Russia hit Ukraine’s energy infrastructure again with ballistic missiles and jet-powered drones, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday, adding that Kyiv once more received no early warning from partner countries that have shared such intelligence in the past, says AP.
The overnight barrage damaged more than 10 energy facilities across the country, leaving more than half a million people without light, heating and running water, Zelensky said on social media.
He said Russia fired 16 ballistic missiles at Kyiv and the surrounding region, and officials in the capital reported that a 21-year-old woman was killed.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the attack killed a woman and wounded several people in the capital, while the State Emergency Service said it also damaged a metro station, a medical facility, an educational institution and a nonresidential building.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said it carried out a “massive strike” on targets in Ukraine, including a data centre, a logistics hub storing drone and cruise missile components, an industrial facility making drone parts and a locomotive depot where missiles are stored.
Zelensky is grappling with recent Washington moves that benefit Russian President Vladimir Putin, including waiving US sanctions on Moscow that were due to take effect this week and signing a deal to import Russian diesel.
Trump has temporarily waived sanctions on Russian diesel to let large quantities flow into global markets and lower fuel prices.
If the United States officially sided with Russia, Zelensky said, “we will not prevail, and we will not be able to stand.”
Limits on Ukraine’s use of Starshield, the military-grade version of SpaceX’s Starlink, have choked its drone operations, Zelensky said, and a severe shortage of American-made Patriot air defence systems has left it more exposed.
Ukraine relies on Starshield-delivered US intelligence to spot fast-moving ballistic missiles, and Western intelligence sharing has helped it hold back Moscow’s invasion, which began more than 4½ years ago.
Trump says Washington has not stopped providing intelligence to Kyiv, a position Secretary of State Marco Rubio repeated on Monday during a visit to Uzbekistan.
“There has been no pause,” he told reporters, saying he had no information about the previous night’s attack.
Zelensky told NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday that intelligence sharing had been interrupted but was later “deblocked”.
“Now it works,” he said.
Trump on Sunday defended waiving some sanctions on Russia, writing on Truth Social that he is negotiating peace and does not want to “foolishly” drive Moscow from the bargaining table.
He claimed Zelensky “doesn’t care” about ending the war and “probably never did”.
He also repeated his accusation that Ukraine is deliberately hitting Russian refineries to hurt his Republican Party in the 3 November midterms, in which polls suggest a likely defeat as voters are upset by fuel costs that have soared since the US and Israel launched a war on Iran in late February.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Meet the Press that Zelensky “presents a false binary” in saying Ukraine must win, adding that the war must end through some kind of negotiated settlement.
He called it “very reckless” for Zelensky to accuse Washington of slowing SpaceX communications, which he said Trump and Rubio had categorically denied.
Zelensky said on social media that Ukraine never wanted the war, has welcomed every attempt by partners to end it and has responded positively to every ceasefire proposal, and that it continues solely because of Russian strikes and Moscow’s desire to drag it out.
Washington’s peace efforts have made no progress, and even a recent truce on energy infrastructure that Trump demanded came to nothing. Fears have mounted in Kyiv that Trump may be turning his back on Ukraine.
On Sunday, Ukraine launched more than 1,000 drones at Russia in one of its largest aerial attacks, setting fire to an oil export terminal and a depot in St Petersburg.
