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UK foreign secretary Yvette Cooper said Putin’s airspace incursions risk ‘direct armed confrontation’ with Nato
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Volodymyr Zelensky has arrived for an intense round of diplomacy at the UN general assembly in New York, where he is set to meet US president Donald Trump.
The Ukrainian president has already met with US envoy Keith Kellogg, with whom he discussed a Ukrainian counteroffensive in the east and the further procurement of US weapons.
After landing in New York on Monday with first lady Olena Zelenska, Mr Zelensky is set to meet Trump later today, seeking tough US sanctions on Moscow following repeated incursions into Nato airspace by Russian planes and drones in recent weeks.
On Monday, UK foreign secretary Yvette Cooper said the UK will confront Russian planes violating Nato’s airspace as she warned Moscow of risking “direct armed confrontation” with the Western alliance.
“We stand ready to take all steps necessary to defend Nato’s skies and Nato’s territory. We are vigilant. We are resolute. And if we need to confront planes that are operating in Nato airspace without permission then we will do so,” she said, addressing Vladimir Putin in her remarks at an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council.
Meanwhile, Russian president Vladimir Putin has offered Donald Trump an extension to a nuclear deal between Russia and the US, a deal the Trump administration has said is “pretty good”.
Reuters news agency is reporting that Moscow has claimed another village in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.
The Russian Defence Ministry claimed that its forces have captured the small settlement of Pereizne, according to the Russia’s RIA news agency.
Although The Independent could not independently verify the report, authoritative Ukrainian online battlefield map DeepState shows Russian forces as being very close to seizing the village.
Russia is seeing shortages of certain fuel grades as Ukrainian drone attacks reduce refinery runs, trade and retailers said according to Reuters news agency.
High borrowing costs also mean private filling stations can’t afford to stockpile fuel, they said.
Kyiv’s forces have ramped up drone attacks on Russian energy infrastructure in recent weeks, striking refineries and export terminals in attempts to reduce Moscow’s export revenues, stir domestic discontent and push the Kremlin to peace talks.
The attacks have reduced Russian oil refining by almost a fifth on certain days and cut exports from key ports, pushing Moscow close to reducing its oil production.
Russia has a big surplus of diesel but its gasoline production matches domestic demand, meaning the drop in refining runs could lead to shortages.
There are no large queues at the pumping stations, but certain grades of gasoline, such as popular Ai 92 and Ai 95, are frequently absent.
Volodymyr Zelensky has met with Donald Trump’s envoy to Ukraine Keith Kellogg on the fringes of the UN general assembly on Monday evening.
“I briefed him on the situation at the front and the results of the counteroffensive operation near Dobropillia and Pokrovsk.
“We also touched on the development of cooperation between Ukraine and the United States, including mutually beneficial agreements on drones and on the procurement of American weapons that Ukraine has proposed to the United States.”
He added: “I am grateful to Keith Kellogg for his support and assistance, and to U.S. President Donald Trump for his efforts to bring the war to an end and stop the killings.”
President Volodymyr Zelensky has arrived in New York to meet US President Donald Trump ahead of the UN General Assembly summit, which commences today.
His arrival follows Russian missile attacks in Odesa overnight, while 33 Ukrainian drones headed for Moscow were downed on Monday and Tuesday.
The Ukrainian leader was joined by First Lady Olena Zelenska and is expected to address the gathering of nations on Wednesday as part of a week of “intense” meetings to appeal for a ceasefire and call for sanctions against Russia.
Our reporter Maira Butt reports on a critical week ahead for the Ukrainian president:
Hungary will not stop using Russian energy supplies, the country’s foreign minister has said, as a diplomatic row between Budapest and Kyiv continues.
The refusal also comes despite Donald Trump’s demands that European countries halt all imports of Russian oil, making news sanctions on Moscow conditional on Nato disconnecting from Russia’s energy supplies.
“We can’t ensure the safe supply [of energy resources] for our country without Russian oil or gas sources,” Péter Szijjártó told The Guardian on the sidelines of the 80th annual session of the UN general assembly.
MOL Group, Hungary’s state-owned energy company, imports around 5 million tonnes of oil through the Druzhba pipeline each year, supplying to refineries in Hungary and Slovakia.
“For us, energy supplies are a purely physical question. It can be nice to dream about buying oil and gas from somewhere… but we can only buy from where we have infrastructure,” Mr Szijjártó added.
“And if you look at the physical infrastructure, it’s obvious that without the Russian supplies, it is impossible to ensure the safe supply of the country.”
In the latest Kremlin reshuffle, Vladimir Putin has appointed his cousin’s daughter, Anna Tsivileva (née Putina), as a deputy defence minister with her husband as energy minister.
Ukraine’s HUR military intelligence service now believes that Tsivileva’s installment is an effort to keep tabs on the Russian officials responsible for prosecuting his war on Ukraine, it said in an intelligence assessment shared with The Times.
Authors of the report believe she has been asked to report disloyalty and corruption in the defence ministry directly to Putin – and believe that her spying has led to arrests by Russia’s FSB security agency.
“Putin has formed several groups of relatives in government and Anna heads one of these groups. Tsivileva’s task is to adapt the economy for the Ministry of Defence, reduce corruption and abuse, and find the culprits,” an HUR section commander said in the report.
As the country faces nightly Russian air attacks, the rail network has become a crucial replacement for air transport since Vladimir Putin ordered a full-scale invasion in February 2022.
The railway network has been a lifeline for those moving around Ukraine and out of the country, after all civilian flights were grounded.
World leaders and politicians have arrived into wartime Ukraine by train, including former US president Joe Biden, Indian prime minister Narendra Modi and French president Emmanuel Macron.
The rail company’s popular sleeper carriages are seen as a reliable way to travel overnight and arrive early in the morning in cities many hundreds of miles away.
But the recent intensification of Russian attacks has increased delays for passengers by several hours.
The railway is also crucial for transporting military equipment and commercial cargo, although volumes of the latter have dropped significantly in wartime.
Russia has unleashed a massive wave of attacks on Ukraine’s railways since the summer using long-range drones, but the rail network is holding up for now, the chief of the state railway company has told Reuters news agency.
“Their first aim is to sow panic among passengers, their second aim is to hit the overall economy,” Oleksandr Pertsovskyi said in an interview held in a rail carriage at Kyiv’s central station.
There did not appear to be a particular focus on targeting military cargo. “These are all, in essence, strikes on civilian infrastructure,” he said.
Ukrzaliznytsia, Ukraine’s state-owned railway company, employs 170,000 people and has been the target of Russian attacks since the full-scale invasion began in February 2022 but attacks have intensified, causing regular delays.
Mr Pertsovskyi said the railway is recovering from each blow for now.
The immediate disruption to trains after an attack usually lasts six to 12 hours and electric locomotives are switched out for diesel while power is restored.
“It’s a marathon… They strike us, we recover,” he said. “They strike us, we recover.”
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