Rescuers at a destroyed home in Brovary in the Kyiv region of Ukraine, following a Russian missile strike

Friday’s Coverage: Trump Meets Putin’s Chief Maniuplator Dmitriev

UPDATE 0823 GMT:

Ukraine’s air defenses downed 149 of 172 jet-powered drones and four missile launched by Russia overnight. Strikes were recorded on 24 locations.

UPDATE 0752 GMT:

Elon Musk has indicated that he should not have provided his Starlink service for Ukraine’s defense against Russia’s full-scale invasion.

Musk retweeted a post:

In hindsight, it was a mistake for SpaceX to send thousands of free Starlink dishes and millions of dollars a month in free service at the beginning of the war.

What started as internet access for civilians became the backbone for autonomous killing drones. And now if they don’t support military use, they get skewered for it in the press.

Earlier on Friday, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky criticized Musk’s political influence, in an interview with the German television program ZDF Magazin Royale, “There is too much power in the hands of one very wealthy person. Such a concentration of power is dangerous.”

Last month, as Donald Trump swung towards the Kremlin, Starlink’s military version Starshield was restricted in Ukraine. The limit affected both operations on the frontline and air defenses.

The service was only restored a week later after Zelensky spoke with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

UPDATE 0743 GMT:

The toll has risen to 55 civilians murdered by Russia’s bombing of the village of Komyshuvakha in the Zaporizhzhia region in southern Ukraine on Monday.

The Russians hit a school serving as an aid distribution center and shelter. The attack is the deadliest on the region during Moscow’s full-scale invasion.

One of the bombs was a 3-ton FAB-3000, with more than 1,000 kg (2,200 pounds) of explosives. After the initial strike, Russian forces dropped another nine aerial bombs.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Russia carried out several waves of ballistic missile strikes on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv overnight, hours after President Volodymyr Zelensky warned of the impending attack.

At least six people, including a 14-year-old girl, were wounded in and near the city.

The Northern Bridge across the Dnipro River was damaged, closing it to traffic in both directions. The roadbed, trolleybus contact line, and power line were affected.

At least six missiles were launched on the capital in the span of a few minutes just before 11 p.m. More waves followed around 1 a.m. and 3:30 a.m.

A five-story residential building in the city’s Solomianskyi District was damaged, and windows were shattered in another five-story building.

Zelensky said in his nightly address to the nation: