KYIV: Russia targeted Ukraine with a record 728 drones overnight, hours after US President Donald Trump pledged to send more defensive weapons to Kyiv and aimed unusually sharp criticism at Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The attack was the latest in a series of escalating air assaults in recent weeks that have involved hundreds of drones in addition to ballistic missiles, straining Ukrainian air defenses at a perilous moment in the war, now in its fourth year.
Kyiv’s military downed almost all the drones but some of the six hypersonic missiles launched by Russia had caused unspecified damage, air force spokesperson Yurii Ihnat said on Ukrainian television.
President Volodymyr Zelensky, who will meet US envoy Keith Kellogg in Rome on Wednesday, said the strike showed the need for “biting sanctions” on the sources of income Russia uses to finance the war, including on those who buy Russian oil.
Trump said on Tuesday he was considering supporting a bill that would impose steep sanctions on Russia, including 500 percent tariffs on nations that buy Russian oil, gas, uranium and other exports.
“We get a lot of bull**** thrown at us by Putin ... He’s very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless,” Trump said at a cabinet meeting.
When asked by a reporter what action he would take against Putin, Trump said: “I wouldn’t tell you. We want to have a little surprise.”
Separately, Europe is working on a new sanctions package against Moscow.
Trump, who returned to power this year promising a swift end to the war in Ukraine, has taken a more conciliatory tone toward Moscow in a departure from the Biden administration’s staunch support for Kyiv.
But initial rounds of talks between Russia and Ukraine to end the Kremlin’s February 2022 invasion have so far borne little fruit, with Moscow yet to accept an unconditional ceasefire proposed by Trump and accepted by Kyiv.
The US president’s promise to supply more defensive weapons appeared to reverse a Pentagon decision days earlier to stall some critical munitions supplies to Ukraine, despite increasing Russian attacks that have killed dozens in recent weeks.
Shortly after Wednesday’s attack, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that diplomatic means to resolve the war have been exhausted. He vowed to continue supporting Kyiv.
Following Trump’s new promise, Zelensky said on Tuesday he had ordered an expansion of contacts with the United States to ensure critical deliveries of military supplies, primarily air defense.
Residents of Kyiv and other major cities spent the night in air raid shelters including metro stations.
Part of Russia’s overnight strike was aimed at a western region close to NATO-member Poland. The northwestern city of Lutsk, some 200 km (125 miles) from Poland, was the main target, Zelensky said, listing 10 other provinces across Ukraine where damage was also reported.
Polish and allied aircraft were activated to ensure air safety, Poland’s military said.
In Lutsk, buildings were damaged but no deaths or injuries reported in what amounted to the biggest air strike of the war on the city of 200,000 people, regional authorities said.
A storage facility of a local enterprise and some parking structures were ablaze, said the city’s mayor, Ihor Polishchuk.
Ivan Rudnytskyi, governor of the Volyn region that includes Lutsk, said 50 Russian drones and five missiles were in the region’s airspace overnight.
Russia attacks Ukraine with 700 drones after Trump vows to send more weapons
https://arab.news/j2uc3
Russia attacks Ukraine with 700 drones after Trump vows to send more weapons
- Zelensky calls for for 'biting sanctions' on the sources of income Russia uses to finance the war
- Residents of Kyiv and other major cities spend night in air raid shelters
Rubio says new governance bodies for Gaza will be in place soon
- Rubio said progress had been made recently in identifying Palestinians to join the technocratic group and that Washington aimed to get the governance bodies in place “very soon,” without offering a specific timeline.
WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that a new governance structure for Gaza — made up of an international board and a group of Palestinian technocrats — would be in place soon, followed by the deployment of foreign troops, as the US hopes to cement a fragile ceasefire in Israel’s war in the Palestinian enclave.
Rubio, speaking at a year-end news conference, said the status quo was not sustainable in Gaza, where Israel has continued to strike Hamas targets while the group has reasserted its control since the October peace agreement brokered by the US.
“That’s why we have a sense of urgency about bringing phase one to its full completion, which is the establishment of the Board of Peace, and the establishment of the Palestinian technocratic authority or organization that’s going to be on the ground, and then the stabilization force comes closely thereafter,” Rubio said.
Rubio said progress had been made recently in identifying Palestinians to join the technocratic group and that Washington aimed to get the governance bodies in place “very soon,” without offering a specific timeline. Rubio was speaking after the US Central Command hosted a conference in Doha this week with partner nations to plan the International Stabilization Force for Gaza.
Two US officials said last week that international troops could be deployed in the strip as early as next month, following the UN Security Council’s November vote to authorize the force.
It remains unclear how Hamas will be disarmed, and countries considering contributing troops to the ISF are wary that Hamas will engage their soldiers in combat.
Rubio did not specify who would be responsible for disarming Hamas and conceded that countries contributing troops want to know the ISF’s specific mandate and how it will be funded.
“I think we owe them a few more answers before we can ask anybody to commit firmly, but I feel very confident that we have a number of nation states acceptable to all sides in this who are willing to step forward and be a part of that stabilization force,” Rubio said, noting that Pakistan was among the countries that had expressed interest.
Establishing security and governance was key to securing donor funding for reconstruction in Gaza, Rubio added.
“Who’s going to pledge billions of dollars to build things that are going to get blown up again because a war starts?” Rubio said, discussing the possibility of a donor conference to raise reconstruction funds.
“They want to know who’s in charge, and they want to know that there’s security so and that there’ll be long term stability.”
