A hospital in Sumy was bombed in a wave of attacks on Ukraine that led Volodymyr Zelenskyy to declare Vladimir Putin had “effectively rejected” a ceasefire – immediately after the Russian president told Donald Trump he would halt strikes against Ukraine’s energy grid and infrastructure. The Kremlin said after Trump and Putin’s call that the Russian president had given immediate orders for such strikes to stop.
Soon after the call, air raid sirens wailed and explosions rang out in Ukraine. Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s president, said “there have been hits, specifically on civilian infrastructure”. Local reports said the city of Slovyansk was partly blacked out after power infrastructure was damaged. Zelenskyy said more than 40 Russian drones were launched by Russia. He added: “It is precisely such night attacks by Russia that destroy our energy systems, our infrastructure, the normal life of Ukrainians. Today, Putin de facto rejected the proposal for a complete ceasefire. It would be right for the world to reject in response any attempts by Putin to drag out the war.”
Zelenskyy said he would support stopping strikes on energy targets but was waiting for further information from Washington. “I think it will be right that we will have a conversation with President Trump and we will know in detail what the Russians offered the Americans or what the Americans offered the Russians. After we get details from the American president, from the American side, we will give our answer, prepare it, and our team will be ready for technical discussions.” Ukraine last week offered a full 30-day ceasefire, which Putin has rejected. Zelenskyy said: “They are not ready to end this war, and we can see that. They are not ready even for the first step, which is a ceasefire. [Putin’s] whole game is to weaken [Ukraine].”
Ukraine’s troops attacked along the border with Russia’s Belgorod region on Tuesday, just south-east of the remaining Ukrainian positions in Kursk. The Institute for the Study of War said that, according to Russian bloggers, Ukrainian forces moved from Sumy oblast to reach south-west of Demidovka in Belgorod before they were pushed back. On Wednesday morning, the Belgorod regional governor, said the situation in the Krasnoyaruzhsky district of Belgorod “remains difficult”. Ukraine carried out up to five attacks on Tuesday using up to 200 fighters with tanks, armoured combat vehicles and demolition vehicles, the Russian defence ministry said. Kyiv did not comment.
Authorities in the southern Russian region of Krasnodar said early on Wednesday that a Ukrainian drone attack set fire to an oil complex near the village of Kavkazskaya. Nasa Firms satellite fire monitoring showed a fire at a petroleum pipeline facility matching the description. Thirty employees were evacuated and “the work at the facility has been suspended”, the local administration said. The Russian Shot Telegram channel posted video of fires at what it described as the Kavkazskaya oil transshipment point.
Russia’s aviation watchdog Rosaviatsia said that it was suspending flights from airports at Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod and Nizhnekamsk, all hundreds of kilometres east of Moscow, to “ensure air safety”, which usually happens when there are reports of drone attacks.
Zelenskyy on Tuesday said Ukrainian troops were still fighting in Russia’s Kursk region and would stay there “as long as we need”, following days of Russian advances in the area. “Ukraine is fulfilling its task in the Kursk region. The Ukrainian military are there.”
Olaf Scholz, the outgoing German chancellor, said at a news conference in Berlin with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, that ending Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure would be “a good start” and first step but “there cannot be an agreement without Ukraine”. “The next step must be a complete ceasefire for Ukraine and as quickly as possible.” Macron said: “We have been promoting peace since day one and that cannot be achieved without Ukraine taking part in talks.”
Germany’s parliament voted in favour of unleashing historic levels of spending to boost its military against Russian aggression. The incoming chancellor, Friedrich Merz, and his party joined with likely coalition partners to create a €500bn fund and relax Germany’s rules on government debt.
The Kremlin said Russia and Ukraine would exchange 175 prisoners of war each on Wednesday, and Russia would also hand over to Ukraine 23 badly wounded soldiers.
The US envoy Steve Witkoff said on Tuesday that more talks with Russia on the Ukraine war would take place on Sunday in Jeddah. He told told Fox News: “The devil is in the details. We’ve got a team going to Saudi Arabia, led by our national security adviser [Mike Waltz] and our secretary of state [Marco Rubio], and I think, you know, we’ve got to figure out those details.”
