After a Ukrainian politician was shot dead in Lviv, Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned the attack was “carefully planned”. Meanwhile, Donald Trump is giving Ukraine “deeper-strike capabilities” that “could help them offensively”, says the US ambassador to NATO. Follow the latest below.
Saturday 30 August 2025 20:04, UK
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A man has been killed in Kherson, a Ukrainian official says.
Alexander Prokudin, head of the Kherson Regional Military Administration, said the death of a 74-year-old man was the result of a Russian shelling.
He did not say when today the attack took place, but local officials reported other Russian attacks this evening as well.
We brought you a report earlier that Donald Trump was said to be questioning whether a Ukraine-Russia meeting was still going ahead at all.
Well, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has named five places he says could hold the talks.
After the summit in Washington, Ukraine and its allies have been trying to push ahead with such a meeting, but Moscow has at times resisted.
Amid much speculation over where the meeting can take place with an arrest warrant hanging over Vladimir Putin’s head, Zelenskyy has named five possible locations in his nightly address.
Reports, including our own, have named the locations previously, but it’s pointed Zelenskyy himself is now naming them too.
The Ukrainian leader also said his key adviser Andrii Yermak was in the US, meeting special envoy Steve Witkoff, and Zelenskyy himself would be heading to Europe for more meetings in the week.
Germany’s chancellor has warned that Russia will only stop its war in Ukraine if it is forced for economic and military reasons.
“All efforts of the past weeks have been answered with an even more aggressive approach by this regime in Moscow against the population in Ukraine,” Friedrich Merz said at a regional event of his conservatives in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
“This will also not stop until we ensure together that Russia, at least for economic reasons, and perhaps also for military reasons… can no longer continue this war.”
According to a new report in US media, Donald Trump has questioned whether a meeting between the Ukrainian and Russian leaders will actually happen.
Daily Caller reports the US president said that a trilateral meeting – involving himself, Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Volodymyr Zelenskyy – will still happen however.
“A tri would happen. A bi, I don’t know about, but a tri will happen,” the right-wing outlet reports Trump as saying.
It says he then went on to repeat a previously used analogy comparing Russia and Ukraine to fighting children.
The interview was said to have taken place yesterday.
For context: Trump initially advocated for a trilateral summit before his meeting with Putin in Alaska.
Afterwards, he called for a bilateral summit to take place first without him.
Since then, Russia has delayed and poured cold water on any potential meeting.
We brought you news earlier of EU foreign ministers meeting today in Copenhagen.
High on the agenda, the bloc’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said, was Russia’s war in Ukraine – see our 16.36 post for her remarks.
Speaking after the meeting, Kyiv’s foreign minister Andrii Sybiha thanked his counterparts and said: “There can be no wishful thinking. Russia does not demonstrate any signs of willingness to end the war and engage in a meaningful peace process.”
Kyiv and its European allies have repeatedly warned of Moscow’s lack of action towards ending the war since the summits in Alaska and Washington this month.
Read Sybiha’s full message here…
Earlier this month, there was a flurry of diplomatic developments around the war in Ukraine that left some asking if its end was drawing closer.
US President Donald Trump met first with Russian leader Vladimir Putin and then European leaders, including Ukraine’s Prime Minister Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in Washington.
Trump, at the time, said there would be security guarantees that the US would be a part of in some form.
The news was a noticeable breakthrough, but since then, very little has happened.
Trump claimed there would be a meeting between Zelenskyy and Putin, then all three leaders, but the Kremlin has spent the weeks since pouring cold water on almost every suggestion – including any potential security guarantees.
Our Moscow correspondent Ivor Bennett and Europe correspondent Siobhan Robbins break down if, in the face of all of this, we’re actually any closer to peace…
The EU’s foreign policy chief has outlined the next steps for sanctions against Russia.
Kaja Kallas also hinted at an absence left by the US in supporting efforts against Moscow.
EU foreign ministers met in Denmark today and speaking afterwards, Kallas said she had asked them to submit proposals for another package of sanctions against Russia by next week.
It has previously been said that the package is expected next month.
Kallas also outlined what the next sanctions could be. Options were said to include:
“The goal is to exert maximum pressure on Russia,” Kallas added.
However, she hinted at an absence of support from the US.
“Of course, new actions would be stronger if matched by our partners, including our transatlantic partners,” Kallas added.
For context: Since the summit in Washington earlier this month, European leaders have sought to capitalise on momentum, and apparent support of Donald Trump, but little has materialised.
There have been concerns during Trump’s second term about his willingness to support the Kremlin and repeat its criticisms of Ukraine.
The shooting of a Ukrainian politician in Lviv was “carefully prepared,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned.
We brought you the news earlier that Andriy Parubiy was shot dead in western Ukraine – see our 14.17 post for the latest.
In a statement shared on Telegram, along with a video message, the Ukrainian leader said police were regularly updating him on the case.
“The crime was, unfortunately, carefully prepared. But everything is being done to solve this crime,” he said.
He added he shared his condolences with Parubiy’s family.
What else has Zelenskyy been saying today…
The Ukrainian leader said he had spoken to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Zelenskyy said that Modi had offered to pass on a message to Vladimir Putin and other leaders at the upcoming summit and military parade in Beijing over the need for a ceasefire ahead of any permanent peace.
He also added: “Almost two weeks have passed, and during this time, when Russia should have been preparing for diplomacy, Moscow has given no positive signal – only carried out cynical strikes on civilian targets and killed dozens of our people.”
Russia’s overnight attack was one of the largest since it began its invasion in February 2022.
The Ukrainian air force said Russia launched 537 Shahed-type attack drones and decoys against Ukraine overnight, eight Iskander-M and North Korean KN-23 ballistic missiles and 37 cruise missiles.
This continues a trend in recent months of Moscow upping the size of its overnight strikes on Ukraine.
This month alone has seen three of the largest attacks as Ukraine and its Western allies try to seize on momentum from the summit in Washington with Donald Trump to bring about an end to fighting.
Iranian drones
A key part of Russia’s latest overnight attack were Iranian supplied Shahed drones.
A so-called suicide drone, it earned its name because the drones are flown into targets, exploding on impact.
According to some reports, the drone was first used by the Houthis, an Iranian-backed militia, before Russia.
The drones reportedly cost between $20,000 and $50,000 – making them a relatively cheap method to attack.
A Russian military chief has said that Moscow’s forces are conducting “non-stop offensives” along the frontline.
Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov made the comments in an address published by Zvezda, the official outlet of the Russian Defence Ministry.
He claimed that Russia now controls 99.7% of Ukraine’s Luhansk region, 79% of the Donetsk region, 74% of the Zaporizhzhia region and 76% of the Kherson region.
Publicly, Ukrainian President Volodymyr has said that Russia occupies around 20% of the country in total.
The map below shows the state of the frontline according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), which has mapped the conflict since it began.
Gerasimov also made several claims of military advances across the frontline in the address which Sky News are unable to verify.
It is known that Russia has been making slow progress on the frontline in the east.
However, a recent attempt to penetrate through Ukrainian lines and seize the town of Dobropillya proved unsuccessful.
Kyiv’s forces have since resisted and pushed back the Russian advance, according to the ISW.
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