-
Russia hammered Kyiv with drones in daylight attacks on Wednesday hours before Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with world leaders at the UN general assembly. Two people were killed and 41 wounded in Ukraine’s capital. Palls of black smoke floated above the city following the latest in what have been daily Russian attacks that torment Ukrainian civilians. The drones set off fires and damaged buildings in Kyiv and elsewhere in Ukraine overnight, authorities said.
-
The attacks continued early into Thursday with emergency crews dispatched to three districts, said Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko. “Explosions in Kyiv, The capital is under attack from ballistic missiles. Remain in shelters!” Klitschko wrote on Telegram. Unofficial Telegram channels showed what was described as a fire lighting up the horizon.
-
A Russian aerial bomb attack also killed five people and injured six on Wednesday in the village of Oleksandrivka in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, the regional governor said. Vadym Filashkin, writing on Telegram, said Russian forces had dropped four bombs on the village, near the city of Kramatorsk.
-
Zelenskyy urged world’s leaders Wednesday to keep choking Russia’s revenues and impede its war efforts, telling the UN general assembly that “Russia’s revenues must remain a target.” “When someone gives Russia more money through trade, they give this war more time. And that is exactly why we insist on limiting trade with the aggressor, and why we are burning Russia’s revenues ourselves,” he said.
-
Zelenskyy also reiterated his warnings to Moscow that Ukraine would strike back and make the coming winter deeply painful for Russia, if the two sides cannot agree a truce on energy attacks before the cold sets in. Ukraine and its allies are racing to secure limited agreements on energy infrastructure and Black Sea shipping before winter, fearing renewed Russian strikes on power and heating facilities, while Moscow continues to show little interest in wider negotiations to end the war. “Ukrainians understand that this winter could be very harsh for us. But in response, we will have no choice but to make it painful for Russia too,” Zelenskyy told the UN meeting.
-
The US has invited Russian president Vladimir Putin to a December G20 meeting in Miami, Florida, where he could hold a summit with Donald Trump, US secretary of state Marco Rubio said on Wednesday. The Kremlin said Russia would consider the invitation. Rubio, speaking after meeting Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov on the sidelines of the UN general assembly, said the US remained open to engaging with Russia on the war in Ukraine, despite stalled efforts to bring an end to the conflict. “We’ve invited President Putin to the G20. We think it’s an opportunity for him to engage not just with the president but with other world leaders. We hope that’s an invitation he’ll accept,” Rubio said.
-
Zelenskyy said on Wednesday he had signed a “drone deal” with Finland’s president, another in a series of agreements offering to combine Kyiv’s technical expertise with other countries’ industrial capacity. Zelenskyy met Finnish president Alexander Stubb, along with Norwegian prime minister Jonas Gahr Stoere in New York. “And today we just signed a Drone Deal with Alex (Stubb) – an important step for jointly protecting our people and an even stronger partnership between our countries,” Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram.
-
Ukraine has transferred two North Korean prisoners of war to South Korea, Zelenskyy said on Thursday in his address to the UN. “Recently, we sent two North Korean prisoners of war to the Republic of Korea,” Zelenskyy said in his speech. “These guys are not easy to capture alive. One of them, when he realised he was going to be taken prisoner, tried to kill himself. And he was shocked that fate did not let him die.” Zelenskyy did not provide more details about the return. According to some estimates, North Korea has sent up to 15,000 soldiers since 2024 to support Russia’s war against Ukraine.
-
Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese has announced that Australia will provide $60m more in support for Ukraine’s fight against Russia’s invasion during an emotional meeting with Zelenskyy in New York. Albanese became emotional as he paid tribute to his “friend” Zelenskyy in his fight against Russian aggression. “[His] leadership has been, I think, quite extraordinary, leading people in circumstances which are extraordinarily difficult,” he said.
