Ukraine-Russia latest: Explosions in Kyiv after missile attack as British troops ‘may have to go to Ukraine’ – UK Times

US secretary of state Antony Blinken has met Nato chief Mark Rutte in Brussels as the outgoing Biden administration seeks to cement support for Ukraine ahead of Donald Trump’s return.

Mr Blinken is expected to discuss in Brussels how US allies can take greater leadership over support for Ukraine with Washington’s future role uncertain.

Following his meeting with Mr Rutte at the alliance’s headquarters, Mr Blinken is later expected to meet Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha.

He will also meet top EU officials and British foreign secretary David Lammy in Brussels on Wednesday.

Ukraine’s air force said it has shot down two cruise missiles, two ballistic missiles and 37 Russian drones as regions across Ukraine were targeted in overnight attacks.

A further 47 Russian drones were lost in different regions of Ukraine, while two left Ukraine’s airspace oin the direction of Belarus and Russia, Kyiv said.

Kyiv, Poltava, Sumy, Zaporizhzhia and Chernihiv were among the regions targeted, Ukraine’s air force said.

Blasts rang out over Kyiv on Wednesday morning after officials said Russia launched its first missile attack on the Ukrainian capital since August and urged residents to take cover.

The scale of the strike and extent of any damage were not immediately clear. The attack involved missiles launched by strategic bombers as well as ballistic missiles, the military said. No casualties or damage have been reported so far.

“Putin is launching a missile attack on Kyiv right now,” Andriy Yermak, the head of the president’s office wrote on Telegram.

The missile strike came after what officials said was a drone attack. Kyiv has faced Russian drone attacks almost nightly for weeks. Vitali Klitschko, the city’s mayor, said a drone was still flying over central Kyiv in the morning.

“Explosions in the city. Air defence forces are working. Stay in shelters!” the Kyiv city administration wrote on the Telegram messenger.

Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte has called on Western allies to provide Ukraine with further support “to change the trajectory of the conflict” with Russia.

Speaking ahead of a meeting in Paris with French president Emmanuel Macron, Rutte said: “We must do more than just keep Ukraine in the fight.”

He added: “We need to raise the cost for Putin and his enabling authoritarian friends by providing Ukraine with the support it needs to change the trajectory of the conflict.”

Rutte, who did not provided details about the military equipment and weapons needed for that purpose, said it was “very concerning” that Russia was getting “closer to its allies, China, Iran and North Korea.”

According to anonymous sources quoted in The Washington Post, one of Donald Trump’s first actions on being re-elected was to call Vladimir Putin. That call was immediately denied by the Kremlin. As Trump moves back into power, we should get used to confusion and mixed messaging – between him and Vladimir Putin, it’s always going to be hard to tell which, if either, might actually be telling the truth on any given occasion.

In fact, Russia’s response to the return of Trump has been a similarly confusing mixture of shameless flattery and blatant trolling. Putin’s comments on “courageous” Trump were accompanied by Russia’s prime-time television propaganda show welcoming Trump to the White House by airing nude photographs of his wife from a quarter-century ago while its presenters smirked.

That’s led to speculation over how the relationship might have moved on since Trump’s first term in office. But long-term, Russia analysts consider this kind of power play “normal for Putin” – particularly when the target of the information campaign has shown himself as easy to manipulate as Trump.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has expressed his gratitude to rescue officials in Ukraine responding to daily Russian attacks.

In a post on X, Mr Zelensky said: “No rescue service has ever faced challenges like those our rescuers, police, medics, and everyone helping them tackle every day—often under fire or under threat of renewed Russian attacks. Every day, there is a necessary and immediate response, no matter the challenges.

“I thank everyone who saves lives after Russian strikes, clears rubble, provides first aid, extinguishes fires, and eliminates the consequences to save people’s lives.”

The European Union must back Ukraine against Russia for as a long as it takes and persuade the United States that its strategic interests in China are tied up in the outcome of the war, the woman nominated as the bloc’s top diplomat for the next five years said Tuesday.

Questions have been raised about whether the 27-nation EU’s commitment to Ukraine would remain firm with Russia appearing to have an edge in the war, which began on Feb. 24, 2022, and following the reelection of Donald Trump, who has vowed to end the conflict as U.S. president.

“Ukraine’s victory is a priority for us all. The situation on the battlefield is very difficult,” Estonia ex-Prime Minister Kaja Kallas told EU lawmakers during a hearing she must pass to be appointed as foreign policy chief.

Read the full story here:

Kaja Kallas, the nominee to be the European Union’s next foreign policy chief, has warned against making assumptions about what US president-elect Donald Trump would do in Ukraine and said isolationism had never worked for the United States.

The former Estonian prime minister told her confirmation hearing in the European Parliament on Tuesday that she did not think anybody knew what Mr Trump would do and that the EU would need to hear directly from his team.

“If we look to the history, then isolationism has never worked well for America … If America is worried about China, they should first be worried about Russia, and we will have these dialogues with the United States,” Ms Kallas said.

Loud blasts have been heard in Kyiv in the early hours today amid reports on missiles heading for the Ukrainian capital.

“A rocket in Chernihiv region heading for Kyiv region!” the Ukrainian air force said on Telegram. “Rocket to Kyiv, take cover immediately,” it said.

“Russia’s winter campaign against Ukraine’s civil energy infrastructure appears to be starting. Some cruise missiles are headed Kyiv’s way,” said Oliver Carroll, a journalist based in Kyiv.

“Ballistic missiles reported headed to Kyiv right now. The sound of air defence is very audible in centre of capital,” he said in another tweet.

President-elect Donald Trump reportedly advised Russian President Vladimir Putin not to escalate the war in Ukraine in a phone call the day after the presidential election, a report says.

As one of his first orders of unofficial business as the president-elect, Trump spoke with Putin on Thursday in a telephone conversation that he took from his home in Florida, sources familiar with the matter told The Washington Post.

He allegedly asked the Russian president not to escalate his war and reminded him of the US’s military presence in Europe.

My colleague Ariana Baio reports: