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Russian strikes on eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region late Friday killed four people and wounded 18 others, a local official said.
“As of now, there are 4 dead and 18 wounded,” in the strikes on the city of Dobropillia, Vadym Filashkin, head of Donetsk’s regional and military administrations, said in a post on Telegram.
After a wave of Russian attacks on Ukraine in recent days, United States President Donald Trump on Friday , after previously
“Based on the fact that Russia is absolutely ‘pounding’ Ukraine on the battlefield right now, I am strongly considering large scale Banking Sanctions, Sanctions, and Tariffs on Russia until a Cease Fire and FINAL SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT ON PEACE IS REACHED,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
However, talking to reporters on Friday after making the post, Trump said he trusted Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“I believe him,” he said.
“I’m finding it more difficult frankly to deal with Ukraine and they don’t have the cards,” he said.
“It may be easier dealing with Russia.”
European Union leaders — shaken by the prospect of US disengagement from the conflict and European security more broadly — at a crisis summit on Thursday.
‘Massive missile and drone shelling’
Trump’s warning to Moscow — and subsequent expression of trust in Putin — came hours after Russia launched a “massive” drone and missile attack on Ukrainian energy facilities Friday.
“The energy and gas infrastructure in various regions of Ukraine is under massive missile and drone shelling again,” energy minister German Galushchenko said in a post on Facebook.
“Russia is trying to hurt ordinary Ukrainians by shelling energy and gas production facilities, without abandoning its goal of leaving us without power and heating, and causing the greatest harm to ordinary citizens,” he added.
The Ukrainian air force later said Russia had launched at least 58 missiles and nearly 200 drones, damaging energy facilities across the country from Kharkiv in the east to Ternopil in the west.
Four people were wounded in a strike on a “civilian infrastructure” in Kharkiv, including a woman pulled from the rubble alive and receiving medical treatment, the city’s mayor, Igor Terekhov, said in a post on Telegram Friday.
“A fire broke out at the scene of the impact. A nearby apartment building was also damaged,” Terekhov said, adding that its residents were being evacuated.
Kharkiv Governor Oleg Synegubov also said on Telegram that a Russian strike hit a private company in Kharkiv, and left cars on fire.
“A 65-year-old woman and a 61-year-old man were hospitalised,” Synegubov added.
Late Thursday, the Ukrainian emergency service also said “critical infrastructure” was damaged in an attack on the Odesa region, with no injuries reported.
Late Thursday, the Ukrainian emergency service also said “critical infrastructure” was damaged in an attack on the Odesa region in the south, with no injuries reported.
Missiles from Russia also struck a “critical industrial facility” overnight in Ternopil region, governor Vyacheslav Negoda said.
“Air defence forces shot down an enemy missile,” and no casualties were reported, Negoda said, adding that there may be restrictions on gas supply.
Russia’s defence ministry on Friday confirmed it had carried out “precision” strikes on energy facilities, claiming they support the Ukrainian military.
Russia is “targeting facilities linked to Ukraine’s military-industrial complex,” Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
The Ukrainian air force said it had deployed French Mirage fighter jets — delivered to Ukraine last month — for the first time to repel the aerial onslaught.
The fighter jets along with air defence units shot down 34 of the missiles and 100 drones.
Zelenskyy heads to Middle East
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is due to land in Saudi Arabia on Monday for talks with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
The visit comes a day before Ukrainian officials are expected to hold fresh talks with their US counterparts on Tuesday in the Middle Eastern kingdom.
Earlier on Friday, Zelenskyy renewed calls for a mutual halt to aerial attacks on critical infrastructure following the latest Russian barrage.
The Ukrainian leader said the first steps to establishing real peace should be stopping both Russian and Ukrainian aerial and naval attacks.
This latest proposal builds on growing rhetoric from Kyiv, Washington and Moscow on halting the war, now in its fourth year.
Ukraine’s allies abroad have voiced support for Zelenskyy’s truce proposal and on Friday Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who recently hosted the Ukrainian leader, also gave it his backing.
The Kremlin has previously ruled out a temporary ceasefire in Ukraine.
Putting our ‘money where our mouth is’
In Brussels on Thursday, European countries greenlit a plan to “re-arm Europe” against the perceived threat from Russia, rallying around Ukraine after Zelenskyy’s White House blow-up with Trump, and Washington’s pause on military aid and intelligence sharing to Kyiv.
“We are moving decisively towards a strong and more sovereign Europe of defence,” Antonio Costa, who heads the Council of the EU’s 27 states, told reporters after the talks.
“We are putting our money where our mouth is.”
Leaders endorsed the European Commission’s aim to mobilise about 800 billion euros ($1,362 billion) for defence spending, committing to examine “as a matter of urgency” its proposal to provide members with EU-backed loans of up to 150 billion euros.
The defence plan eases fiscal rules to allow states to spend much more — at a time when Germany’s chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz is embracing radical reforms to fund the country’s rearmament.
France’s President Emmanuel Macron has likewise called for a defence spending surge and suggested extending France’s nuclear deterrent to European partners.
European governments are under pressure to step up defence as Trump questions whether the United States — the guarantor of Europe’s security since World War II — should continue its central role in NATO.
The US leader once again called that commitment into question on Thursday, complaining that its allies “should be paying more.”
