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Ukrainian authorities are investigating the attack in Dnipropetrovsk
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Ukrainian authorities have launched an investigation after a Russian missile struck and killed several elite Ukrainian soldiers at an awards ceremony.
Ukraine’s Operational Task Force East confirmed that an attack took place on Saturday in Dnipropetrovsk but did not specify how many soldiers in the military formation had been killed.
Dmytro Sviatnenko, a Ukrainian journalist, said in a post on Facebook that his brother – an elite drone operator – was killed during the ceremony.
“He and his comrades were gathered on the parade ground to be awarded. They gathered the best. The best pilots and infantrymen of the brigade. In order of command. In open terrain. Ballistics flew in. The story of negligence repeated itself,” Mr Sviatnenko wrote.
“He endured hell in Krynky, Kurakhove, Marinka, Krasnohorivka … He was killed by Russians. But not on the battlefield. Deep in the rear,” he added.
Four civilians, including an 11 year old and a 14 year old, were also killed in the same missile strike.
Russia struck civilian energy and port infrastructure in a massive overnight drone attack on Ukraine’s southern region of Odesa, its governor said on Tuesday.
“Despite the active work of air defence forces, which destroyed most of the enemy targets, there were hits on civilian port and energy infrastructure facilities,” Oleh Kiper wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
He said that rescuers quickly extinguished the fires and there were no casualties.
Italy summoned Russia’s deputy ambassador on Tuesday to protest at what it said were “vulgar” remarks by Moscow’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, who linked the collapse of a tower in Rome to Italy’s military support for Ukraine.
A Romanian worker was trapped under the rubble after part of a medieval tower near Rome’s Colosseum gave way on Monday. He was later extracted alive, but subsequently died in hospital.
With the rescue operation still underway, Zakharova wrote on her Telegram channel that as long as the Italian government “wastes its taxpayers’ money” on backing Ukraine, the local economy, and its towers, would continue to collapse.
Foreign minister Antonio Tajani denounced her post as “disturbing” and “unacceptable”, adding: “Italy will not alter its foreign policy stance or its principles in response to reckless verbal attacks”.
In a statement later posted on Facebook, the Russian Embassy in Rome expressed its condolences for the death of Romanian worker Octav Stroici.
It added that Moscow had raised concerns with Italy over what it called an “aggressive, deplorable anti-Russian campaign” in the Italian media, triggered by Zakharova’s earlier comments.
Russian and Ukrainian troops fought battles on Tuesday in the ruins of Pokrovsk, a transport and logistics hub in eastern Ukraine that Moscow has been trying to capture for over a year.
Ukraine’s military said fierce fighting was under way in a part of the city that was key for Kyiv’s frontline logistics. It said additional special forces had arrived there, and more weapons and equipment were being sent.
The Russian Defence Ministry said its soldiers had cleared 35 buildings of Ukrainian troops. It also said that Russian forces were squeezing surrounded Ukrainians near the town of Kupiansk in the Kharkiv region, about 100 miles (160 km) to the north.
The Independent was unable to verify the battlefield reports from either side. Ukraine has denied that its troops are encircled in either location.
But DeepState, an authoritative Ukrainian battlefield map, on Tuesday showed that Russian forces had pushed further into Pokrovsk and its environs, though it showed much of it still in grey, beyond firm control of either side.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky urged the United States on Tuesday to remain open to supplying Kyiv with long-range weapons for its war effort against Russia.
Donald Trump has said the US will not be providing Kyiv with Tomahawks after months of suggesting he may do so.
While addressing a European Union summit from the Pokrovsk area of eastern Ukraine, Mr Zelensky also called for more Western sanctions on Russia – including on Russia’s gas and nuclear sectors – and said he wanted Ukraine to join the EU before 2030.
Membership of the European Union by 2030 is a realistic goal for some aspiring countries, the bloc’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said on Tuesday.
In its annual enlargement report, the EU said that Montenegro, Albania, Moldova and Ukraine have all made significant advances this year in the path toward membership.
“Expanding the union is in our best interest,” Ms Kallas told reporters in Brussels.
The International Atomic Energy Agency is constantly working as a mediator between Ukraine and Russia over Ukraine’s nuclear power plants, IAEA chief Rafael Mariano Grossi said on Tuesday in Paris.
The agency is monitoring the compliance of the conditions for the temporary ceasefire around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine, Mr Grossi said.
He added that there is an expanded interest in nuclear power around the world but investments and new projects must abide by non-proliferation rules.
The Zaporizhzhia power plant is currently under Russian occupation, after it took over the area in 2022.
Ukraine’s military units are competing with each other by launching deadly drone attacks to earn points that can be used to buy more weapons.
The video game-style rewards system is proving to be very popular, Ukraine’s first deputy prime minister said, with hundreds of units participating. Launched a year ago, it is now being expanded to reconnaissance, artillery and logistics operations, according to reports.
“It’s become truly popular among units,” deputy prime minister Mykhailo Fedorov told The Guardian. “All the defence forces know about this and there’s competition for the points, for getting these drones, electronic warfare systems and other things to help them in warfighting.
“The more infantry you kill, the more drones you get to kill more infantry. This is becoming kind of a self-reinforcing cycle.”
Bryony Gooch reports:
Volodymyr Zelensky has visited troops fighting near the eastern city of Dobropillia, where Ukrainian forces are conducting a counteroffensive against Russian troops.
“Much attention was given to weapons, scaling up drone production, the needs of brigades and the experience of the 1st Corps of the National Guard of Ukraine ‘Azov’ and other units,” he wrote on X.
The Ukrainian president also shared footage of him speaking with the troops to whom he gave medals.
Germany plans to increase its financial aid for Ukraine by about three billion euros ($3.5 billion) next year, two government sources said on Tuesday, confirming a report in business daily Handelsblatt.
Germany is Europe’s largest contributor of military aid to Ukraine, having provided around 40 billion euros since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. In its 2026 budget, Germany had allocated 8.5 billion euros to Ukraine.
“We will continue our support for as long as necessary to defend against Russia’s war of aggression,” one government source told Reuters.
Germany’s finance and defence ministers will add an extra three billion euros for Ukraine to final 2026 budget adjustments, said the source. This will cover artillery, drones, armoured vehicles, and the replacement of two Patriot systems, the source added.
A second government source told Reuters that Chancellor Friedrich Merz supported the plans which were expected to be agreed.
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