A Russian rocket attack killed two mine-clearing workers from a Danish humanitarian group, officials said. “The attack claimed the lives of two Ukrainian colleagues and left eight others injured,” said an announcement by the Danish Refugee Council. “At the time of the incident, DRC teams were conducting purely civilian humanitarian activities – working to clear landmines and explosive remnants of war.” The strike was near the outskirts of the regional capital of Chernihiv, 125km (80 miles) north of Kyiv. “First, the Russians littered the area with explosives and mines. Now they are killing people, civilians who are risking their lives to clear our land,” said Vyacheslav Chaus, the regional governor.
Donald Trump complained to European leaders on Thursday that Europe must stop buying Russian oil he says is helping Moscow fund its war against Ukraine, a White House official said. It comes a few days, though, after Trump sympathised with the Moscow-friendly leaders of Hungary and Slovakia when their oil pipeline from Russia was bombed out of service by Ukraine. On Thursday it was unclear whether Trump was referring to Hungary and Slovakia’s imports – most other European countries stopped importing Russian crude in 2022, and Russian fuel in 2023 – or to possible indirect imports of fuels made from Russian crude in third countries such as India.
The US president dialled in as the coalition of the willing convened in Paris. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who also took part in the meeting, said Trump was “very dissatisfied” with European purchases of Russian oil. Zelenskyy said the buyers were Hungary and Slovakia.
Patrick Wintour writes that after the Paris meeting, Emmanuel Macron said 26 countries pledged to provide postwar security guarantees to Ukraine, including an international, non-frontline force on land and sea and in the air. “The day the conflict stops, the security guarantees will be deployed,” said the French president, standing alongside Zelenskyy. “We have today 26 countries who have formally committed – some others have not yet taken a position – to deploy a ‘reassurance force’ troops in Ukraine, or be present on the ground, in the sea or in the air.”
Ukraine wants to see improved performance by interceptor drones against Russian aerial attacks, according to Oleksandr Syrskyi, the top Ukrainian commander. Senior officials on Thursday met to sharpen the effort. “We are creating a layered system to counteract enemy Shahed and Geran drones,” Syrskyi wrote, referring to the most commonly used Russian drones. “Our shared task is to train more crews, more interceptor operators, and provide them with more effective weapons and radars.” Ukraine’s air force on Wednesday said it had downed 430 of 502 drones and 21 of 24 missiles launched by Russia overnight.
Britain has imposed sanctions on 11 more individuals and entities affiliated with the Russian state, targeting those involved in what it said were Moscow’s attempts to forcibly deport and indoctrinate Ukraine’s children. Ukraine says that more than 19,500 children have been taken to Russia or Russian-occupied territory during the war without the consent of family or guardians, calling the abductions a war crime that meets the UN treaty definition of genocide.
