A major Ukrainian drone attack late over Tuesday night into Wednesday led to at least two Moscow airports, Vnukovo and Zhukovsky, suspending flights, Russian authorities said. The defence ministry said 112 Ukrainian drones targeted six different regions in the three hours up to midnight.
Russian drones hit the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, injuring eight people including a child, the regional military governor said on Wednesday morning. Ukraine’s air force issued an air raid alert due to drones across regions including Kharkiv, Sumy, Odesa, Kyiv and others.
Russian authorities were again dismissive of Donald Trump after the US president said Vladimir Putin was “playing with fire” and putting Russia at risk of “really bad things”. Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s former prime minister and president, responded: “I only know of one really bad thing – WWIII. I hope Trump understands this!” As Trump makes no progress on his promise to end the war in as little as a day, the Kremlin has also said the US president is suffering “emotional overload”. Trump’s Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg, called Medvedev’s third world war comment “reckless” and called on Russia to “cease fire immediately” and provide a promised but undelivered peace process memorandum.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy is due on Wednesday to visit Berlin where the German chancellor, Friendrich Merz, has pledged more robust backing for Ukraine – inviting speculation that Germany might give its powerful Taurus missiles to Kyiv. Merz said on Monday that Germany along with other western allies had lifted previous range restrictions on weapons supplied to Ukraine. But Deborah Cole writes that Merz faces nervousness from partners in his governing coalition.
