speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday, United States President Donald Trump said Ukraine would need Patriot missiles for its defence. Trump also voiced frustration over Russian President Vladimir Putin's failure to end the fighting.
Trump told reporters he was 'very unhappy' about his earlier call with Putin. 'It just seems like he wants to go all the way and just keep killing people… It's not good. I wasn't happy with it,' he said.
In a post on X, Zelenskyy described his call with Trump as 'extremely fruitful', confirming that the pair 'discussed air defence'.
'I'm grateful for the readiness to assist,' Zelenskyy said. 'Patriot systems are the key to defending against ballistic threats.'
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres strongly condemned Russia's 'large-scale drone and missile attacks' on Ukraine on Friday, describing the attacks as 'reportedly the largest in over three years of war'.
Guterres also expressed alarm at the 'dangerous escalation and the growing number of civilian casualties' as well as concern about disruption to power at the 'Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, once again underlining the ongoing risks to nuclear safety'.
Economy
Bloomberg reported that US investment firm BlackRock paused efforts to raise funds for a multibillion-dollar Ukraine recovery fund after Trump was elected, leading France to step in to work on an alternative fund.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Al Jazeera
2 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
Trump threatens Russia with ‘severe' tariffs, announces Ukraine arms deal
United States President Donald Trump has confirmed the US will send Ukraine more weapons and has threatened to levy steep tariffs on Russia amid his growing frustration over Russia's refusal to negotiate an end to the Russia-Ukraine war. Speaking at the White House on Monday during a meeting with NATO chief Mark Rutte, Trump said the US would be sending 'billions' of dollars in military equipment, including Patriot air defence systems and other missiles. These weapons, said Trump, will be paid for by NATO members. 'In a nutshell, we're going to make top-of-the-line weapons, and they'll be sent to NATO,' said Trump. He added that if Russian President Vladimir Putin fails to sign a peace deal with Ukraine, he will impose 'very severe tariffs' in 50 days, including secondary tariffs of 100 percent. Trump took office with a promise to end the Russia-Ukraine war within 24 hours, and Putin's refusal to ink a peace agreement has increasingly frustrated the US president. While Russia has agreed to brief pauses in fighting, it has refused to accept an unconditional 30-day ceasefire, saying that the proposal would give Kyiv a chance to remobilise its troops and rearm. That has strained the close relationship between Putin and Trump, who last week accused the Russian leader of throwing a lot of 'b******' at the US. Rutte commended Trump's announcement, saying: 'It will mean that Ukraine can get its hands on really massive numbers of military equipment, both for air defence, but also missiles, ammunition, etc. 'If I was Vladimir Putin today, and hear you speaking about what you were planning to do in 50 days, and this announcement, I would reconsider whether I should not take negotiations about Ukraine more seriously than I was doing at the moment.' Trump said he would be pulling Patriot air defence systems from around the world to be sold to NATO countries and distributed by the defence bloc, but he did not say whether the US would also be sending long-range rockets and other offensive weapons. During the press conference, Trump repeatedly expressed his frustration with Putin. 'My conversations with him are always very pleasant … I go home, I tell the first lady: 'I spoke to Vladimir today, we had a wonderful conversation'. She said: 'Oh, really, another city was just hit'.' Trump said that, unlike his predecessors, he wasn't 'fooled' by Putin but that ultimately, talk doesn't talk. It's got to be action … He knows the deal. He knows what a fair deal is.' Melinda Haring, a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council's Eurasia Center, said Trump's about-face came after months of Putin's continued onslaught. 'Trump gave Putin six months. He stuck his neck out, and he said that he was going to make peace. And he also felt like Putin was stringing him along. In addition to those reasons, there were people that were close to the president showing him pictures of Ukraine, of the cities and children that are being harmed every single night,' she said. In Kyiv, Ukrainians are cautiously viewing the announcement as a strong message of support, despite the many unknown details. 'If Patriot batteries really do make their way to Ukraine, then that is going to go a long way to protecting the skies over this country, as it tries to endure almost nightly massive barrages of ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones,' said Al Jazeera's Rory Challands. The Kremlin responded by noting that the West had long provided weapons and equipment to Ukraine and said dialogue remained important to Moscow. But within Russian society, the US-NATO announcement was greeted with disappointment, said Al Jazeera's Yulia Shapovalova. 'There were hopes when Donald Trump came into power that the conflict would end. People saw that Trump had some steps to bring peace to Ukraine to help finish this conflict, but now he's kind of lost his patience,' she said. 'Pro-war sources say: 'You see, we told you that Russia didn't have to trust Donald Trump because he was not Russia's friend.''


Al Jazeera
4 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
Zelenskyy nominates Yulia Svyrydenko as new Ukraine PM
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he has recommended Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko to become prime minister in a significant political shake-up for the war-scarred country. The announcement on Monday could herald a wider reshuffle in the government, three and a half years into the Russian invasion. 'I have proposed that Yuliia Svyrydenko lead the government of Ukraine and significantly renew its work,' Zelenskyy wrote on social media. 'I look forward to the presentation of the new government's action plan in the near future.' The recommendation is part of what he called 'a transformation of the executive branch' of government in Ukraine. The two discussed 'concrete measures to boost Ukraine's economic potential, expand support programs for Ukrainians and scale up our domestic weapons production', Zelenskyy said. Svyrydenko, 39, gained prominence this year during fraught negotiations around a rare minerals deal with the United States that nearly derailed ties between Kyiv and its most important military ally. If the change is approved, she would replace Denys Shmyhal, who became prime minister in 2020. 'The government needs a change because people are exhausted,' said Tymofiy Mylovanov, a former economy minister who worked with Svyrydenko. Mylovanov, who now heads the Kyiv School of Economics, said the changes would likely bring 'a sort of freshness' after more than three years of war. Zelenskyy is also considering naming Defence Minister Rustem Umerov as Ukraine's ambassador to Washington, he said at a news conference last week. Zelenskyy met Umerov over the weekend, after which he said, 'Ukraine needs more positive dynamics in relations with the United States and at the same time new steps in managing the defence sector of our state.' Svyrydenko, who is also a deputy prime minister, was appointed to manage Ukraine's struggling economy months before the Kremlin launched its full-scale assault in February 2022. Her appointment will require approval by parliament, which has largely united around Zelenskyy since the invasion and is unlikely to vote against the president.


Al Jazeera
18 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
Trump says US will send Patriot missiles to Ukraine
United States President Donald Trump has said he will send Patriot air defence systems to Ukraine as his administration signals growing disillusionment with Russian President Vladimir Putin's refusal to negotiate an end to Moscow's invasion. 'We will send them Patriots, which they desperately need,' Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Sunday. 'Putin really surprised a lot of people. He talks nice and then he bombs everybody in the evening,' Trump said. 'So, there's a little bit of a problem there. I don't like it.' Trump's comments come after he last week confirmed that his administration had decided to sell weapons to NATO allies in Europe for them to pass on to Kyiv. Trump is set to meet NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte this week for discussions expected to focus on his plans to supply weapons to Kyiv. Rutte's trip to Washington, DC comes as Trump has teased that he will make a 'major statement' on Russia on Monday. After campaigning on a promise to bring a swift end to the war in Ukraine, Trump has expressed growing frustration with Putin's failure to agree to a peace deal. In some of his strongest criticism yet of Putin, Trump on Tuesday accused the Russian leader of throwing a lot of 'b******' at the US. 'He's very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless,' Trump said. After returning to the White House in January, Trump moved to scale back support for Kyiv, casting Washington's aid as a drain on the US taxpayer and accusing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of being an obstacle to peace. While Ukraine continued to receive weaponry through funds allocated during the tenure of former US president Joe Biden, Trump declined to approve new arms shipments to help Kyiv repel Moscow's invasion. But after months of unsuccessful efforts to broker a peace between Moscow and Kyiv, Trump announced earlier this month that he would begin approving shipments comprised mostly of 'defensive weapons' for Ukraine. Asked on Sunday if his upcoming announcement on Russia would involve sanctions against Moscow, Trump declined to answer but repeated that he was disappointed with Putin. 'I am very disappointed with President Putin. I thought he was somebody that meant what he said,' Trump said. 'And he'll talk so beautifully, and then he'll bomb people at night. We don't like that.'