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US president to make ‘major statement’ on Russia on Monday as he grows frustrated with Putin amid intensified attacks on Ukraine
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Russia has launched a new barrage of drones and missiles in an overnight attack on Ukraine, killing at least six people.
Vladimir Putin’s forces launched 597 drones and 26 missiles targeting the west of the country on Saturday, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said.
The death toll from the barrage rose to six on Saturday, while more than 20 other people were injured in the strikes which hit cities including Lviv, Chernivtsi and Kharkiv.
The attack comes as Donald Trump is expected to send weapons to Kyiv.
The US president said he is set to make a “major statement” on Russia on Monday as he grows frustrated with the Mr Putin amid intensified attacks on Ukraine.
“We’re sending weapons to Nato, and Nato is paying for those weapons, 100 per cent,” Mr Trump told NBC News.
The US president has also issued an ominous warning to the Russian president after a maternity ward in Kharkiv was damaged in a drone strike. “You’ll be seeing things happen,” he said.
Donald Trump issued an ominous warning to Vladimir Putin after a maternity ward in Kharkiv was hit on Friday.
When asked about the drones damaging a maternity hospital, the president said: “I know. You’ll be seeing things happen.”
It comes ahead of his “major statement” on Monday for Russia after confirming the US would supply weapons to Ukraine via Nato, with the alliance covering the full cost.
“I think I’ll have a major statement to make on Russia on Monday,” the president, who has grown frustrated with Russian president Vladimir Putin, told NBC News. “We’re sending weapons to Nato, and Nato is paying for those weapons, 100 per cent.”
Kremlin spokesperson Dmytry Peskov said they await Trump’s statement.
A man was killed in Russia’s Belgorod region after a shell struck a private house, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said in a post on Telegram on Saturday.
Belgorod region, a border province which adjoins Ukraine’s Sumy, Kharkiv and Luhansk regions, has come under regular attack from Kyiv’s forces since Russia ordered tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022.
Strikes on the region have diminished in recent months, as Russia has intensified its attacks on neighbouring Ukrainian regions.
The death toll in Ukraine from overnight Russian drone and missile attacks has now risen to at least six, officials say.
Overnight and on Saturday as Russia continued to pound Ukraine with hundreds of drones as part of a stepped-up bombing campaign that has further dampened hopes for a breakthrough in efforts to end the more than three-year-old war.
Two people were killed by falling debris from a drone and 14 were wounded when Russian forces attacked the Bukovina area in the Chernivtsi region of southwestern Ukraine, regional governor Ruslan Zaparaniuk said on Saturday.
Two people were killed on Saturday in a missile strike in the Dnipropetrovsk region, according to regional governor Serhii Lysak.
Two other people were killed on Saturday in the Sumy region by a Russian guided bomb, officials said.
A drone attack in Ukraine’s western Lviv region wounded nine people, regional governor Maksym Kozytskyi said.
Three people were wounded in Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine when the city was hit by eight drones and two missiles, mayor Ihor Terekhov said.
Russia fired 597 drones and decoys, with 26 cruise missiles, into Ukraine overnight, Ukraine’s air force said, the majority of which were shot down or lost through signal jamming.
Europe’s top human rights court delivered damning judgments on Wednesday against Russia, finding Moscow responsible for widespread violations of international law in Ukraine and the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in 2014.
It’s the first time an international court has concluded there have been widespread human rights abuses by Russian forces in Ukraine.
The 501-page ruling by the Strasbourg court combined four complaints — three stemming from the separatist conflict that broke out in eastern Ukraine in 2014, and one linked to alleged violations of international law following the invasion.
In all four cases, the court’s 17 judges unanimously found Russian forces breached international humanitarian law.
Read the key takeaways here:
Russia’s foreign minister on Saturday warned the US, South Korea and Japan against forming a security partnership targeting North Korea as he visited his country’s ally for talks on further solidifying their booming military and other cooperation.
Sergey Lavrov spoke at North Korea’s eastern Wonsan city, where he met the country’s leader, Kim Jong Un, and conveyed greetings from President Vladimir Putin.
Relations between Russia and North Korea have been flourishing in recent years, with North Korea supplying troops and ammunition to support Russia’s war against Ukraine in return for military and economic assistance.
That has raised concerns among South Korea, the US and others that Russia might also transfer to North Korea sensitive technologies that can increase the danger of its nuclear and missile programs.
Speaking with reporters after a meeting with his North Korean counterpart Choe Son Hui, Lavrov accused the US, South Korea and Japan of what he called their military buildups around North Korea.
“We warn against exploiting these ties to build alliances directed against anyone, including North Korea and, of course, Russia,” he said, according to Russia’s state Tass news agency.
President Donald Trump on Friday issued a none-too-veiled threat of action against Russia after Moscow’s forces hit a Ukrainian maternity hospital, injuring nine people earlier in the day.
Speaking to reporters before departing the White House to view flood damage in Texas, where 121 have died and 170 are still missing, the president was asked about the drone attack against the civilian target.
He replied: “I know. You’ll be seeing things happen.”
The president’s cryptic remark came less than a day after he told NBC News that he’d be making a “major statement” on the status of the three-year-old Russia-Ukraine war this coming Monday.
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Ukraine war latest: Trump to send weapons to Kyiv after Russia kills six in attacks – The Independent
