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Kyiv warns Putin will test-launch Russian intercontinental ballistic missile to ‘intimidate Nato, EU and Ukraine’
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Donald Trump hoped for a “productive Monday” to make progress toward a ceasefire in the war in Ukraine with separate phone calls with Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky.
The US president’s renewed effort to end the war in Ukraine will also include calls to Nato leaders.
This comes as Kyiv’s military intelligence agency has warned Russia could test-launch its intercontinental ballistic missile in a drill to intimidate Ukraine, the European Union and Nato member state.
“In order to demonstratively pressure and intimidate Ukraine, and also EU and Nato member states, the aggressor state of Russia intends to make a ‘training and combat’ launch of the RS-24 intercontinental ballistic missile from the Yars complex,” the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine (GUR) said in a statement yesterday.
The launch is ordered to be implemented from Russia’s Sverdlovsk region and the missile’s flight range was more than 10,000km (6,200 miles), GUR has warned.
This comes just hours after Russia marked its deadliest drone attack on Ukraine since the start of the war on Sunday and fired at least 273 drones, killing one woman.
One person was killed and three injured in a Russian attack on the southern city of Kherson late on Sunday.
“A 75-year-old woman sustained fatal injuries after an enemy shell hit her house,” the city’s military administration reported.
A man and a woman who suffered concussion and blast injuries were taken to hospital after the attack.
A Russian drone attack on Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region damage buildings overnight on Monday.
“Early reports indicate that there were strikes by six drones in the Shostka hromada. The infrastructure of a business was damaged,” the region’s military administration wrote.
Emergency operations are ongoing with the full extent of damage yet to be confirmed.
Polish customs seized five metric tons of tires for civilian Boeing aircraft which were due to transit through Belarus and Russia, the country’s National Revenue Administration said this morning, adding such goods are covered by European Union sanctions.
“Officers… discovered during the inspection of a truck in Koroszczyn that the driver was transporting tires used in Boeing civil planes instead of the declared car and bus tires,” the National Revenue Administration said.
“The sender of the goods was a company from Spain, and the recipient was from Azerbaijan. Criminal fiscal proceedings were initiated in connection with customs fraud. The sanctioned goods were detained,” the officials said in a statement.
Western sanctions against Russia have been toughened repeatedly since its full-scale invasion on Ukraine in 2022 without ending the war.
Ukraine’s military has reported another day of heavy fighting along the frontline, with at least 70 clashes between Ukrainian and Russian forces reported so far.
Once again, the heaviest fighting was in the direction of Pokrovsk, according to Ukraine’s military, with Vladimir Putin’s forces making 25 attempts to dislodge Ukrainian troops from their positions in settlements near the Donetsk city, which has been central in Moscow’s sights for months now.
In its daily update, the general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said Ukrainian troops had already repelled 22 attacks on the Povkrovsk axis, with three more confrontations ongoing.
Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky met with US vice president JD Vance, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and European leaders in Rome yesterday, as he intensified his efforts ahead of Donald Trump’s on call with Vladimir Putin.
The Ukrainian president said on X that during his talks with the American officials, they discussed the negotiations in Turkey and that “the Russians sent a low level delegation of non-decision-makers”.
He also said he stressed that Ukraine is engaged in “real diplomacy” to have a ceasefire.
“We have also touched upon the need for sanctions against Russia, bilateral trade, defence cooperation, battlefield situation and upcoming prisoners exchange,” Mr Zelensky said.
“Pressure is needed against Russia until they are eager to stop the war,” he said.
The push came as the Kremlin launched its largest drone barrage against Ukraine since the start of the full-scale invasion in 2022, firing a total of 273 exploding drones and decoys, Ukraine’s air force said yesterday.
The attacks targeted the war-hit nation’s Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk regions.
President Donald Trump is hoping separate phone calls today with Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky will make progress toward a ceasefire in the war in Ukraine.
Mr Trump has expressed his hopes for a “productive day” Monday — and a ceasefire — in a social media post over the weekend. His effort will also include calls to Nato leaders.
Mr Trump said his discussion with Mr Putin would focus on stopping the “bloodbath” of the war.
It also will cover trade, a sign that the US president might be seeking to use financial incentives to broker some kind of agreement after Russia’s invasion led to severe sanctions by the US and its allies that have steadily eroded Moscow’s ability to grow.
Mr Trump’s hope, according to the post, is that “a war that should have never happened will end”.
The Republican president is banking on the idea that his force of personality and personal history with Mr Putin will be enough to break any impasse over a pause in the fighting.
“His sensibilities are that he’s got to get on the phone with President Putin, and that is going to clear up some of the logjam and get us to the place that we need to get to,” said Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff. “I think it’s going to be a very successful call,” he said.
German chancellor Friedrich Merz has said that he, Sir Keir Starmer, France’s Emmanuel Macron and Poland’s Donald Tusk are aiming to speak with Donald Trump ahead of the US president’s planned call with Vladimir Putin likely to take place today.
Mr Merz said he had discussed the issue with US secretary of state Marco Rubio while the two men were attending the inaugural mass of Pope Leo XIV in the Vatican. Mr Merz said he also spoke at length at the Vatican with Ukraine’s [president Volodymyr Zelensky}.
“I spoke with Marco Rubio, including about the call tomorrow. We agreed that we will speak again with the four state leaders and the US president in preparation of this conversation,” the German chancellor told reporters.
Volodymyr Zelensky said he met Pope Leo following the new pontiff’s inaugural Mass at the Vatican, adding that Kyiv was ready for talks in any format to get real results in ending the war with Russia.
The Ukrainian president said on Telegram that he was grateful to the Vatican for its readiness to host direct talks between Ukraine and Russia and “for its clear voice to defend just and lasting peace”.
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