As Kyiv came under another overnight barrage, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the country once again went into Russian ballistic strikes without advance notice from its international partners.
“Another Russian ballistic missile attack came in several waves overnight, and once again, there was no early warning from our partners,” Mr Zelensky said on social media, adding that Russia had “launched 16 ballistic missiles in a deliberate attack on Kyiv and the Kyiv region”.
Russia, for its part, said the operation was wide-ranging and aimed at specific facilities. Earlier, the Russian Defence Ministry said its forces had carried out a “massive strike” on targets in Kyiv and the Ukraine’s capital region.
The ministry said the attack targeted military-industrial facilities, storage sites for cruise missiles and drones, and data centres.
The latest strikes unfolded as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio argued that both Kyiv and Moscow should concentrate on ending the war, while rejecting claims that Washington had stopped sharing intelligence with Ukraine.
“There has been no pause,” Mr Rubio told reporters when asked about Ukraine’s claims that the United States had briefly halted the sending of intelligence to help counter Russia’s missile attacks.
Mr Zelensky told US media yesterday that the move had been “deblocked by the American side” after a three-day suspension.
Mr Rubio is in Uzbekistan to meet top officials of the C5+1 grouping that brings together the United States and the Muslim-majority post-Soviet states of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. US President Donald Trump hosted C5 leaders at the White House last November.
“What he (Zelensky) should be focused on and what we want to be focused on is bringing an end to this war,” Rubio said.
“That’s what we want everybody to be focused on. That’s what we want the Russians to be focused on.
“That’s what we should be focused on. That’s what the president has made a priority: is trying to bring a war and an end to this war,” the top US diplomat said.
Mr Rubio said he saw only risks in a conflict that continues to reverberate beyond the battlefield, warning of scenarios in which misfires or malfunctioning systems could spill into neighbouring states.
“We see nothing good coming from this war. We see a lot of downside to it, including the very real risk of escalation and spread of this thing … into another country because of a failed sabotage attack, because of drones that are hit with electronic warfare and they wander into a neighbouring country.”
Mr Trump, who says he has made a deal with Russia to secure fuel exports in exchange for the easing of sanctions, has made renewed attacks on Mr Zelensky in recent days over the war.
He wrote on his Truth Social platform yesterday that he was making “great progress” in negotiating peace between Russia and Ukraine, but claimed: “Zelensky doesn’t care, and frankly, with all of the money that Europe is famously giving him… he doesn’t want to end this war, and probably never did.”
“Zelensky is using diesel refineries in Russia as a target, knowing that these attacks are seriously hurting the world diesel markets, including those in the United States,” Mr Trump wrote.
Pressed on whether Mr Trump might sit down with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in pursuit of a settlement to the four-year-old conflict, Mr Rubio said discussions had been raised but offered no confirmation of a final plan.
Asked about a possible meeting of Mr Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping to negotiate an end to the four-year-old Ukraine conflict, Mr Rubio said: “There’s been talks of a meeting. I don’t know whether it’s been finalised, but the president has been clear. He’d like the war in Ukraine and Russia to end.”
