Ukraine-Russia war live: Kremlin responds after Trump threatens new sanctions on Moscow – UK Times

Russia launched the biggest aerial strikes of the war so far Ukraine over the weekend, killing four people including a mother and her three-month-old baby.

More than 800 drones and 13 missiles were fired at cities across Ukraine, including the capital Kyiv, in the early hours of Sunday 7 September. The strike marked the first attack of the war on the main Ukrainian government building, and is the second major assault on the capital within two weeks.

In response, president Volodymyr Zelensky called the attack “a deliberate crime and prolongation of the war” and called on the US to provide a “strong response” to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Moscow’s aerial attack on Ukraine is the latest in a streak of record-breaking aerial strikes over the past three months.

Below, The Independent looks at how, and why, Russia has decided to target Ukraine’s cities with such devastating force.

On Sunday, Mr Trump signalled he may finally escalate sanctions on Moscow or its oil buyers, which he has so far delayed to pursue peace talks.

The European Union followed on Monday with confirmation it is coordinating new sanctions with the US, echoing US treasury secretary Scott Bessent’s comments that Washington would need “European partners to follow us” if they were to exert further economic pressure.

After repeatedly vowing to end the war within 24 hours, the US leader has grown increasingly frustrated with Putin as fighting continues to intensify.

Steffie Banatvala reports:

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff discussed Russian strikes on Ukrainian targets with US secretary of state Marco Rubio on Monday and told him a government building that came under attack on Sunday was hit by a Russian ballistic missile.

Chief of staff Andriy Yermak, writing on Telegram, also said he and Rubio discussed US military aid for Ukraine, security guarantees for Ukraine that have been under discussion with Kyiv’s allies, and increased pressure on Russia.

“I informed him of the constant Russian strikes that attack our cities, our residential buildings with drones and missiles,” Yermak wrote.

“They kill civilians and children, destroy our infrastructure. For the first time, the enemy attacked the Ukrainian Government building – the strike was carried out by an Iskander ballistic missile.”

In a separate post, Yermak said he had held a video conference with the national security advisers of Britain, France, Germany, and Italy.

He said the discussion was a continuation of a meeting in Paris last week with Ukrainian allies within the Coalition of the Willing and said “a further strengthening of Ukraine’s positions in confronting Russian aggression is necessary.”

The European Union’s top sanctions official was in Washington with a team of experts to discuss what would be the first coordinated transatlantic measures against Russia since President Donald Trump returned to office.

On Sunday, after the war’s biggest air attack set fire to a government building in Kyiv, Trump said he was ready to move to a second phase of restrictions.

The Russia-installed head of occupied parts of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region said late on Monday that Ukrainian forces had launched heavy drone and missile attacks on two cities in the area, killing two people and injuring 16.

Denis Pushilin, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said Ukrainian forces had struck targets in the region’s main city, also called Donetsk, and in Makiivka, an industrial town further north.

There was no comment from Ukrainian officials on the attacks.

Russian news agencies quoted security officials in the occupied areas as saying that at least 20 drones had been deployed in the two assaults and that air defence units were in action. They said explosions had resounded throughout the city of Donetsk and the air was hanging heavy with smoke.

The popular Russian war blog Rybar said there had also been explosions in Yenakiievo, another Russian-held industrial town, where it said at least one apartment block had been hit.

Russian forces, which invaded Ukraine in February 2022, control a little less than 20 per cent of all of Ukraine’s territory and about 75 per cent of Donetsk region.

Russia has formally annexed four regions, including Donetsk, and is engaged in a slow drive westward to capture the rest of the area.

Cooperation between Russia and Ukraine is almost unheard of these days.

But one rare instance where the two warring nations do work together is in repatriating fallen soldiers from both sides of the front line.

The Independent’s Bryony Gooch has spoken to a forensic specialist about the agonising ongoing work to put names to bodies in Ukraine, and how Moscow and Kyiv briefly come together.

The UN Refugee Agency has recorded an increase in the number of people evacuated or displaced from frontline areas in Ukraine since mid-2024.

UNHCR Representative Karolina Lindholm Billing said there are currently 3.7 million refugees internally displaced inside Ukraine and around 5.6 million refugees abroad in an interview with news agency Ukrinform.

She added 190,000 Ukrainians have become displaced persons from the frontline areas of Donetsk, Kharkiv, and Sumy regions since the beginning of 2025.

Chinese rating agency CSCI Pengyuan assigned a domestic triple A rating to US -blacklisted Russian oil giant Gazprom on Friday, as media reported Beijing was preparing to reopen its domestic bond market to major Russian energy firms.

“Gazprom’s rating reflects its strategic importance and legal ties to the Russian government,” CSCI Pengyuan said.

The firm’s credit profile “is underpinned by its strong business profile as one of the market leaders in the global oil and gas industry and its important position in Russia’s energy market”, it added.

The “AAA” rating with a stable outlook came just days after Russia and China gave their blessings to the Power of Siberia 2 pipeline.

Gazprom made the announcement during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to China last week.

Ukraine struck 60 targets on Russian territory in August, Kyiv’s top military commander said on Monday.

“The Russian Federation’s capabilities to produce fuel and lubricants for the army, their aviation weapons, missiles and UAVs, and air defence systems have been weakened, and the functioning of the transport system has been disrupted,” Oleksandr Syrskyi wrote on social media.

Not for the first time over the last few months, US President Donald Trump has told reporters he is “not happy” after Sunday’s massive aerial attack on Ukraine.

Last week, sources reported Trump was becoming “pessimistic” about ending the war which he once so confidently said he would halt.

“The Russia-Ukraine situation, we’re going to get it done,” Trump said on Sunday.