Russia launches major aerial attack on Kyiv hours before high-level talks on support for Ukraine

Japan Today

2 days ago

By EMMA BURROWS and ILLIA NOVIKOV
Russia unleashed one of its largest aerial assaults on Ukraine in recent months hours before the UK and Germany chaired a meeting on Monday to discuss U.S. President Donald Trump's plans for NATO allies to provide Ukraine with weapons.
The attack killed two people and wounded 15, including a 12-year-old, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
A drone struck the entrance to a subway station in Kyiv's Shevchenkivskyi district where people had taken cover. Videos posted on social media showed the station platform engulfed by smoke, with dozens of people inside. Kyiv Mayor Vitalii Klitschko said the station had to be ventilated in what he called an 'enhanced mode.'
The heaviest strikes hit the city's Darnytskyi district, where a kindergarten, supermarket and warehouse facilities caught fire.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot, who arrived in Kyiv on Monday for talks with Zelenskyy, visited some of the damaged area.
Zelenskyy and Barrot spoke about expanding defense cooperation, including a decision by French companies to start manufacturing drones in Ukraine, and advancing Ukraine's path toward European Union membership, the Ukrainian leader said on social media.
The overnight drone and missile assault on Kyiv underscored the urgency of Ukraine's need for further Western military aid, especially in air defense, a week after Trump said deliveries would arrive in Ukraine within days.
The virtual meeting of high-level military officials Monday was led by British Defense Secretary John Healey and his German counterpart Boris Pistorius. U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and NATO leader Mark Rutte, as well as NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe, Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, attended the meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group.
Moscow has intensified its long-range attacks on Ukrainian cities, and analysts say the barrages are likely to escalate as Russian drone production expands.
Ukraine's new Defense Minister Denys Shmyhal urged allies to speed up deliveries of American air defense systems under the plan put forward by Trump.
'I request the U.S. to make these weapons available for purchase, and our European partners to extend all the needed financing for their procurement,' Shmyhal, who until recently served as prime minister, said as the meeting began.
Trump's arms plan, announced a week ago, involves European nations sending American weapons, including Patriot air defense missile systems, to Ukraine via NATO — either from existing stockpiles or buying and donating new ones.
In an shift of tone toward Russia, Trump last week gave Moscow a 50-day deadline to agree to a ceasefire or face tougher sanctions.
At Monday's meeting, Healey was expected to urge Ukraine's Western partners to launch a '50-day drive' to get Kyiv the weapons it needs to fight Russia's bigger army and force Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table, the UK government said in a statement.
NATO's Grynkewich told The Associated Press that 'preparations are underway' for weapons transfers to Ukraine while U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker said he couldn't give a time frame.
European Commissioner for Defense and Space Andrius Kubilius visited Washington on Monday ahead of talks with U.S. officials about European defense and support for Ukraine.
Speaking to reporters, he said he welcomed Trump taking a harder line on Putin, calling it 'a new opening in how we can support Ukraine.'
'We need to understand that if you combine American economic power and European economic power we are something like 20 times Russia's power,' Kubilius said. 'We need political will.'
Germany has said it offered to finance two new Patriot systems for Ukraine and raised the possibility of supplying systems it already owns and having them replaced by the U.S.
But delivery could take time, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz suggested, because 'they have to be transported, they have to be set up; that is not a question of hours, it is a question of days, perhaps weeks."
Other Patriot systems could come thanks to Switzerland, whose defense ministry said Thursday it was informed by the U.S. Defense Department that it will 'reprioritize the delivery" of five previously ordered systems to support Ukraine.
While Ukraine waits for Patriots, a senior NATO official said the alliance is still coordinating the delivery of other military aid — such as ammunition and artillery rounds — which includes aid from the U.S. that was briefly paused. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
Speaking in a video address, Zelenskyy said that another round of talks between Ukrainian and Russian delegations was planned for Wednesday. He said he discussed the preparations with Rustem Umerov, who led the Ukrainian team in the previous two rounds, but didn't give further details.
The previous negotiations were held in Istanbul, and Russian media reports said it would likely remain the host city. The talks in May and June led to a series of exchanges of prisoners of war but produced no other agreements.
The overnight Russian barrage of Kyiv began shortly after midnight and continued until around 6 a.m. Residents of the capital were kept awake by machine-gun fire, buzzing drone engines and multiple loud explosions.
It was the first major attack on Kyiv since Trump's special envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, arrived in the city last Monday. Russia halted strikes on Kyiv during his visit.
Russia's Ministry of Defense said its attack used drones and Kinzhal hypersonic missiles. It said that the barrage successfully targeted airfield infrastructure and Ukraine's military-industrial complex.
Ukraine's air force said Russia launched 426 Shahed and decoy drones overnight Monday, as well as 24 missiles of various types. It said 200 drones were intercepted with 203 more jammed or lost from radars.
Ukraine, meanwhile, continued to deploy its domestically produced long-range drones. Russia's Ministry of Defense said that its forces shot down 74 Ukrainian drones overnight, with almost a third of them destroyed close to the Russian capital. Twenty-three drones were shot down in the Moscow region, the ministry said, 15 of which were intercepted over the city itself.
Associated Press writers Jill Lawless in London, David Klepper in Washington, Geir Moulson in Berlin and Stephen McGrath in Bucharest, Romania contributed to this report.
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