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Trump and Zelensky discuss possibility of supplying Ukraine with Tomahawk cruise missiles, reports suggest
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Volodymyr Zelensky has urged Donald Trump to broker a peace deal in Ukraine like he did in the Middle East as he held a “very positive and productive” phone call following a major Russian attack on Kyiv’s energy infrastructure.
Zelensky congratulated Trump for his “outstanding” ceasefire plan in the Middle East after Trump announced first phase of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
“If a war can be stopped in one region, then surely other wars can be stopped as well, including the Russian war,” Zelensky said, calling on Trump to pressure the Kremlin into negotiations.
The two also discussed the potential supply of Tomahawk cruise missiles for Ukraine, Axios reported, citing sources.
The call came as much of the capital, Kyiv, experienced power outages as a result, with Putin’s forces ramping up attacks on on Ukraine’s energy grid in recent weeks as winter approaches.
Meanwhile, US and UK fighter jets joined the Nato mission to patrol the border of Russia, carrying out a 12-hour mission earlier this week.
“This was a substantial joint mission with our US and Nato allies,” British defence minister John Healey said as two Royal Air Force aircraft took part in the mission.
Ukraine’s budget and military needs for 2026 and 2027 are estimated to total around 130 billion euros.
The European Union has already poured in 174 billion euros since the war started in February 2022.
The biggest pot of ready funds available is through frozen Russian assets, most of which is held in Belgium – around 194 billion euros as of June – and outside the EU in Japan, with around 50 billion dollars, and the US, UK and Canada with lesser amounts.
Sir Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said in a joint statement on Friday they were ready to move towards using “in a co-ordinated way, the value of the immobilised Russian sovereign assets to support Ukraine’s armed forces and thus bring Russia to the negotiation table”.
The statement added they aimed to do this “in close co-operation with the United States”.
Ukraine’s General Staff has reported that Russia has lost around 1,121,570 troops since launching its full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022.
The daily update on October 11 noted that 1,060 Russian forces were lost in the past 24 hours alone.
The report also detailed extensive equipment losses on Russia’s side, including:
Hosts of Ukrainian refugees say they are facing “endless bureaucracy” and “horrendous” support from the Home Office, with thousands stuck in limbo over three years after Russia’s invasion of the country.
For Juliet Grover, the daughter of a Jewish refugee who escaped the Nazis, the decision to become a host was personal. She signed up to the ‘Homes for Ukraine’ scheme as soon as the war began in February 2022, firmly believing that providing refuge to those in need was important.
Yet immediately she says she was struck by the difficulties facing host families, with little to zero information and advice given by the UK government.
Holly Evans reports:
The US has been helping Ukraine mount long-range strikes on Russian energy facilities for months in a joint effort to weaken the economy and force President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.
US intelligence has helped Kyiv strike important Russian energy assets, including oil refineries, far beyond the front line, the newspaper said, citing unnamed Ukrainian and U.S. officials familiar with the campaign.
Moscow said this month that Washington and its Nato alliance were regularly supplying intelligence to Kyiv in the war Putin launched in February 2022.
“The supply and use of the entire infrastructure of Nato and the United States to collect and transfer intelligence to Ukrainians is obvious,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters then.
The FT said US intelligence helps Kyiv shape route planning, altitude, timing and mission decisions, enabling Ukraine’s long-range, one-way attack drones to evade Russian air defences.
The United States is closely involved in all stages of planning, it said, citing three people familiar with the operation. A US official was quoted as saying Ukraine selected the targets for long-range strikes and Washington then provided intelligence on the sites’ vulnerabilities.
Early this month two US officials told Reuters that Washington would provide Ukraine with intelligence on long-range energy infrastructure targets in Russia, as it weighs whether to send Kyiv missiles that could be used in such strikes.
The US also asked Nato allies to provide similar support, the US officials said.
A pro-Ukrainian partisan group, Atesh, has claimed responsibility for a sabotage operation targeting railway infrastructure in Russia’s Rostov Oblast, according to a post on Telegram on Saturday.
The group said its operatives destroyed a traffic control cabinet on a railway near Novocherkassk, a line reportedly used by Russian forces to transport military personnel and supplies, according to The Kyiv Independent.
The sabotage disrupted Russian supply lines, creating “a chain reaction of delays” along routes toward the southern frontline, the group claimed.
The Atesh group is known for carrying out sabotage operations in both Russian territory and areas of Ukraine under Russian occupation.
More than 800,000 residents in Kyiv had their power restored on Saturday, following extensive Russian assaults on the nation’s power grid that plunged vast swathes of the country into darkness.
DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy firm, confirmed on Saturday that “the main work to restore the power supply” was complete, though some localised outages persisted across the capital in the wake of Friday’s “massive” Russian attacks.
The barrage of Russian drone and missile strikes on Friday morning injured at least 20 people in Kyiv, damaged residential properties, and triggered blackouts across significant parts of Ukraine.
Prime minister Yulia Svyrydenko characterised the assault as “one of the largest concentrated strikes” against Ukraine’s vital energy infrastructure.
Russia’s Defence Ministry stated on Friday that its strikes had targeted energy facilities supplying Ukraine’s military, without specifying locations.
Russian air defence units destroyed 32 Ukrainian drones overnight, TASS news agency reported on Sunday, citing data from the Russian defence ministry.
President Donald Trump spoke with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday, discussing the possibility of supplying Tomahawk long-range cruise missiles to Ukraine, sources familiar with the call told Axios.
Tomahawks could allow Ukraine to strike deep inside Russia, including Moscow, giving Kyiv a potential bargaining tool to push Vladimir Putin toward negotiations.
Sources said no final decision has been made yet.
The conversation lasted roughly 30 minutes, one source said.
Zelensky described it as “very positive and productive.”
Zelensky also congratulated Trump on the Gaza peace deal.
He emphasised that peace would require Russia’s readiness for diplomacy, which can be achieved through strength.
A White House official confirmed the call.
Trump said earlier this week that he has “sort of made a decision” on selling Tomahawk missiles to Nato allies for potential transfer to Ukraine.
He wants clarity on how Ukraine plans to use the missiles before proceeding.
Zelensky first requested Tomahawks during the UN General Assembly last month, suggesting that simply having them could pressure Russia to negotiate.
In his phone call with Donald Trump, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky urged his US counterpart to broker a peace deal in Ukraine as he did in the Middle East.
“If a war can be stopped in one region, then surely other wars can be stopped as well, including the Russian war,” Zelensky said, as he hailed Trump’s “outstanding” Gaza ceasefire plan.
He called for the US president to pressure the Kremlin into negotiations.
Trump has repeatedly vowed to swiftly broker a peace deal between Kyiv and Moscow, but those ambitions have stalled as Russia continues to reject calls for a ceasefire and intensifies its assaults on Ukraine.
Mr Zelensky said he informed President Trump about Russia’s attacks on Ukraine’s energy system.
“I appreciate his willingness to support us,” he said, praising the discussion as “very positive and productive”.
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