Wednesday’s Coverage: Kyiv’s Deepest Strike Inside Russia

UPDATE 1116 GMT:

At least five civilians were murdered and 19 others injured by Russian attacks across Ukraine over the past day.

Air defenses intercepted 87 of 112 drones, while 22 UAVs hit 12 locations.

In the Kherson region in southern Ukraine, two people were killed and eight injured in attacks which damaged 10 houses and targeted critical and social infrastructure.

In the Sumy region in the east, three civilians were slain and two injured amid almost 50 attacks on 25 settlement.

Casualties were also reported from the Odesa, Donetsk, Kharkiv, and Zaporizhzhia regions.

UPDATE 1100 GMT:

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky says Ukraine has carried out a “very difficult but very timely…and successful” counter-offensive in the Donetsk region in the east of the country.

Zelensky told reporters that the most intense fighting remains around Pokrovsk and Dobropillia: “This operation derailed Russia’s summer offensive campaign.”

Citing intercepted Russian military communications, he said, Moscow’s commanders had been ordered to take Pokrovsk — under attack since July 2024 — “at any cost”.

UPDATE 0945 GMT:

US sanctions on Serbia’s Russian-owned NIS oil company have come into force.

The US blacklisted Serbia’s sole refinery in January.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Encouraging the Trump Administration to deliver Tomahawk cruise missiles to Kyiv, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has said the supply could force the Kremlin to negotiate over its 44 1/2-month full-scale invasion.

Speaking with journalists on Wednesday, Zelensky said Donald Trump “can give Ukraine some far-reaching things”:

Right now, it is important to send a signal that Ukraine will be strengthened by all means possible. And this is one of those means that is important to me — Tomahawks.

All such things can strengthen Ukraine and force the Russians to sober up a little, sit down at the negotiating table.

Zelensky raised the issue of the long-range missiles in late September 2024, meeting Trump in New York’s Trump Tower during the US Presidential campaign.

He returned to it last month on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, when Trump “promised to work on a technical level and consider such a possibility”.

The US says it is now providing intelligence of Ukraine’s targeting inside Russia of sites supporting the invasion. Officials say the Tomahawks are under consideration, but no decision has been made.

On Monday, Trump waffled in a press appearance. He had “sort of made a decision”, but hedged, “I think I want to find out what they’re doing with them. I would ask some questions. I’m not looking to escalate that war.”

The Tomahawk has a precision-strike range of 1,600 km (994 miles) and an overall range of 2,500 km (1,553 miles).

Russian Strikes on Energy and Railways Seek “Chaos”

Zelensky said of Moscow’s latest attacks, “Russia’s task is to create chaos and apply psychological pressure on the population through strikes on energy facilities and railways.”

The President said the drone and missile strikes put Ukrainian gas infrastructure under “heavy pressure” and more attacks could force a further increase in imports.

Ukraine has stepped up purchases of gas by 30% amid the Russian attacks and the prospect of winter.

An overnight Russian drone attack injured five people and damaged port and energy infrastructure in the Odesa region in southern Ukraine.

The attack cut power to 30,000 consumers and set containers with vegetable oil and wood pellets on fire in Odesa’s port.

Russian strikes also murdered three civilians and wounded two in the Sumy region in northeast Ukraine.

Zelensky noted Ukraine’s own strikes on Russian infrastructure supporting the invasion, “We believe that they’ve lost up to 20% of their gasoline supply – directly as a result of our strikes.”

He noted that Russia had stepped up imports from China and Belarus to cover nationwide shortages.

Overnight Ukraine struck the Korobkovsky gas processing plant and oil transport infrastructure in Russia’s Volgograd region.