Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky talks during a joint press conference with Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez (R) upon signing a security deal at La Moncloa Palace in Madrid.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Ukraine leader Volodymyr Zelensky called on Monday on the West to “use all means” to force Russia to peace talks during a visit to Madrid, which pledged one billion euros in military aid as a Russian offensive gained new ground.

The visit came as NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg urged Ukraine’s allies to rethink their restrictions on Kyiv usng Western weapons to strike inside Russia, a key demand of the Ukrainian President.

“We need to intensify our joint work with our partners to achieve more. Security and tangible coercion of Russia to peace by all means,” Mr. Zelensky told a joint press conference with Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.

Also read: G-7 ministers cite ‘progress’ but no done deal on Russian assets for Ukraine

Russia meanwhile announced it had captured two more villages in eastern Ukraine, the lastest in a series of gains in recent weeks. Ukraine said that France would soon send military instructors.

On the back foot, Ukraine has been pressing its backers – especially the United States – to allow it to use longer-range weapons they supply to hit targets inside Russia.

Washington and other allies have been reluctant to permit Kyiv to strike over the border out of fear that it could drag them closer to direct conflict with Moscow.

Mr. Zelensky pressed home the point in Madrid.

“We need to work together and put pressure not only on Russia, but also on our partners to give us the opportunity to defend ourselves against Russia,” Mr. Zelensky said.

“Even those partners who are afraid to give this or that advice should understand that air defence is defence, not attack,” reiterating his call for aerial defence systems capable of intercepting the 3,000 aerial bombs hitting Ukraine each month.

There are signs of a Western rethink.

Mr. Stoltenberg told NATO lawmakers in Sofia on Monday that the time had come to reconsider lifting those restrictions.

“If (Ukraine) cannot attack military targets on Russian territory then it ties one hand of the Ukrainians on their back and makes it very hard for them to conduct defence.”

On Sunday, however, Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni opposed giving Ukraine greater flexibility on Russian targets. “I think we have to be very careful,” she told Italian television.

Earlier this month, British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said during a visit to Kyiv that Ukraine had every right to use British-donated missiles to strike inside Russian terrority.

Questioned on Monday, Mr. Sanchez was evasive, saying he “had no such desire”.

“We will be at Ukraine’s side for as long as it takes,” Mr. Sanchez said, announcing a military aid package as part of a security pact “to enable Ukraine to strengthen its defence capabilities.”

Patriots needed

Ukraine is calling for U.S. Patriot air defence systems to counter Russian bombardments, arguing that it has only a quarter of the resources it needs.

In Madrid, Mr. Zelensky said he needed “seven additional Patriot systems,” including “at least two for Kharkiv,” which is close to the Russian border and is being regularly shelled.

Mr. Sanchez said Spain had already sent Patriot missiles to Kyiv, and is “working with various allied countries to see exactly” how many more launchers can be sent.

In a separate effort, French military instructors would soon arrive in the war-battered country, Kyiv’s army chief Oleksandr Syrsky said Monday

“I have already signed the documents that will allow the first French instructors to visit our training centres soon and get acquainted with their infrastructure and personnel,” Mr. Syrsky said on social media.

Russians take two more villages

Less than three weeks before a Ukraine peace summit in Switzerland, Zelensky ruled out proposals by China and Brazil to invite Russia “because Russia will block everything.”

Mr. Zelensky had been due to visit Madrid on May 17, but postponed his trip after Russian troops began a major assault on the Kharkiv region.

Russia on Monday claimed to have captured two more villages in eastern Ukraine, where a strike on a hypermarket in Kharkiv, the country’s second-largest city, killed 16 people on Saturday.

A new strike on an industrial zone in the city killed a woman on Monday, authorities said.

A separate Russian attack on the village of Snigurivka in the southern Ukrainian region of Mykolaiv left three dead, including two teenagers, and wounded six more, the regional governor said.

Moscow:

Russia has opened a criminal case against Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and put him on a wanted list, the state news agency TASS reported on Saturday, citing the Interior Ministry’s database.

The entry it cited gave no further details.

Russia has issued arrest warrants for a number of Ukrainian and other European politicians since the start of the conflict with Ukraine in February 2022.

Russian police in February put Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, Lithuania’s culture minister and members of the previous Latvian parliament on a wanted list for destroying Soviet-era monuments.

Russia also issued an arrest warrant for the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor who last year prepared a warrant for President Vladimir Putin on war crimes charges.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Dnipro, Ukraine:

NATO must decide if it is Kyiv’s ally, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday, urging defence ministers from the bloc’s member states to step up arms deliveries to his struggling forces.
His appeal to Western partners to provide at least seven more air defence systems came hours after Russia launched a wave of fatal drone and missile attacks across the country.

A barrage in Ukraine’s eastern Dnipropetrovsk region killed at least eight people, including two children. But Ukraine said it had downed one of the long-range Russian bombers that launched the missiles for the first time.

“Our sky must become safe again,” Zelensky told a gathering of NATO defence ministers via video link.

“It depends fully on your choice,” he said, telling the meeting in Brussels that their alliance faced a choice over “whether we indeed are allies”.

Comparing Western efforts to defend Israel from Iran’s recent aerial attacks to Ukraine’s situation, Zelensky argued more could be done to help Kyiv fend off Russian bombardments.

– ‘Cannot wait’ –

Ukraine could not defend itself without Western support, he told NATO ministers.

“It is obvious that now, while Russia has air advantage and can rely on its drone and rocket terror, our capabilities on the ground, unfortunately, are limited,” he said.

Earlier Friday, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said the bloc had agreed to give Ukraine more weapons including air defences.

“I expect new announcements on air defence capabilities for Ukraine soon,” he added.

Ukraine has faced a surge in devastating Russian attacks on its cities. Earlier this week, a strike on the city of Chernigiv killed 18 people.

Zelensky called a vote Saturday in the US House of Representatives on a long-delayed $61 billion military aid package “vitally important”.

The aid has been delayed since last year amid political infighting in the Republican Party. But Zelensky said Friday: “This year, we can’t wait for decisions to be made.”

He called for at least seven more Patriots or similar air defence systems. “They can save many lives and really change the situation,” he added.

Earlier Friday, Zelensky said he had visited Ukrainian front-line troops and inspected new defensive lines in the war-battered Donetsk region.

He also said Russia had hit two food export terminals at the Black Sea port of Pivdennyi Friday.

“Agricultural products destined for Asian and African countries were destroyed in them,” he said.

This was “part of a deliberate Russian strategy to cause maximum damage to Ukraine and the countries that rely on Ukrainian agricultural goods”, said Zelensky.

– Two children killed –

Overnight Russian missile attacks in the Dnipropetrovsk region hit housing blocks and sparked a fire in one multi-storey building.

In the regional capital Dnipro, rescuers trawled the damage searching for survivors and bodies throughout the day, as residents hauled their belongings out of destroyed apartments in rucksacks and carrier bags.

“Two children are among those killed. A 14-year-old girl and an eight-year-old boy,” Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on social media.

“Children must not be killed in air strikes in modern Europe. We must protect them with a reliable air shield,” Kuleba said.

Ukraine’s railway operator said train facilities were hit in the attack and that seven employees were among those wounded. A female member of staff was killed, they added.

Russian shelling on the southern Mykolaiv region and the eastern Sumy region killed two people, local officials announced.

– ‘Revenge’ –

The Russian Tu-22M3 bomber that Kyiv said it had shot down crashed as it was returning to its base after firing missiles at Ukraine earlier in the night, the main intelligence directorate of Ukraine’s defence ministry said.

“We took revenge for our cities and civilians,” a Ukrainian air force spokesman, Ilya Yevlash, told AFP.

Russian officials said the plane crashed over the southern Stavropol region. The pilots ejected but at least one member of the crew died, they added.

The Russian defence ministry blamed a technical error, state-run news agencies reported.

Stavropol governor Vladimir Vladimirov said two crew members had been taken to a local medical centre and the search for the fourth pilot was continuing.

The plane crashed in the region’s Krasnogvardeysky district, he added — around 400 kilometres (250 miles) from the eastern edge of the annexed Crimean peninsula.

The Ukraine intelligence directorate said the plane “was shot down at a distance of about 300 kilometres from Ukraine. As a result of the hit, the bomber was able to fly to the Stavropol area, where it crashed.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Warsaw:

A man suspected of aiding a plot by Russian intelligence services to assassinate Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been arrested in Poland, Polish and Ukrainian prosecutors said Thursday.

The Polish national, named only as Pawel K., is suspected of supplying information to Russian military intelligence and “helping the Russian special forces to plan a possible assassination attempt” against Zelensky, said a statement from Polish prosecutors.

It said the suspect had stated he was “ready to act on behalf of the military intelligence services of the Russian Federation and established contact with Russian citizens directly involved in the war in Ukraine”.

Ukrainian prosecutors had informed Poland about the activities, which had enabled them to gather “essential evidence” against the suspect, the statement added.

Ukraine’s chief prosecutor Andriy Kostin said the suspect had been tasked with “gathering and transmitting to the aggressor state information about security at Rzeszow-Jasionka airport” in southeastern Poland.

Zelensky frequently passes through the airport on his trips abroad. It is also used by foreign officials and aid convoys heading to Ukraine.

The suspect is in detention pending judicial procedures, the two countries’ prosecutors said.

“This case underscores the persistent threat Russia poses not only to Ukraine and Ukrainians but to the entire free world,” Kostin wrote on X, the former Twitter.

“The Kremlin’s criminal regime… organises and carries out sabotage operations on the territory of other sovereign states,” he added.

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski commended the work of his country’s special services and prosecutors in the operation as well as cooperation with neighbouring Ukraine.

Warsaw has been one of Kyiv’s staunchest backers since the Russian invasion in February 2022, although ties have frayed recently in a dispute over agricultural imports.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Kyiv:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned Friday that Russia will “again try to destroy” Ukraine’s power grid this winter and that Kyiv was making “preparations” to protect its heating facilities.

Fears for Ukraine’s energy security have risen ahead of the winter months as war with Russia has dragged on for almost 20 months.

Last cold season Russia led a campaign of targeting Ukraine’s power grid and energy facilities, leaving thousands to face freezing temperatures in the winter, which can be severe in parts of Ukraine.

“This winter, Russian terrorists will again try to destroy our power system,” Zelensky said in his daily evening address.

“We are fully aware of the danger,” he said.

He added that Kyiv was preparing for “the protection of our generating facilities and provision of electricity and heat, restoration of everything damaged by Russian strikes and hostilities.”

He said government officials met to discuss the protection of energy facilities.

“Winning this winter, going through all the difficulties and giving protection to our people is very important,” he said.

Ukraine late last month reported Russia targeting energy facilities throughout the country, but said it was too early to tell whether it was part of a renewed Russian campaign.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Kyiv, Ukraine:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned Friday that “slower” arms shipments from Western countries were threatening his counteroffensive, calling for more powerful and long-range weapons to push back Russian forces.

Ukraine launched its counteroffensive in June after stockpiling Western weapons, but has made limited gains as its troops encounter heavily fortified Russian defensive lines.

“All processes are becoming more complicated and slower — from sanctions to the provision of weapons,” Zelensky said in comments published on the presidential website.

“The longer it takes, the more people suffer,” he warned.

– Elections –

His comments came as Moscow held local elections on Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory, condemned by Kyiv and international groups as a sham.

“Russia’s pseudo-elections in the temporarily occupied territories are worthless,” Ukraine’s foreign ministry said in a statement, accusing Moscow of “grossly violating” its sovereignty.

Russia said voting was underway in the four Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson — none of which Moscow fully controls — as well as in Crimea.

Zelensky also said that Russia was hoping upcoming US presidential elections would reduce Washington’s support for Kyiv, insisting it was “important that the American people support democracy, support Ukraine, support our struggle”.

He acknowledged that while Ukraine had bipartisan backing, there were “voices in the Republican Party who say that support for Ukraine should be reduced”.

In a meeting in Kyiv, Zelensky also declared he was prepared to hold elections in Ukraine despite the possibility of ongoing combat, saying his government was ready to adjust to wartime constraints to make sure legitimate polls were held.

“I am ready for the elections. I mean, we are ready if it is necessary,” he said.

He acknowledged potential difficulties, including for refugees and people in Russian-occupied territories, and the need for servicemen on the front to have their say.

“For us the main thing is not to hold elections, but for them to be recognised,” he said.

– ‘War crime’ –

Russia continued to pound central and eastern Ukraine with air strikes Friday, with Ukrainian officials posting images of the destruction on social media.

“A Russian aerial bomb killed three civilians in Odradokamyanka — two women and a man. Four local residents were injured,” Interior Minister Igor Klymenko said, calling the attack a “war crime”.

Odradokamyanka is about 60 kilometres (40 miles) upstream of Kherson city, on the west bank of the Dnipro river, which was recaptured by Ukraine’s forces last November.

A separate Russian strike on Friday targeted Zelensky’s hometown Kryvyi Rig, hitting a police building in the city centre and killing a policeman, Klymenko said.

Photos from the scene showed smoke spewing from the ruins of the building as rescue workers carried an injured person to an ambulance.

“Rescuers of the State Emergency Service pulled out three more from under the rubble. They are in serious condition,” Klymenko said.

Russia also struck the city of Sumy in northeast Ukraine, officials said, while one man was wounded in a rocket attack on Zaporizhzhia in the southeast.

– ‘The next step’ –

Zelensky and Ukrainian officials have frequently hit back at criticism that Ukraine’s counteroffensive in the south and east has been too slow.

“When some partners say: what about the counteroffensive, when will the next step be? My answer is that today our steps are probably faster than new sanctions packages,” Zelensky said Friday.

“There is a specific impact of a specific weapon. The more powerful and long-range it is, the faster the counteroffensive is,” he said.

Zelensky’s request for new arms supplies came a day after top US diplomat Antony Blinken wrapped up his surprise two-day visit to Ukraine, in which he announced $1 billion of new wartime aid.

Also on Friday, Zelensky accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of being behind the death of Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin in a plane crash last month.

“He killed Prigozhin, at least we all have this information and not any other,” he said.

Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner mercenary group, died with nine other people when a plane flying from Moscow to Saint Petersburg crashed on August 23.

Exactly two months earlier, Prigozhin had openly challenged Russia’s military high command by leading a short-lived mutiny with his fighters that threatened to spiral into civil conflict.

The Kremlin has dismissed suggestions that it orchestrated the crash in revenge for Wagner’s march on Moscow in June.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)