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Opening summary
Today Volodymyr Zelenskyy will travel to Berlin to meet Friedrich Merz with speculation that the German chancellor could give the go-ahead to send long-awaited Taurus missiles to Ukraine.
However, Merz is facing criticism over such a move from his centre-left coalition partners, the Social Democrats. You can read our report here:
It also comes amid an escalating US-Russian war of words amid no progress towards any meaningful ceasefire.
Last night, top Russian security official Dmitry Medvedev, responding to Donald Trump’s warning that Vladimir Putin is “playing with fire”, said that the only truly bad thing to worry about was “WWIII”. Medvedev wrote on X:
Regarding Trump’s words about Putin “playing with fire” and “really bad things” happening to Russia. I only know of one REALLY BAD thing – WWIII. I hope Trump understands this!
On Wednesday, Zelenskyy said that Ukraine is yet to receive a promised “memorandum” from Russia on its demands for a peace deal. In comments to reporters released on Wednesday, Zelenskyy said Russia had pledged to “convey what they see as the next steps and whether Russia is capable of supporting a ceasefire”, adding that Ukraine would “read their proposals and definitely respond” once it receives them.
More on this story in a moment, but first, here are some other key updates:
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called for a three-way summit with Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. “If Putin is not comfortable with a bilateral meeting, or if everyone wants it to be a trilateral meeting, I don’t mind. I am ready for any format,” Zelenskyy said in comments published on Wednesday.
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Russian defence minister Andrei Belousov said on Wednesday that the US-led Nato military alliance was using the Ukrainian crisis to build up its presence across eastern Europe and the Baltic, Russian news agencies reported.
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Trump’s Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg, called Medvedev’s third world war comment “reckless” and called on Russia to “cease fire immediately” and provide a promised but undelivered peace process memorandum.
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Zelenskyy said Russia is amassing “more than 50,000” troops on the frontline around the north-eastern Sumy border region, where Moscow’s army has captured a number of settlements as it seeks to establish a “buffer zone” inside Ukrainian territory. “Now they are also amassing troops in the Sumy direction. More than 50,000,” Zelensky told reporters on Tuesday, in remarks published on Wednesday.
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A major Ukrainian drone attack late over Tuesday night into Wednesday led to at least two Moscow airports, Vnukovo and Zhukovsky, suspending flights, Russian authorities said. The defence ministry said 112 Ukrainian drones targeted six different regions in the three hours up to midnight.
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Russian drones hit the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, injuring eight people including a child, the regional military governor said on Wednesday morning. Ukraine’s air force issued an air raid alert due to drones across regions including Kharkiv, Sumy, Odesa, Kyiv and others.
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Russian air defences destroyed or intercepted more than 100 Ukrainian drones over various Russian regions, including a swarm of drones heading for Moscow, officials said early on Wednesday, according to Reuters.
Russia in the past week also sent waves of drones to attack Ukrainian cities, including what Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy described as the launch of more than 900 drones over a three-day period ending early on Monday morning.
Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin, writing in a series of posts on the Telegram messaging app, said defence ministry units had repelled 27 drones while they were travelling towards the Russian capital.
Reuters reports that Sobyanin made no mention of casualties or damage, saying only that recovery teams were examining drone fragments at the sites where they hit the ground.
Russia’s defence ministry had earlier said its units had downed 112 drones between 9pm and midnight Moscow time. Fifty-nine of those drones were intercepted over the Bryansk region on the Ukrainian border, with other incidents occurring in five different regions, it said. The governor of Bryansk region reported no casualties, but said a house and six cars had been damaged in the attack.
In Smolensk region, near the Polish border, the regional governor said 11 drones had been downed, with no casualties, reports Reuters.
The three-night Russian drone barrage against Ukraine struck a series of cities and represented one of the biggest such assaults since Moscow launched the full-scale war in early 2022. The strikes on Saturday night killed at least 12 people, Ukrainian officials said, including three children in the region of Zhytomyr, west of Kyiv.
Hours after Zelenskyy spoke, Ukraine unleashed one of its largest ever drone barrages on Russia, firing almost 300 drones at the country, according to the defence ministry in Moscow.
Russian officials reported only minimal damage from the attacks.
On the battlefield, Zelenskyy said that Russia was “amassing” more than 50,000 troops on the frontline around the north-eastern Sumy border region, where Moscow’s army has captured a number of settlements as it seeks to establish what Putin has called a “buffer zone” inside Ukrainian territory.
Russia to announce next talks with Ukraine soon, as Zelenskyy calls for three-way meeting with Trump and Putin
Russia will announce the next round of direct talks between Russia and Ukraine soon Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday.
The neutral status of Ukraine remains one of Russia’s key demands in the peace negotiations, Lavrov added, according to Reuters.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called for a three-way summit with Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.
Russian president Putin rejected calls to meet Zelenskyy in Turkey earlier this month and the Kremlin has said a meeting between the two leaders would only happen after some kind of “agreement” is reached.
The US president, meanwhile, has expressed frustration at both Putin and Zelenskyy for not yet striking a deal to end the war.
“If Putin is not comfortable with a bilateral meeting, or if everyone wants it to be a trilateral meeting, I don’t mind. I am ready for any format,” Zelenskyy said in comments to journalists on Tuesday that were published on Wednesday, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The Ukrainian leader said he was “ready” for a “Trump-Putin-me” meeting, and also urged Washington to hit Moscow with a package of hard-hitting sanctions on its banking and energy sector.
“We are waiting for sanctions from the United States of America,” Zelenskyy said, adding:
Trump confirmed that if Russia does not stop, sanctions will be imposed. We discussed two main aspects with him – energy and the banking system. Will the US be able to impose sanctions on these two sectors? I would very much like that.
The Ukrainian leader had previously appeared to express frustration at Washington for not having announced fresh sanctions on Moscow after Russia rejected a coordinated western appeal for an immediate ceasefire.
Zelenskyy also said that Ukraine is yet to receive a promised “memorandum” from Russia on its demands for a peace deal.
Opening summary
Today Volodymyr Zelenskyy will travel to Berlin to meet Friedrich Merz with speculation that the German chancellor could give the go-ahead to send long-awaited Taurus missiles to Ukraine.
However, Merz is facing criticism over such a move from his centre-left coalition partners, the Social Democrats. You can read our report here:
It also comes amid an escalating US-Russian war of words amid no progress towards any meaningful ceasefire.
Last night, top Russian security official Dmitry Medvedev, responding to Donald Trump’s warning that Vladimir Putin is “playing with fire”, said that the only truly bad thing to worry about was “WWIII”. Medvedev wrote on X:
Regarding Trump’s words about Putin “playing with fire” and “really bad things” happening to Russia. I only know of one REALLY BAD thing – WWIII. I hope Trump understands this!
On Wednesday, Zelenskyy said that Ukraine is yet to receive a promised “memorandum” from Russia on its demands for a peace deal. In comments to reporters released on Wednesday, Zelenskyy said Russia had pledged to “convey what they see as the next steps and whether Russia is capable of supporting a ceasefire”, adding that Ukraine would “read their proposals and definitely respond” once it receives them.
More on this story in a moment, but first, here are some other key updates:
-
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called for a three-way summit with Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. “If Putin is not comfortable with a bilateral meeting, or if everyone wants it to be a trilateral meeting, I don’t mind. I am ready for any format,” Zelenskyy said in comments published on Wednesday.
-
Russian defence minister Andrei Belousov said on Wednesday that the US-led Nato military alliance was using the Ukrainian crisis to build up its presence across eastern Europe and the Baltic, Russian news agencies reported.
-
Trump’s Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg, called Medvedev’s third world war comment “reckless” and called on Russia to “cease fire immediately” and provide a promised but undelivered peace process memorandum.
-
Zelenskyy said Russia is amassing “more than 50,000” troops on the frontline around the north-eastern Sumy border region, where Moscow’s army has captured a number of settlements as it seeks to establish a “buffer zone” inside Ukrainian territory. “Now they are also amassing troops in the Sumy direction. More than 50,000,” Zelensky told reporters on Tuesday, in remarks published on Wednesday.
-
A major Ukrainian drone attack late over Tuesday night into Wednesday led to at least two Moscow airports, Vnukovo and Zhukovsky, suspending flights, Russian authorities said. The defence ministry said 112 Ukrainian drones targeted six different regions in the three hours up to midnight.
-
Russian drones hit the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, injuring eight people including a child, the regional military governor said on Wednesday morning. Ukraine’s air force issued an air raid alert due to drones across regions including Kharkiv, Sumy, Odesa, Kyiv and others.
