Ukraine-Russia struggle newest: Explosions rock Kyiv as Putin unleashes ‘massive’ drone and missile assault

Russia unleashed a massive combined attack on Kyiv early this morning, sparking fires and scattering debris across many districts of the capital, mayor Vitali Klitschko said.

At least 11 people were injured as emergency crews responded to multiple strikes, he said in a statement.

Five people were hospitalised, including one man in critical condition and a pregnant woman, after a series of powerful explosions sounded in the city and air defenses were activated.

The attack on the capital was ongoing, officials said, urging residents to remain in shelters until the air raid alert is lifted. City authorities warned that power and water outages are possible.

German chancellor Friedrich Merz and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky have discussed an energy scandal that has engulfed the latter’s government on the phone, the German government said in a statement on Thursday.

Mr Zelensky pledged complete transparency, long-term support for independent anti-corruption authorities and further swift measures to regain the trust of the Ukrainian people, European partners and international donors, the statement said.

“The chancellor emphasized the German government’s expectation that Ukraine would vigorously pursue the fight against corruption and further reforms, particularly in the area of the rule of law,” it added.

Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Thursday that its forces had captured two Ukrainian settlements in northeastern and central Ukraine.

The towns named were Synelnykove in the Kharkiv region and Danylivka in the Dnipropetrovsk region.

The Independent could not independently verify the battlefield report, but authoritative Ukrainian battlefield map DeepState shows Russian forces on the outskirts of Synelnykove.

The Kremlin has said Ukraine will have to negotiate with Russia “sooner or later” and predicted that Kyiv’s negotiating position would get worse by the day.

Moscow, whose forces are trying to take control of the city of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine, has accused Ukrainian officials of refusing to engage in peace talks. Kyiv says Moscow’s terms to end the war are unacceptable and tantamount to asking it to surrender.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday that Russia remained open to a political and diplomatic settlement and wanted peace.

But in the absence of such an opportunity, he said Russia would continue fighting in order to protect its own security for the benefit of future generations.

“The Ukrainian side should know that sooner or later it will have to negotiate, but from a much worse position. The position of the Kyiv regime will deteriorate day by day,” Peskov said.

The European Union needs to listen to Belgium’s concerns over using Russian frozen assets to help Ukraine, Dutch finance minister Eelco Heinen told reporters on Thursday ahead of a meeting with his EU counterparts in Brussels.

The European proposal to use Russian frozen assets to help Ukraine is being held up due to concerns from Belgium, where most of the assets are parked.

Belgium has demanded financial guarantees from EU capitals against the loan, but the European Commission’s top brass failing to convince the Belgian leadership to get on board with the plan last Friday, Politico reported.

A reparations loan based on immobilised Russian assets is the most effective option to fund Ukraine’s financing needs, EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has said.

EU member states have two other options, including using “headroom” in its budget to raise capital, or for an agreement among member states to raise capital by themselves, she said in a speech in European Parliament.

“Option three is to have a reparations loan based on immobilised Russian assets. We give a loan to Ukraine, that Ukraine pays back if Russia pays reparations,” she said.

“This is the most effective way to sustain Ukraine’s defence and its economy.”

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview published late on Wednesday that he hoped Washington would take no actions liable to escalate the Ukraine conflict.

Lavrov said US president Donald Trump had long advocated dialogue with Russia, had sought to fully understand the Russian position on Ukraine and “demonstrated a commitment to finding a sustainable peaceful solution”.

Lavrov said Trump had acknowledged that one of the reasons behind Russia’s actions was the enlargement of the Nato alliance and the deployment of its infrastructure close to its border.

Europe, he said, was “sabotaging all peacemaking efforts and are rejecting direct contacts with Moscow. They introduce new sanctions which boomerang on their economies even further. They’re openly preparing for a new major European war against Russia.”

Lavrov’s comments were originally part of an interview with Italian daily Corriere della Sera. Tass said the Italian daily had declined to publish the interview.

The Russian army overran three settlements in the southern Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine, Kyiv’s top military commander said Wednesday, as Moscow’s forces expand their efforts to capture more Ukrainian territory.

Dense fog enabled Russian troops to infiltrate Ukrainian positions in Zaporizhzhia, Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi wrote on the messaging app Telegram, adding that Ukrainian units are locked in “grueling battles” to repel the Russian thrust.

He noted, however, that the fiercest battles are still in the besieged Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, in the eastern Donetsk region, where close to half of all front-line clashes took place over the previous 24 hours.

Kenya said on Wednesday over 200 of its citizens are fighting for Russia in Moscow’s war in Ukraine, and that recruiting agencies are still actively working to lure more Kenyans into the conflict, Reuters reports.

Ukraine last week said that more than 1,400 citizens from three dozen African countries are fighting alongside Russian forces in Ukraine with some recruited through deception.

Russia was enticing Africans to sign contracts that Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andriy Sybiha described as “equivalent to … a death sentence”, and urged African governments to caution their citizens.

“Recruitment exercises in Russia have reportedly expanded to include African nationals, including Kenyans,” Kenya’s ministry of foreign affairs said in a statement.