Ukraine is working on a deal to sell its drones to the US as well as a major arms purchase from Washington, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said. Kyiv has prepared a list of about $90bn worth of American weapons that it wants to buy, with Ukrainian officials set to visit the US this month or next for talks. Ukraine’s president said he had shared with US president Donald Trump “a certain vision of what could be done” to respond to Russia’s actions. “In addition to the large arms deal, which we call the ‘mega deal’, we also discussed the ‘drone deal’. Technical groups are already starting to work on this deal,” Zelenskyy told reporters on Saturday. “It concerns drones that the United States will purchase directly from Ukraine.”
Zelenskyy announced on Saturday that Israel had for the first time supplied Ukraine with a US-made Patriot anti-missile defence system. “The Israeli [Patriot] system is operating in Ukraine. It has been operating for a month. We will receive two Patriot systems in the fall,” Zelenskyy told reporters.
Kyiv came under heavy bombardment early on Sunday in what independent monitors said was one of the biggest Russian attacks on the Ukrainian capital since Moscow launched its full-scale war more than three and a half years ago. Drones flew over the city and surrounding region and anti-aircraft fire rang out through the night. Some residents fled to metro stations deep underground for safety. Many regions across the country were under air raid alert.
Poland closed the airspace near its south-eastern cities of Lublin and Rzeszow and the Polish military said it scrambled aircraft to ensure the security of its airspace after Russia launched strikes on Ukraine. “In connection with the activity of the Russian Federation’s long-range aviation carrying out strikes on the territory of Ukraine, Polish and allied aircraft have begun operating in our airspace,” the military said in a post on X. It described the actions as preventive and aimed at securing airspace and protecting citizens.
The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, has warned that any aggression against Moscow will be met with a “decisive response”, warning against attempts to down aircraft in Russian airspace. “Russia is being accused of almost planning to attack the North Atlantic alliance and the European Union countries,” Lavrov told the UN general assembly. “Russia has never had and does not have any such intentions. However, any aggression against my country will be met with a decisive response.” Speaking later to reporters, Lavrov said that if any country downs objects still within Russian airspace, “they will very much regret it”.
Lavrov went out of his way still to praise Trump, who despite his public musings on Putin has yet to impose long-threatened new economic sanctions on Russia. “In the approaches of the current US administration, we see a desire not only to contribute to ways to realistically resolve the Ukrainian crisis, but also a desire to develop pragmatic cooperation without adopting an ideological stance,” Lavrov said.
The power cut to the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, Europe’s biggest, has continued for a fourth day, Ukraine said on Saturday, accusing Moscow of causing the blackout. “As a result of Russian actions, the Zaporizhzhia NPP (Nuclear Power Plant) has been without power for the fourth day,” the foreign minister, Andriy Sybiga, said on X, adding “we urge all nations concerned about nuclear safety and security to make it clear to Moscow that its nuclear gamble must end”. Emergency generators are being used to power cooling and safety systems after the final power line into the plant was cut on the Russian side at 4.56pm on Tuesday.
Russia on Saturday claimed to have captured three villages in eastern Ukraine. Moscow has captured about 0.8% of Ukraine’s total land area since the beginning of the year, according to Russia’s defence ministry. The villages of Derylove and Maiske were seized in the Donetsk region, the Russian army said in a statement, while the settlement of Stepove was taken in the Dnipropetrovsk region.
Ukraine said an overnight Russian barrage killed one person and wounded 12 in the south-eastern Kherson region, and damaged railways in the neighbouring Odesa region.
Russia said an oil pumping station in the Chuvashia republic suspended operation after a Ukrainian drone strike deep behind the front line.
