Closing summary
We’re going to wrap up this live coverage now, it’s almost 4:30pm in Washington DC and 11:30pm in Kyiv. You can read the top lines on the meeting between Keir Starmer and Volodymyr Zelenskyy in our full report here, and below is an overview of all the latest. Thanks for reading.
Ukrainians have rallied behind Volodymyr Zelenskyy after his mauling on Friday in the White House, and have accused Donald Trump and the US vice-president, JD Vance, of deliberately and cynically “starting a brawl.” Zelenskyy thanked the American people and leadership and voiced hope for “strong relations.”
Zelenskyy on Saturday arrived in London ahead of a summit on Sunday organized by British prime minister Keir Starmer with other European leaders. The summit will also include leaders from France, Germany, Denmark, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Turkey, Finland, Sweden, Czechia and Romania, as well as the NATO secretary-general and the presidents of the European Commission and European Council.
Starmer “restated his determination to finding a path that ends Russia’s illegal war” when he met Zelensky at Downing Street on Saturday, No 10 has said. Giving a readout of the two leaders’ meeting, a Downing Street spokesperson said: “The Prime Minister reiterated his unwavering support for Ukraine, adding that the UK will always stand with them, for as long as it takes.”
The Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte, said yesterday’s fracas between Trump and Zelenskyy was “unfortunate” and they should repair their relationship. “I have been twice on the phone now with President Zelenskyy. I told him this, we need to stick together, the United States, Ukraine and Europe, to bring Ukraine to a durable peace,” said Rutte.
The US national security adviser, Mike Waltz, has given Fox News a first-person account of the moment he told a “still argumentative” Zelenskyy it was time to leave the White House. Waltz said he told Zelenskyy: “Time is not on your side here. Time is not on your side on the battlefield. Time is not on your side in terms of the world situation, and, most importantly, US aid and the taxpayers’ tolerance is not unlimited.”
The Russian foreign ministry spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, said Zelenskyy’s visit to Washington was Kyiv’s diplomatic failure, and that the Ukrainian president rejected peace, and was obsessed with continuing the war.
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Protesters gathered in Waitsfield, Vermont, on Saturday to protest vice president JD Vance, who is visiting the state with his family for a ski trip.
The demonstration the morning after the clash between Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Donald Trump, who was joined by Vance in the Oval Office.
Some of the demonstrators are part of Indivisible, a left-wing political group founded in response to Donald Trump’s election as president in 2016.
Meanwhile, a protest has also erupted in SpaceX’s facilities in Southern California.
Protesters were seen waving the Ukranian flag.
Susan Rice, former US Ambassador to the United Nations, denied the baseless conspiracy theory alleging she and other Democrats spoke with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy before his meeting with president Donald Trump.
“For the record, I have never met Zelenskyy and never spoken to him. Ever. Or advised him or anybody around him,” she said in a post on X.
The conspiracy claims that Rice, Antony Blinken, Victoria Nuland, and Alexander Vindman advised Zelenskyy to “stand strong” and be “tough” against Trump.
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The UK and Ukraine have agreed a £2.26bn loan to support Ukraine’s defense capabilities, finance minister Serhiy Marchenko announced on X.
Marchenko said that the funds are “ensured by frozen Russian assets.”
Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Keir Starmer, along with chancellor Rachel Reeves, held a video call with Marchenko.
Marchenko said that he was “grateful” to the UK for “holding the aggressor accountable for the war”.
Czech prime minister Petr Fiala said that “Europe is facing a great historical test,” and that it has to be able to take care of itself. “Nobody else will do it.”
Fila said Saturday that Europe has to increase its military support for Ukraine and European countries have to increase their arms spending to reach “at least” 3% of GDP.
“If we do not increase our efforts quickly enough, allowing the aggressor to dictate the terms, we will not end well,” he said.
Europe is facing a great historical test. It must take care of its own security and future. No one else will do it for us.
— Petr Fiala (@P_Fiala) March 1, 2025
If we do not want an aggressive Russia to continue expanding just a few hundred kilometers from our homes, we must increase military support for Ukraine.…
French president Emmanuel Macron spoke with both Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and US president Donald Trump following their confrontation at the White House, according to Agence France-Presse.
In an interview with Tribune Dimanche on Sunday, Macron called for a return to calm and respect, and emphasized the need to move forward, as the stakes were too high.
European leaders defend Zelenskyy after confrontation with Trump
“A new era of wickedness has begun,” said German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock on Saturday, Reuters reports, calling for Germany to release an additional 3 billion euros ($3.1 billion) in aid for Ukraine.
Ukrainian lawmaker Andrii Osadchuk said the tone from Donald Trump and vice president JD Vance was in line with prior rhetoric, and that Kyiv’s other Western partners needed to do more.
“Not just a lot, but probably everything will depend on Europe - both for itself and for Ukraine,” Osadchuk said.
Former president Petro Poroshenko, Zelenskyy’s main domestic political rival, said it was not the time to criticise Zelenskyy but that he hoped the president had a “Plan B”.
A baseless conspiracy theory is circulating among pro-Trump social media users alleging that high-profile Democratic figures Antony Blinken, Susan Rice, Victoria Nuland, and Alexander Vindman held a conference call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy during his flight to Washington.
The conspiracy theory went viral, with Republicans including US special envoy, Richard Grenell, spreading the baseless claim.
The claim suggests that they advised him to “stand strong” and be “tough” against president Donald Trump before the confrontation between Zelenskyy, Trump, and vice president JD Vance in the Oval Office took place.
Worth noting: The initial claim, posted by a pro-Trump author on social media, provided no source or evidence and was later acknowledged by herself as speculation.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy will meet King Charles on Sunday as part of his visit to the UK.
He is due to speak to the king on the same day as Keir Starmer’s defence summit of European leaders in London.
It will take place at Sandringham, the Sun newspaper reported.
At Downing Street on Saturday, Zelenskyy said: “I’m very happy that his majesty the king accepted my meeting tomorrow.”
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President Zelenskyy has left Downing Street after his meeting with Keir Starmer.
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A Russian missile struck port facilities in Ukraine’s southern city of Odesa on Saturday, injuring two port workers and damaging infrastructure and a vessel, regional governor Oleh Kiper said.
Kiper, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said the strike damaged a Panamanian-flagged vessel belonging to a European company. He said emergency crews were at the site and medics were treating the two injured men.
Facilities at the three Black Sea ports around the city have been frequent Russian targets in the three-year-old war pitting Moscow against Kyiv.
Inside Number 10, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said: “With pleasure, thank you very much Keir, Mr Prime Minister, happy to be here.
“Really, I saw a lot of people, and I want to thank you, people of the United Kingdom, such big support from the very beginning of this war, thank you, your team.
“And I’m very happy that His Majesty the King accepted my meeting tomorrow, and I’m thankful that you organised such great summit for tomorrow.
“And we are very happy in Ukraine that we have such strategic partners, we’ve signed with you historic document.”
The prime minister interjected “the 100-year agreement” before the Ukrainian president continued: “Yeah, we have only with you such documents, with the United Kingdom, so we’re happy and we count on your support and really, really, really happy that we have such partners and such friends.”
Starmer added “fantastic” and the two leaders shook hands.
Key event
Starmer told Zelenskyy that the cheering crowds outside Downing Street showed “you have full backing across the United Kingdom”.
Speaking inside Number 10, he told the Ukrainian president: “Let me just say that you’re very, very welcome here in Downing Street.
“And as you heard from the cheers on the street outside, you have full backing across the United Kingdom, and we stand with you, with Ukraine, for as long as it may take.
“I hope you heard some of that cheering on the street.
“That is the people of the United Kingdom coming out to demonstrate how much they support you, how much they support Ukraine, and our absolute determination to stand with you – unwavering determination – and to achieve what we both want to achieve, which is a lasting peace.
“A lasting peace for Ukraine based on sovereignty and security for Ukraine – so important for Ukraine, so important for Europe and so important for the United Kingdom.
“So I’m much looking forward to our discussions here this afternoon – thank you very much for making the time to come.”
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President Zelenskyy told Starmer “we count on your support” and said he was thankful to the UK.
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Keir Starmer told Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy he has “full backing across the United Kingdom and we stand with Ukraine for as long as it may take” as the pair met inside Downing Street on Saturday evening.
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Zelenskyy arrives at Downing Street for talks with Starmer
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has arrived in Downing Street for bilateral talks with Keir Starmer.
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One television star turned president visits another far more powerful one on a stage set and attempts to introduce a plot twist of sorts. What could go wrong?
The high-stakes White House showdown that unfolded on Friday after the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, demanded US security guarantees was deemed a damaging setback to Donald Trump’s goal of forging a peace deal – and a win for Russian dictator Vladimir Putin – by some US political commentators.
And others in the US who are closely aligned with Trump cast the president’s meeting with Zelenskyy as a win for his “America first” realignment goals.
“It is bewildering to see Mr Trump’s allies defending this debacle as some show of American strength,” the conservative-leaning Wall Street Journal editorial board said on Saturday, noting that US aims of limiting Russian expansionism without the use of US forces was now “harder to achieve”.
The outlet warned that “turning Ukraine over to Mr Putin would be catastrophic for that country and Europe, but it would be a political calamity for Mr Trump too.
“Friday’s spectacle won’t make [Putin] any more willing to stop his onslaught” after invading Ukraine in 2022.
The New York Times assessed that the derailed Oval Office meeting pointed to Trump’s “determination to scrap America’s traditional sources of power – its alliances among like-minded democracies – and return the country to an era of raw great-power negotiations.”
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The French president, Emmanuel Macron, said he is ready to start discussions on a nuclear shield for Europe, hinting France could help to protect other EU countries, given the security threats posed by Russia.
European leaders will meet in London on Sunday to discuss a peace plan for Ukraine and they will attend an EU summit on Thursday.
Macron told Portuguese TV RTP in an interview he posted on X on Saturday that if Europe wanted to move towards “greater autonomy” in matters of defence and nuclear deterrence, then its leaders should start a discussion about it.
“I am available to open this discussion … if it allows to build a European force,” he said. “There has always been a European dimension to France’s vital interests within its nuclear doctrine.”
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As Keir Starmer surveys the wreckage of the US-Ukrainian relationship caused by the Oval Office bar-room fight, the UK prime minister is clearly intent on trying to repair the diplomatic damage, but it may be that the mood of mutual antagonism not just in the US, but in Europe, is too great.
It is not as if Starmer, to use Trump’s blunt phraseology, has many cards left to play. He had already played them, and his hand was not strong enough to prevent the US-Ukraine breakdown.
Courtesy of King Charles, he offered an unprecedented second state visit to President Trump. He had rushed through a cut in the overseas aid budget so as to be in a position to present Trump with an increase in UK defence spending, and during his meeting on Thursday he had fawned over Trump’s ability to “change the conversation over Ukraine”.
Yet despite the decent atmospherics, Starmer, in common with Emmanuel Macron earlier in the week, could not extract the one concession he wanted: a clear US commitment to provide security guarantees – principally air cover and intelligence – for a European force being prepared to oversee a ceasefire inside Ukraine. Trump continued to insist he trusted Vladimir Putin to abide by the ceasefire and focused on the concessions Ukraine was going to have to make.
Slovakia’s prime minister, Robert Fico, has called the EU’s “peace through force” strategy unrealistic and said the necessity of an immediate ceasefire should be in the EU summit’s conclusions.
He also wanted a demand for the reopening of Russian gas transit through Ukraine to be included, after a dispute with Kyiv this year when it halted the shipment of gas, forcing Slovakia to find different routes.
“If the summit does not respect that there are other views than continuing the war, the European Council on Thursday may not be able to agree on conclusions on Ukraine,” Fico said in a Facebook post.
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King Charles is expected to talk to president Zelenskyy at his Sandringham estate on Sunday amid concerns over trans-Atlantic diplomatic tensions, the Sun newspaper is reporting.
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Russian officials and Moscow’s media outlets reacted with predictable glee to the dramatic clash between Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Donald Trump at the White House on Friday.
Posting on social media, Dmitry Medvedev, Putin’s deputy on the security council and former president, called the exchange “a brutal dressing-down in the Oval Office”.
He wrote: “Trump told the ... clown [Zelenskyy] the truth to his face: the Kyiv regime is playing with the third world war … This is useful. But it’s not enough – we need to stop military support [to Ukraine].”
In recent days, concern grew in Moscow as Trump seemed to lean toward a more Zelenskyy-friendly position following visits to Washington by the leaders of Poland, France and Britain, who urged support for Ukraine. Trump had indicated a willingness to back European peacekeepers in Ukraine – a move Kyiv and European governments saw as essential to preventing Moscow from reigniting the war, as it had after previous ceasefires.
But any worries the Kremlin may have had faded when Zelenskyy found himself ambushed by Trump and his vice-president, JD Vance.
“How Trump and Vance held back from hitting that scumbag is a miracle of restraint,” wrote Maria Zakharova, Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson, on Telegram.
The prime minister of Hungary, Viktor Orbán, has urged the European Union to open peace negotiations with Russia to end the war in Ukraine.
Orbán said: “I am convinced that the European Union – following the example of the United States – should enter into direct discussions with Russia on a ceasefire and a sustainable peace in Ukraine.”
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Nato secretary general says Zelenskyy should restore relationship with Trump
Speaking to the BBC on Saturday, the Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte, said yesterday’s fracas between Trump and Zelenskyy was “unfortunate” and they should repair their relationship.
“I have been twice on the phone now with President Zelenskyy. I told him this, we need to stick together, the United States, Ukraine and Europe, to bring Ukraine to a durable peace,” said Rutte.
When asked what Zelenskyy said about his meeting with Trump, Rutte said he was not at liberty to disclose what he discussed, “but what I clearly told him is that we really have to respect what President Trump has done so far for Ukraine”, referring to the Javelin anti-tank missiles supplied by the US.
Rutte added that the Ukraine would be “nowhere” without American support. “So I told him, we really have to give Trump credit for what he did then, what America did since then, and also what America is still doing.”
Rutte insisted that Trump was committed to engineering a lasting peace in Ukraine, but said the US president wanted Europe and Canada to spend more on defence
Listen, I spoke for half an hour on Thursday with Donald Trump, on the phone with President Trump. We are friends. We have worked for years together. I know he is committed to bring Ukraine to a durable peace. He is committed to Nato. Of course. He expects European Nato partners in Canada to spend more and to ramp up defence production. And he is right there.
I’m absolutely convinced that the US wants to bring Ukraine to this durable peace … But obviously what they need to get there is to make sure that we all work together on this. And it is important that President Zelenskyy finds a way to restore his relationship with the American president and with the senior American leadership team. I discussed this yesterday with Zelenskyy, also with Keir Starmer, and now they will meet later today, Zelenskyy and Starmer, and tomorrow, there will be an important meeting in your beautiful capital.
When the peace deal is struck, it is important, and I think that will come out of tomorrow, that many European countries are willing to help to make sure that the security guarantees are in place in Ukraine, to make sure that that peace deal is lasting and will not be challenged by the Russians again.
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Top White House official gives account of events after the Oval Office argument
The US national security adviser, Mike Waltz, has given Fox News a first-person account of the moment he told a “still argumentative” Volodymyr Zelenskyy it was time to leave the White House.
Trump and Zelenskyy retreated to separate rooms after the fracas in the Oval Office ended, Waltz said on Saturday, and he, the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and other top officials then “advised the president – pretty much unanimously advised the president – that after that insult in the Oval Office, we just do not see how that can move forward, that any further engagement would only go backwards from this moment on”.
Asked by Fox News whether Zelenskyy seemed to recognise what had happened, Waltz said: “No, he didn’t. Frankly, his team did. His ambassador and his adviser were practically – I mean, they were practically in tears wanting this to move forward. But Zelenskyy was still argumentative.”
Waltz said he told Zelenskyy: “Time is not on your side here. Time is not on your side on the battlefield. Time is not on your side in terms of the world situation, and, most importantly, US aid and the taxpayers’ tolerance is not unlimited.”
Zelenskyy, he added, “has not gotten the memo that this is a new sheriff in town. This is a new president, and we are determined to take a new approach towards peace.”
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Muscovites have welcomed Donald Trump’s clash with the Ukrainian leader, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, on Friday.
“Frankly speaking, it was very pleasing that he got such a rebuke in the White House,” nursery worker Galina Tolstykh told the AFP, referring to the way Trump and the US vice-president, JD Vance, denigrated Zelenskyy in the meeting. “And it was nice that things were finally starting to go in the right direction,” the 63-year-old told AFP in central Moscow on Saturday.
“It was very strange and very uncomplimentary for Zelenskyy as a president,” said the 20-year-old waiter Fyodor. “It seems to me that this is not the way a president of a country should behave,” he added of Zelenskyy. “Trump himself said a very true thing, that Ukraine has no winning cards in its hands. Except for signing a peace agreement and signing a ceasefire agreement in general, they don’t have many options.”
Anastasia, a 26-year-old waitress, said the fracas was unpleasant but hoped it could end the war with Ukraine.
“It’s not good, of course, that this situation happened. But in general, we are all glad that everything is going to its logical conclusion,” she told AFP.
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Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said the support of the US is crucial as he arrived in the UK to meet Keir Starmer after his clash with Donald Trump.
The Ukrainian president will meet the prime minister in Downing Street on Saturday afternoon before a defence summit of European leaders on Sunday.
Zelenskyy arrived in the UK on Saturday morning after the unprecedented public clash with Trump and his vice-president, JD Vance, in the White House’s Oval Office on Friday. His plane, emblazoned with the Ukrainian flag, touched down at Stansted airport and was met by a convoy of cars.
Since Friday, leaders have been scrambling to mitigate the fallout from the diplomatic meltdown in Washington. The meeting had been set up to discuss a rare earth minerals deal in exchange for US support in Ukraine…
Read more:
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Rachel Reeves insists UK will not choose between US and Ukraine
Speaking from Leicester’s King Power stadium on Saturday afternoon, the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, told LBC: “This government is not going to choose between countries.”
We need to work with our allies and partners across the world and we’ll continue to do that. But Ukrainian people can know that this government, this country, stands fully behind the Ukrainian people.
We have committed £3bn a year for as long as it takes to support Ukraine, as recently passing legislation to enable frozen Russian assets, the profits on those, to be used to support Ukraine.
And the first tranche of that £3bn worth of funding will be unlocked in the next few days as a sign of our ongoing commitment to support the people of Ukraine.
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My colleague, Luke Harding, has reported on the reaction in Ukraine after the US president, Donald Trump, publicly lambasted his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy:
Ukrainians have rallied behind Volodymyr Zelenskyy after his mauling on Friday in the White House, and have accused Donald Trump and the US vice-president, JD Vance, of deliberately and cynically “starting a brawl”.
There was widespread support for Ukraine’s president at home and dismay at his car-crash encounter in the Oval Office. There was also praise for Zelenskyy’s insistence that a peace deal without security guarantees was meaningless, and that Russia could not be trusted …
The Ukrainian journalist and blogger Ilia Ponomorenko said even if Zelenskyy had sat in silence for 40 minutes Trump would have “found a reason to get offended” and started “a brawl anyway”. “You simply can’t win with people who don’t actually want a standard, successful meeting,” he told his 1.1 million followers on X.
He added: “We can talk endlessly about Ze’s missteps and diplomatic setbacks, but the reality is – under any circumstances – he was always going to be called a beggar, a war gambler pushing the world toward world war three, someone who doesn’t want peace, isn’t thankful enough.
“And, most importantly, someone standing between Trump and his sweet little deal with Putin – who has promised him oceans of gold in exchange for Ukraine”…
Read Luke’s full report here:
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AFP provides some lines from the Russian foreign ministry statement on last night’s clash between Zelenskyy and Trump:
“The visit of the head of the neo-Nazi regime, V Zelenskyy, to Washington on 28 February is a complete political and diplomatic failure of the Kyiv regime,” the Russian foreign ministry spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, said in the statement.
Moscow often accuses Ukraine of harbouring “neo-Nazism” and used that as a pretext to start its invasion. It’s an accusation that western leaders and Kyiv call false and absurd.
“With his outrageously boorish behaviour during his stay in Washington, Zelenskyy confirmed that he is the most dangerous threat to the world community as an irresponsible warmonger,” Zakharova said.
“Russia’s unchanging goals remain the demilitarisation and denazification of Ukraine, as well as the recognition of the existing realities on the ground.”
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The German president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, criticised Donald Trump in unusually sharp terms for his behaviour during last night’s meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the Oval Office.
“Diplomacy fails when negotiating partners are humiliated in front of the whole world,” Steinmeier told DPA, the German news agency, during a flight to Uruguay. “The scene in the White House yesterday took my breath away. I would never have believed that we would one day have to protect Ukraine from the USA.”
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The UK must continue to work with both the US and Ukraine, Kemi Badenoch has said, according to the PA news agency.
The Conservative leader was asked if the offer of a second state visit to the UK for Trump should be rescinded.
Speaking during her first visit to Northern Ireland as Tory leader, Badenoch told broadcasters: “The state visit is from the king. He is the head of state and I think that is a matter for the royal family.”
She added:
We need to make sure that we continue to work with both our allies, both Ukraine and the US. We may disagree with the US on what happened yesterday but what is important now is how we move on from what happened yesterday.
That means focusing on the summit that the prime minister is going to be having tomorrow with European leaders.
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Zelenskyy 'obsessed' with continuing war, Russia claims
The Russian foreign ministry spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, said Zelenskyy’s visit to Washington was Kyiv’s diplomatic failure, and that the Ukrainian president rejected peace, and was obsessed with continuing the war.
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The Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage, says the fracas in the White House on Friday was “regrettable and will make Putin feel like the winner”.
In a post on X, Farage added: “But this is not the end of the story, far from it. A peace deal is essential, and Ukraine needs the right security guarantees.”
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Trump and Zelenskyy took the headlines after their heated clash in the Oval Office on Friday. Still, the contribution of JD Vance, the vice-president, to the explosion of tempers was a significant development, say commentators.
The meeting was muddling along fairly amicably before Vance piped up to accuse the Ukrainian president of being “disrespectful” when Zelenskyy asked Vance to clarify what he meant when he mentioned diplomacy with Russia.
“I’m talking about the kind of diplomacy that’s going to end the destruction of your country,” Vance said.
The US vice-president antagonised Zelenskyy again when he asked the president if he had “said ‘thank you’ once?” referring to the military support the US has provided over the past three years of war.
“You should be thanking the president for trying to bring an end to this conflict,” Vance snapped.
Vance’s outburst demonstrated his fierce loyalty to Trump and that, just like his boss, he is disposed to provocation and likely to conduct himself in an unorthodox manner in public.
“This was the flexing of JD Vance. Vance is different than Elon. For him to sit and take on Zelenskyy in front of Trump was a very big moment,” one US official, speaking anonymously, told Reuters. “He moved to support the president, and Trump loves it when people step out to do the confrontation that he usually does.”
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Ukrainians, many of them hardened by three years of war, rallied around Volodymyr Zelenskyy but also expressed dismay about the future of US backing for Kyiv’s war effort as larger and better equipped Russian forces march across swathes of the east, Reuters reports.
“Trump and Putin are dividing up the world – that’s what I would say. I don’t know what will come of it,” said Kyiv resident Liudmyla Stetsevych, 47.
However, she and other Ukrainians interviewed by Reuters expressed hope that Ukraine’s allies in Europe would boost political and military support if the US dialled back its own.
“We are really very grateful to [the US] for the support we have received all this time and continue to receive, but our dignity and honour should come first,” said Alina Zhaivoronko, standing near a sea of small flags in central Kyiv commemorating Ukraine’s war dead.
“The Americans don’t know the real situation, what’s going on here,” said 54-year-old Ella Kazantseva, an east Ukraine native. “They don’t understand. Everything is beautiful for them.”
European leaders also leapt to Zelenskyy’s defence following the spat on Friday in an outpouring of support on social media.
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The former UK prime minister Boris Johnson said it was time for “cool heads” to prevail and for the US and Ukraine to remember that they are “on the same side”.
In a statement posted on X on Friday, Johnson added: “Volodymyr Zelenskyy has led his people heroically for three years against completely unprovoked aggression from Russia. The bravery of the Ukrainians has been amazing. Their suffering has been appalling.”
Johnson said that Ukraine deserves “our support” and “our respect”.
“The best way forward now is for the minerals deal to be signed as soon as possible. There is still a path to peace. Slava Ukraini!”
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Starmer and Zelenskyy will meet this afternoon
Sir Keir Starmer and Volodymyr Zelenskyy will meet in Downing Street on Saturday afternoon, No 10 said, after the Ukrainian president arrived in the UK by plane.
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Here is President Zelenskyy's full statement expressing gratitude to the US...
We are very grateful to the United States for all the support. I’m thankful to President Trump, Congress for their bipartisan support, and American people. Ukrainians have always appreciated this support, especially during these three years of full-scale invasion.
America’s help has been vital in helping us survive, and I want to acknowledge that. Despite the tough dialogue, we remain strategic partners. But we need to be honest and direct with each other to truly understand our shared goals.
It’s crucial for us to have President Trump’s support. He wants to end the war, but no one wants peace more than we do. We are the ones living this war in Ukraine. It’s a fight for our freedom, for our very survival.
As President Reagan once said: ‘Peace is not just the absence of war.’ We’re talking about just and lasting peace – freedom, justice, and human rights for everyone. A ceasefire won’t work with Putin. He has broken ceasefires 25 times over the last 10 years. A real peace is the only solution.
We are ready to sign the minerals agreement, and it will be the first step toward security guarantees. But it’s not enough, and we need more than just that. A ceasefire without security guarantees is dangerous for Ukraine. We’ve been fighting for three years, and Ukrainian people need to know that America is on our side.
I cannot change Ukraine’s position on Russia. The Russians are killing us. Russia is the enemy, and that’s the reality we face. Ukraine wants peace, but it must be a just and lasting peace. For that, we need to be strong at the negotiation table. Peace can only come when we know we have security guarantees, when our army is strong, and our partners are with us.
We want peace. That’s why I came to the United States, and visited President Trump. The deal on minerals is just a first step toward security guarantees and getting closer to peace. Our situation is tough, but we can’t just stop fighting and not having guarantees that Putin will not return tomorrow.
It will be difficult without the US support. But we can’t lose our will, our freedom, or our people. We’ve seen how Russians came to our homes and killed many people. Nobody wants another wave of occupation. If we cannot be accepted to Nato, we need some clear structure of security guarantees from our allies in the US.
Europe is ready for contingencies and to help fund our large army. We also need the US role in defining security guarantees – what kind, what volume, and when. Once these guarantees are in place, we can talk with Russia, Europe, and the US about diplomacy. War alone is too long, and we don’t have enough weapons to push them out entirely.
When someone talks about losses, every single life matters. Russia invaded our homes, killed our people, and tried to erase us. This isn’t just about territories or numbers – it’s about real lives. That’s what we need everyone to understand.
I want the US to stand more firmly on our side. This is not just a war between our two countries; Russia brought this war on to our territory and into our homes. They are wrong because they disrespected our territorial integrity.
All Ukrainians want to hear a strong US position on our side. It’s understandable the US might look for dialogue with Putin. But the US has always spoken about ‘peace through strength’. And together we can take strong steps against Putin.
Our relationship with the American president is more than just two leaders; it’s a historic and solid bond between our peoples. That’s why I always begin with words of gratitude from our nation to the American nation.
American people helped save our people. Humans and human rights come first. We’re truly thankful. We want only strong relations with America, and I really hope we will have them.
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Zelenskyy says Ukraine is grateful for US support
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who, according to the BBC, has just touched down in London’s Stansted Airport, says he is grateful to the US for its support.
In a post on X, Ukraine’s president wrote:
We are very grateful to the United States for all the support. I’m thankful to President Trump, Congress for their bipartisan support, and American people. Ukrainians have always appreciated this support, especially during these three years of full-scale invasion. Our relationship with the American president is more than just two leaders; it’s a historic and solid bond between our peoples.
Zelenskyy added that humans and human rights come first: “We’re truly thankful. We want only strong relations with America, and I really hope we will have them.”
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Why does Volodymyr Zelenskyy not wear a suit?
The Ukrainian president visited the White House on Friday to sign a deal on rare minerals, but his meeting with Donald Trump quickly deteriorated in front of a world audience.
Tensions began to boil over when a reporter asked the Ukrainian leader why he was not wearing a suit to the meeting.
“Why don’t you wear a suit? Do you own a suit?” the reporter asked.
“Do you have a problem?” Zelensky spat back.
“A lot of Americans have a problem with those who don’t respect the dress code of the Oval Office,” the reporter responded.
Zelensky said: “I will wear a [suit] costume after this war finishes, yes. Maybe something like yours, yes, maybe something better. I don’t know, we will see. Maybe something cheaper. Thank you.”
Zelenskyy does not wear a suit in order to convey a simple message: his country is at war. Optics are crucial in politics, where every move a leader makes is heavily interpreted and scrutinised.
Wearing a suit to formal engagements could prompt commentators to allege that Zelenskyy is not taking the conflict with Russia seriously or that the war is winding down.
It’s crucial that the Ukrainian president continues to signal that there’s a war on; he’s still fighting it, and he needs help. Suits and ties could signal business as usual, and there is nothing usual about fighting off a hostile invasion.
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Zelenskyy's plane arrives in UK ahead of a crucial summit in London
Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s plane has landed in the UK ahead of tomorrow’s European defence summit. TV footage showed a convoy of cars leaving the runway at London Stansted airport.
Keir Starmer will hold talks with Zelenskyy and Italy’s Giorgia Meloni in Downing Street on Sunday before the summit aimed at securing “lasting and enforced” peace in Ukraine.
A Downing Street spokesperson said on Friday that “the UK has made it clear that we’ll play our full part in ensuring a just and lasting peace deal on Ukraine’s terms, backed up by strong security guarantees”.
The spokesperson added:
Just this week we demonstrated our commitment to that, confirming we’ll increase defence spending to 2.5% by 2027. But that peace deal has to come first and, as you know, the prime minister will meet President Zelenskyy before convening European leaders in London on Sunday to continue those discussions.
The deal has to come first, but our teams are going to be talking about how we make sure that deal sticks and is lasting and enforced.
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The Ukrainian World Congress (UWC) has expressed strong support for Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrinform news agency reports.
This statement was made by the UWC president, Paul Grod, and published on the organisation’s website.
We urge the United States to take decisive steps to support Ukraine’s victory, ensuring it has the military, economic, and political backing required to end Russia’s brutal war. A strong and sovereign Ukraine is vital to regional stability, global security, and the defence of democratic values worldwide.”
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Here are some images from Friday’s dramatic clash in the Oval Office…
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The Republican senator Lindsey Graham called for Zelenskyy to change his tune or resign, just hours after attending a friendly meeting between Zelenskyy and a dozen senators, Reuters reports.
“What I saw in the Oval Office was disrespectful, and I don’t know if we can ever do business with Zelenskyy again,” Graham told reporters as he left the White House after the shouting match heard around the world.
“He either needs to resign and send somebody over that we can do business with, or he needs to change,” the South Carolina senator said.
The Tennessee senator Bill Hagerty, who was ambassador to Japan during Trump’s first term, posted on X: “The United States of America will no longer be taken for granted.”
Not every Republican was on Trump’s side. The New York congressman Mike Lawler called the Oval Office meeting “a missed opportunity for both the United States and Ukraine – [to reach] an agreement that would undoubtedly result in stronger economic and security cooperation”.
Don Bacon, a moderate Republican congressman from Nebraska, threw his support behind Kyiv. “A bad day for America’s foreign policy. Ukraine wants independence, free markets and rule of law. It wants to be part of the west. Russia hates us and our western values. We should be clear that we stand for freedom,” he said in a statement.
Zelenskyy visited Washington to help broker an agreement to jointly develop Ukraine’s rich natural resources with the US.
Congressman Michael McCaul, the chairman emeritus of the House foreign affairs committee, said he still hoped for a real and lasting peace that would ensure Ukraine would be free from further Russian aggression. “I also urge President Zelensky to sign the mineral deal immediately,” the Texas lawmaker posted on X. “It will create an economic partnership between the United States and Ukraine. It is in both of our interests to get this deal done.”
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“Respectable diplomacy is essential for peace,” the Tory leader, Kemi Badenoch, has said, after the heated exchange between Trump and Zelenskyy in the Oval Office.
In a social media post on Friday, the leader of the opposition wrote:
We need to remember that the villain is the war criminal President Putin who illegally invaded another sovereign country – Ukraine. A divided west only benefits Russia. Now is the time for more cooperation, not less.
Badenoch insisted that any peace agreement must be reached with Ukraine at the table and would require security guarantees.
“We cannot lose sight of the fact that tonight air raid sirens are sounding in Ukraine,” she added.
Meanwhile, a statement from No 10 on Friday night confirmed the prime minister had “unwavering support for Ukraine”.
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Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, met with a senior North Korean official in Moscow earlier this week, Pyongyang’s state media said on Saturday, according to Agence France-Presse.
On the same day, South Korea’s spy agency said the North had deployed more troops to Russia to fight Ukraine, without disclosing how many.
Seoul’s intelligence services added that North Korea had redeployed its soldiers to the frontline in Kursk. Ukraine previously said they had been withdrawn from the Russian border region after heavy losses.
Ri Hi-yong, a member of North Korea’s politburo and secretary of the central committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, met Putin in the Kremlin, the official Korean Central News Agency said.
During the meeting, Putin reportedly thanked North Korea for “its positive support to the Russian Federation”. The Kremlin confirmed the meeting in a statement on Thursday.
Neither Moscow nor Pyongyang has officially acknowledged that North Koreans have been deployed to fight against Ukraine.
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Republican congressman says the only winner from Trump-Zelenskyy row was Putin
The very public clash between Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Donald Trump looked more like a scene from the WWE than a diplomatic meeting held between world leaders, and the fallout has unsettled Trump’s supporters in the media and in Congress.
Not everyone in the Republican Party shares Trump’s seeming admiration for Vladimir Putin.
The Republican congressman Mike Lawler told PBS News that Friday’s meeting was a “missed opportunity” and the “only winner here was Vladimir Putin”.
He also said it was “unfortunate” that the row spilled out into the public.
“The only winner here was Vladimir Putin and Russia, because a deal did not come to be, which is also why I believe it’s critically important for Zelenskyy and Trump to get back together and work towards finalising an agreement,” he said.
“When this conflict does come to an end, and it will at some point, Ukraine is going to need significant US and European investment to rebuild.”
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The Ukrainian MP Lisa Yasko has said the heated argument between Trump and Zelenskyy in the White House yesterday “was a big shock ... especially for ordinary Ukrainians who still believed that the US and the west would help us”.
“It’s not a gamble. It’s about millions of people. So this is very sensitive to all of us,” she told BBC’s Radio 5 Live, adding: “We want to end war, but we also want to have respect. And we also don’t want to forget who the aggressor is.”
She added: “Every conversation is about people’s lives … Sometimes you have to say no, if you understand that it will not bring you long-term peace. A ceasefire without any understanding of future security is not going to help us.”
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Drone pilots from Ukraine’s state border guard service successfully destroyed Russian targets in the Luhansk region, the Ukrinform news agency reports.
“Pilots of the rapid response command of the Phoenix reconnaissance-strike UAV systems from the Pomsta (Vengeance) Brigade have effectively destroyed infantry, weaponry, and enemy armoured vehicles in the areas of Kreminna and Serebrianskyi forest. A tank, a cannon, 16 vehicles of the invaders, a repeater, and enemy infantry are reported to have been destroyed,” the statement on Telegram reads.
Meanwhile, in the Odesa region, Russian drones caused extensive fires, killed one person and injured three others.
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The Russian defence ministry says Russian forces have captured Burlatske in eastern Ukraine.
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The Ukranian people are 'not alone' says Zelenskyy after vocal support from world leaders
Volodymyr Zelenskyy says it is “very important” that the Ukraine is heard and not forgotten after his calamitous meeting with Donald Trump in the White House on Friday.
The Ukrainian leader said: “People in Ukraine need to know that they are not alone, that their interests are represented in every country, in every corner of the world.”
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It’s warming up in Kyiv. The temperature has risen from -5C to 4C. Sometimes, the sun peeps through breaks in the clouds, but Kyivites are not much cheered by the sunshine. They are not watching for signs of spring as they usually do at this time of year. The atmosphere in the city and in the country as a whole has been one of nervous expectation. This was not an expectation of an end to military action or the signing of a peace treaty with Russia – nothing so specific. Indeed, it was not at all clear what we were waiting for, but it was something connected with Donald Trump and the change in US policy towards Ukraine.
Clarity emerged at today’s macabre theatre at the White House: handshakes, a thumbs up and some fist pumps from the US president, before Trump sat side by side with Volodymyr Zelenskyy to discuss a minerals-for-war-support deal and to humiliate him. At the same time, air raid sirens were sounding in northern and eastern Ukraine. Soon the talks were off and Zelenskyy was gone…
Simon Smith, the former British ambassador to Ukraine, has told Sky News that Volodymyr Zelenskyy was “set up” by the White House team.
Smith said he had never seen anything like the two leaders’ argument yesterday. “Zelenskyy has taken a lot of punishment and has gone through a lot with heroic resilience,” he said. “To be subjected to this sort of torture in the White House session was quite astonishing.”
Smith added: “He looked very much on his own while the White House team piled into him. It showed just how deep Trump’s resentment of him still is. That goes back to Trump’s feeling that Zelenskyy didn’t help him during his first term. Also, Trump has been keen to move fast on the conflict, and Zelenskyy is infuriating him by raising objections to that plan – objections that are entirely reasonable.”
Smith also noted the different attitude Trump shows to Vladimir Putin compared with traditional allies in Nato. “He has piled all the pressure on Ukraine and subjected European allies to a lot of pressure, and Putin appears to have suffered no pressure whatsoever. There is a really worrying question here about where the US is going under Trump?”
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Zelenskyy says he wants to remain friends with Trump
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, appeared on US television on Friday after his bust-up with Trump in the White House, attempting to mitigate the political damage caused by the confrontation.
“I’m very thankful to Americans for all your support,” he said in an interview with Fox News. “You helped us a lot from the very beginning ... you helped us to survive.”
Asked if he owed the president an apology, Zelensky said: “I respect the president and I respect American people.”
“I think we have to be very open and very honest, and am not sure we did something bad,” he added.
He later admitted the public argument was “not good” but seemed confident that his relationship with the US president could recover.
“I just want to be honest and I just want our partners to understand the situation correctly and I want to understand everything correctly. That’s about us, not to lose our friendship,” he said.
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Ukraine has destroyed 103 drones launched by Russia during an overnight strike, its air force has said.
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In full: Zelenskyy and Trump meeting descends into heated argument in front of the press – video
Martin Gelin, who writes for the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter, penned an opinion piece for the Guardian, arguing that Donald Trump is siding with Russia over Ukraine.
“Dominique de Villepin made his name with a memorable speech to the UN security council in February 2003, just before the US-led invasion of Iraq. De Villepin, the then French foreign minister, in effect signalled France’s intention to veto a UN resolution authorising the war, forcing the US and UK to act unilaterally. He warned that Washington’s strategy would lead to chaos in the Middle East and undermine international institutions. The prophetic plea was met with applause, a rare event in the security council chamber. It led to the career diplomat’s inclusion as a character in David Hare’s 2004 anti-war play, Stuff Happens.
Now the veteran statesman, who warned about the risks of Europe’s over-reliance on the US many years before it became a mainstream opinion in Paris or Berlin, is back with advice on how to respond to the most serious breakdown in Europe’s relationship with the US in 80 years …”
Read more here:
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'Either we’re going to end it or let him fight it out' – Trump
The word “extraordinary” falls short of conveying just how unprecedented yesterday’s confrontation between President Trump and President Zelenskyy was in the Oval Office.
Speaking to reporters on Friday, however, Trump seemed to play down the significance of possibly the most disastrous display of public diplomacy in recorded history. “It didn’t work out exactly great,” Trump said, adding that Zelenskyy “overplayed his hand” in the exchange. He also repeated his claim that the Ukrainian leader was dealing with a “very weak set of cards” in negotiating Ukraine’s future.
Trump said Zelenskyy would be “strong” if he signed the US-proposed minerals deal. “He’s looking to go on and fight, fight, fight, we’re looking to end the death,” Trump added.
Asked what the Ukrainian leader needed to do to restart talks, Trump said: “He’s got to say: ‘I want to make peace.’ Either we’re going to end it or let him fight it out.”
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JD Vance was supposed to be the inconsequential vice-president.
But his starring role in Friday’s blowup between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy – in which he played a cross between Trump’s bulldog and a tech-bro Iago – may mark the moment that the postwar alliance between Europe and America finally collapsed.
Trump and Vance teamed up to goad Zelenskyy into a feud in the Oval Office. But it was Vance that snaked his way in first, riling up the Ukrainian president by telling him that he was leading “propaganda tours” of the destruction wrought by Russia’s invasion.
“I think it’s disrespectful to come into the Oval Office and try to litigate this in front of the American media,” Vance said, his voice rising. “You bring people on a propaganda tour, Mr President … Do you think that it’s respectful to come to the Oval Office of the United States of America and attack the administration that is trying to prevent the destruction of your country?”
“During the war, everyone has problems,” Zelenskyy replied. “But you have nice ocean and don’t feel now. But you will feel it in the future.”
“You don’t know that,” Trump interjected angrily. “You don’t know that. Don’t tell us what we’re going to feel.”
The rest, as Trump would later call it, was “great television”. By design, it was disastrous for Ukraine.
For the full story, click here:
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What European leaders have said since the meeting
Circling back to European leaders throwing their support behind Volodymyr Zelenskyy after his clash with Donald Trump, here are some of the political reactions from across the region, care of Agence France-Presse.
The European Union leaders Ursula von der Leyen and António Costa assured Zelenskyy that he was “never alone”. “Be strong, be brave, be fearless,” wrote the European Commission and European Council presidents in a joint statement on social media, telling Zelenskyy: “We will continue working with you for a just and lasting peace.”
Emmanuel Macron said Russia was the “aggressor” in the war and “we were all right to help Ukraine and sanction Russia three years ago and to continue to do so”. The French president went further, saying that “if anyone is playing at world war three, it’s Vladimir Putin”, referring to Trump’s accusations against Zelenskyy.
Germany’s probable next chancellor, Friedrich Merz, assured Zelenskyy of his support, saying: “We must never confuse the aggressor and the victim in this terrible war.” The outgoing chancellor, Olaf Scholz, also voiced support for Ukraine, as did the foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, who added that Kyiv’s “quest for peace and security is ours”.
The Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, called for the US, Europe and their allies to gather over the Ukraine war. “A summit without delay is needed ... to talk frankly about how we intend to tackle today’s major challenges, starting with Ukraine.”
“Dutch support for Ukraine remains undiminished. Especially now,” the Netherlands prime minister, Dick Schoof, said on X, adding that “we want lasting peace and an end to the war of aggression that Russia has started”.
Poland also reassured Kyiv. “Dear Ukrainian friends, you are not alone,” its prime minister, Donald Tusk, said on X in a post addressed to Zelenskyy.
The Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, said his country would stand by Kyiv. “Ukraine, Spain stands with you,” he said on X.
Keir Starmer vowed “unwavering support” for Kyiv. The British prime minister “is doing all he can to find a path forward to a lasting peace based on sovereignty and security for Ukraine”, a Downing Street spokesperson said.
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Ukraine’s air defences destroyed 103 of 154 drones that Russia launched in its latest overnight strike, Kyiv’s air force said on Saturday.
The other 51 drones were “locationally lost”, it said, probably as a result of electronic jamming, Reuters reports.
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The astonishing scenes in the Oval Office dominated British front pages on Saturday, with newspapers united in their horror. Adjectives including disastrous and vile were used to describe the meeting in which Donald Trump and JD Vance openly berated Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The Guardian (pictured) leads with a quote from Trump: “You are gambling with world war three”, characterising the meeting between the US and Ukrainian presidents as “disastrous”. In a separate sketch of the row, David Smith writes that “Trump on Friday presided over one of the greatest diplomatic disasters in modern history”.
For all the page ones, click here:
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Donald Trump had received Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House to discuss a controversial mineral resources deal that the US president has said is the first step towards a ceasefire agreement he is seeking to broker between Russia and Ukraine.
But the Friday meeting degenerated after Zelenskyy suggested that JD Vance, a skeptic of US support for Ukraine, should come to the country to see the destruction from the invasion and that Russia was responsible for the continued fighting, as Andrew Roth and Lauren Gambino report.
During the public part of the meeting, Trump and Vance took turns to berate Zelenskyy, with Vance accusing him of carrying out “publicity tours” and Trump telling him: “You’re not really in a good position right now.”
At one point Vance demanded: “Have you said thank you once?”
Trump later delivered Zelenskyy an ultimatum, telling him that Ukraine must either “make a deal or we are out” – suggesting the US could walk away from negotiations and cut off support to Kyiv.
At one point in the exchange, the Ukrainian ambassador to Washington appeared to be holding her head in her hands.
You can read the full report here:
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Opening summary
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the war in Ukraine, hours after an unprecedented showdown between the US president, Donald Trump, and the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, at the White House.
European leaders have voiced their solidarity with Ukraine in the wake of the disastrous summit, in which Trump said the Ukrainian leader was not “ready for peace” and accused him of “gambling with world war three”.
Washington’s military support for Kyiv now appears to hang in the balance and talks over a minerals deal have seemingly collapsed after the meeting between Zelenskyy, Trump and his vice-president, JD Vance, descended into acrimony on Friday. Trump berated Zelenskyy and then abruptly called off the minerals deal that the US president had said would be the first step towards a ceasefire with Russia.
The meeting had been due to continue behind closed doors but was cut short after the clash, with Zelenskyy leaving the White House early. A press conference to announce the minerals deal was cancelled.
If you are just getting up to speed with the latest developments, here is what you need to know.
European leaders have rallied behind Zelenskyy after the unprecedented exchange. The head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the president of the European Council, António Costa, were among the leaders who assured Zelenskyy of Europe’s support. “Today, it became clear that the free world needs a new leader,” said the EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas. The outgoing German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said: “Ukraine can rely on Germany – and on Europe.” The French president, Emmanuel Macron, said: “Russia is the aggressor and Ukraine is the aggressed people.” A spokesperson for the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, said: “He retains his unwavering support for Ukraine.”
The Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, stood out in Europe, thanking Trump for having “stood bravely for peace”. Moscow, meanwhile, reacted with glee to the Trump-Zelenskyy clash, with the former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev – now the deputy head of Russia’s security council – saying on Telegram: “A brutal dressing down in the Oval Office.”
In an interview with Fox News, Zelenskyy expressed regret that the Trump meeting became acrimonious but insisted their relationship could be salvaged. The Ukrainian leader defended himself, but also acknowledged the dispute was “not good for both sides”. Asked if he felt he owed the US president an apology, as many of Trump’s Republican allies have demanded, Zelenskyy did not directly answer, saying instead: “I think that we have to be very open and very honest. And I’m not sure that we did something bad.”
The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, called on Zelenskyy to apologise, while questioning whether the Ukrainian leader really wanted a peace deal. Zelenskyy should “apologise for turning this thing into the fiasco for him that it became”, Rubio told CNN. “There was no need for him to go in there and become antagonistic.”
The Trump administration is considering ending all shipments of military aid to Ukraine after the Oval Office meeting, according to a report. The decision, if taken, would apply to billions of dollars’ worth of radars, vehicles, ammunition and missiles awaiting shipment to Ukraine through the presidential drawdown authority, the Washington Post reports, citing a senior US official.
US Democratic lawmakers came to Zelenskyy’s defence, condemning Trump and Vance’s “shameful” and “disgraceful” treatment of the Ukrainian leader. But Trump’s Republican colleagues described the Oval Office exchange as evidence the president was “putting America first”. Lindsey Graham, a senator from South Carolina, who was once among the most outspoken advocates for supporting the Ukraine war effort, called on Zelenskyy to resign.
A Russian drone strike on a medical facility and other targets in Kharkiv late on Friday injured at least five people, according to local officials. The regional governor, Oleh Syniehubov, said eight drones hit civilian areas in three central districts of Ukraine’s second largest city. More than 50 people were evacuated from the medical facility and emergency crews were bringing a fire triggered by the strike under control, he said. Dozens of buildings were damaged.
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