Russia launches 705 drones and 52 missiles at Ukraine overnight, targeting energy facilities. The U.S. and China will “work together” on ending Russia’s war in Ukraine, Trump said after a meeting with Xi. Ukraine’s military disproves Putin’s claims of the troops being surrounded in Kupyansk.
Russia launches 705 drones, 52 missiles at Ukraine overnight, targeting energy facilities
Ukraine’s Air Force said Russia had launched 705 drones and 52 missiles of various types toward the country overnight on Thursday, targeting critical infrastructure. The air defenses shot down or otherwise neutralized 592 drones and 31 missiles.
A critical infrastructure site was damaged in the western region of Ivano-Frankivsk. The city of Burshtyn sustained one of the largest attacks of the war so far.
A critical infrastructure facility and civilian sites were damaged in the central-western region of Vinnytsya. A seven-year-old girl was injured in the attack in the city of Ladyzhyn and later died in hospital of her wounds. Four more people sustained injuries. Ladyzhyn is home to a thermal power plant.
In the western region of Lviv, two energy facilities were damaged.
In the south-eastern region of Zaporizhzhia, the strike damaged critical infrastructure facilities and residential buildings. Two people were killed and 23 others injured, including six children. Russia’s missile attack on the city of Dnipro hit an industrial site.
Private energy company DTEK said its several thermal power plants across the country sustained serious damage. Emergency power cuts were imposed in most of the regions, but were later cancelled.
Reacting to Russia’s major overnight attack, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi said in a post to X: “In many of our regions, emergency and rescue operations are still underway after last night’s Russian attack. It was a complex, combined strike: the enemy used more than 650 drones and over fifty missiles of various types, including ballistic and aeroballistic ones. Many were shot down, but unfortunately, there have been hits.”
“There have also been many vile strikes on energy facilities and civilian life across the regions – Vinnytsia, Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Cherkasy, Poltava, Dnipro, Chernihiv, Sumy, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Lviv regions,” he added.
“All efforts should be made to restore power and water supply as swiftly as possible wherever it’s been disrupted,” Zelenskyi said, adding “Russia continues its terrorist war against life itself, and it’s crucial that every such vile attack on civilians boomerangs back on Russia with concrete consequences — sanctions and real pressure. We count on America, Europe, and the G7 countries not to ignore this Moscow’s intent to destroy everything. New steps are needed to increase pressure – on Russia’s oil and gas industry, its financial system, and through secondary sanctions on those who bankroll this war.”
U.S., China will “work together” on ending Russia’s war in Ukraine, Trump said after Xi meeting
The United States and China will “work together” on ending the war between Russia and Ukraine, U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters abord Air Force One after he departed South Korea where he met Thursday with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
Russia’s war in Ukraine was discussed at length, the president said, adding that he and Xi agreed to work together to get the war “finished.”
“Ukraine came up very strongly. We talked about it for a long time, and we’re both going to work together to see if we can get something done,” Trump said. “We agree the sides are, you know, locked in fighting, and sometimes you have to let him fight, I guess, crazy, but he’s going to help us, and we’re going to work together on Ukraine. Not a lot more we can do.”
Trump said that he didn’t broach China’s continued purchases of oil from Russia.
“He’s been buying oil from Russia for a long time. It takes care of a big part of China,” Trump said. “But we didn’t really discuss the oil. We discussed working together to see if we could get that war finished. You know, it doesn’t affect China. It doesn’t affect us. And I’d like to see it done on the basis.”
“In fact, we make money, and I don’t even want to talk about money. I don’t care about making money in that case,” the president said.
“But, you know, we send weapons to NATO. They buy full price … they give them, probably, to Ukraine for the most part,” Trump continued.
“We’re going to work together to try and get the war with Russia and Ukraine solved,” he said.
Trump and Xi met in South Korea’s Busan Thursday, marking the first bilateral meeting between the two leaders in Trump’s second term.
Ukraine military disproves Putin’s claims of troops being surrounded in Kupyansk
Fierce fighting is raging inside and on the outskirts of Kupyansk in Kharkiv region. Russian forces are trying to establish positions in the northern part of the city, but Ukrainian troops are not encircled there, Ukraine’s Joint Forces Task Force, a grouping operating in the region of Kharkiv, said in a post to Telegram Wednesday.
Claims of Kupyansk being surrounded are “fabrications and fantasies,” it said.
“If Russian dictator Vladimir Putin weren’t a war criminal, one could regret that in his senior years he has to once again make a fool of himself by repeating a lie taken from his generals that even his loyal audience and Russian elites wouldn’t buy,” the message reads.
Russian leader Vladimir Putin claimed Wednesday that Russian troops had surrounded Ukrainian forces in Pokrovsk and Kupyansk and offered to negotiate a deal for their surrender. He suggested that the Russian military was ready to open safe corridors for Ukrainian and Western journalists to “let them see with their own eyes what’s going on,” according to the Associated Press.
Russian Chief of the General Staff Army General Valery Gerasimov at a meeting with Putin and Russian commanders on Sunday claimed that Russian forces had completed the encirclement of Ukrainian forces in the area.
Ukraine’s defense forces destroyed a Russian flag installed on entrance to Pokrovsk, Ukrainian open-source mapping project DeepState said on Wednesday. The city itself is a “large gray zone,” and the situation there is difficult, it added.
Russian forces are amassing in the northern part of Kupyansk and trying to further advance in small groups, spokesperson for Ukraine’s Joint Forces Task Force Major Viktor Trehubov said on national television Tuesday.
