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It comes after Putin’s forces used ballistic missile with cluster munitions to strike Kyiv government building, according to EU ambassador to Ukraine
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Vladimir Putin has told the US he plans to occupy the Donbas region of Ukraine by the end of 2025, Volodymyr Zelensky has claimed.
The Ukrainian president said, in an interview with ABC News aired on Tuesday: “That is, he ]Putin] says that in three to four months, and this is what he told the Americans, the White House, and President Trump‘s representative Witkoff, he said that he would take Donbas in two to three months, maximum four months.”
Zelensky warned that Russia’s plans could cost “years and a million people” if Moscow accelerates its offensive.
It comes as at least 23 civilians queueing for pensions were killed in a Russian airstrike on a village in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.
“Directly on people. Ordinary civilians. At the very moment when pensions were being disbursed,” Zelensky wrote on X, describing the attack on the rural settlement of Yarova as “brutally savage”.
The Ukrainian president shared a graphic video on X showing several dead bodies lying near a destroyed white van.
“A response is needed from the United States. A response is needed from Europe. A response is needed from the G20,” he added.
Poland’s military said it scrambled its own and Nato allied air defences to shoot down Russian drones this morning after they crossed from neighbouring Ukraine.
This is the first time in the Ukraine war that Warsaw has engaged Russian assets in its airspace.
“During today’s attack by the Russian Federation targeting objects on the territory of Ukraine, our airspace was repeatedly violated by drone-type objects,” Poland’s military command said in a statement.
“An operation is underway aimed at identifying and neutralizing these objects… weapons have been used, and service personnel are carrying out actions to locate the downed objects.”
It said the military operation was ongoing and urged people to stay at home, naming the regions of Podlaskie, Mazowieckie, and Lublin as most at risk.
“The Operational Command of the Polish Armed Forces is monitoring the situation, and subordinate forces and units remain on full readiness for immediate response,” it added.
Sir Keir Starmer and Nato chief Mark Rutte said more pressure – including through sanctions – must be heaped on Vladimir Putin to engage with peace talks.
It comes as US President Donald Trump has threatened stronger sanctions against Russia after it carried out the largest aerial attack on Ukraine since the war began.
Sir Keir hosted Mr Rutte at Downing Street on Wednesday afternoon, after the Nato Secretary General joined a meeting of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group (UDCG).
A Downing Street spokeswoman said: “Turning to Ukraine, the leaders reflected on the situation on the frontline and underscored the need to ensure the country received the right military capabilities to keep them in the fight now.
“The Nato Secretary General updated on his discussions at the Ukraine Defence Contact Group (UDCG) earlier today, and both leaders welcomed the efforts by allies to step up support, including through the Coalition of the Willing.
“The military work that had also taken place to integrate US support into the plan for the Coalition of the Willing had progressed well, the leaders agreed.
“However, more pressure, including through sanctions, needed to be applied to Putin to force him to engage meaningfully with peace talks, they added.”
France’s minister for European affairs said on Tuesday that French military support for Ukraine would continue despite political turbulence in Paris, as France awaited the nomination of its fifth prime minister in less than two years.
Benjamin Haddad, who has survived two prime ministers since being named as President Emmanuel Macron’s main interlocutor with European partners a year ago, said his trip to Ukraine on Thursday had been confirmed, whoever was named premier.
“Support for Ukraine is really a transpartisan issue, from the Socialists to the Republicans and the centre,” he told Reuters. “It’s absolutely fundamental for our country’s interest.”
“Our defence budget has been preserved, its increase has been protected over the past few years, and it will continue,” he added. “I’ll be in Ukraine this week, it’s one of the strong messages I will deliver.”
Macron has pledged to provide an extra 2 billion euros in military aid to Ukraine this year.
Haddad declined to speculate on who Macron could name to replace Francois Bayrou, who lost a confidence vote on Monday over how to address a gaping budget deficit.
Government sources said Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu was poised to get the job, signalling continuity.
Poland will close its border with neighbouring Belarus on Thursday at midnight local time to allow Zapad military exercises to take place, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Tuesday.
It comes amis rising tensions between Minsk and Warsaw, with the “Zapad-2025” drills raising security alarms in neighbouring NATO member states Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia.
“On Friday, Russian-Belarusian maneuvers, very aggressive from a military doctrine perspective, begin in Belarus, very close to the Polish border,” Tusk told a government meeting.
“Therefore, for national security reasons, we will close the border with Belarus, including railway crossings, in connection with the Zapad maneuvers on Thursday at midnight.”
Already strained relations between Poland and Belarus have hit new lows since Minsk’s ally Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
At least 23 people have died following a Russian strike in the Donetsk region of Ukraine.
Among the dead are civilians who were queueing for pensions when they were struck.
“Directly on people. Ordinary civilians. At the very moment when pensions were being disbursed,” Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on X, describing the attack on the rural settlement of Yarova as “brutally savage”.
Moscow’s attack on Donetsk on Tuesday comes just days after it launched its biggest aerial attack of the war so far.
On Sunday more than 800 drones and 13 missiles were fired at cities across Ukraine, killing four people including a mother and her three-month-old baby.
It was the latest in a streak of record-breaking strikes against Ukraine in recent months. Below, Bryony Gooch and Nicole Wootton-Cane analyse the data…
A man died as a result of Ukrainian drone attack overnight on the Russian Black Sea city of Sochi, a Russian regional governor said on Tuesday.
Debris from a destroyed drone hit a car the man was driving in the Adler district of Sochi, Krasnodar Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said on the Telegram messaging app.
In addition, six residential houses were damaged, Kondratyev said.
The full-scale of the attack was not immediately known.
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