Ukraine-Russia battle newest: Zelensky seeks Patriots in return for sending drone consultants to Middle East

President Donald Trump said that it was inconsequential if Russia has provided Iran with information to help Tehran target US military personnel and assets in the Middle East as the week-old war rages.

The president dismissed the import of such information-sharing after he attended the dignified transfer for six Army reservists who were killed in a drone strike in Kuwait the day after the US and Israel launched a war on Iran that has unsettled the global economy.

Trump stopped short of confirming reports by The Associated Press and other news outlets that U.S. intelligence officials believe Russia has provided Iran with such targeting information.

But if Moscow is passing on such details, he said Iran was getting little out of it.”If you take a look at what’s happened to Iran in the last week, if they’re getting information, it’s not helping them much,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One as he flew to Miami, where he’s spending the rest of the weekend.

The president also waved off a question about how Russia assisting Iran in such a way might affect his view of the US-Russia relationship.

“They’d say we do it against them,” Trump responded. “Wouldn’t they say that we do it against them?

“Ukraine, in the four years since it was invaded by Russia, has received US intelligence to help defend against incoming missiles from Russia as well as to help Kyiv hit certain Russian targets.

Russia has lost 1,273,290 troops since the start of the full scale invasion in 2022, according to Ukraine’s armed forces.

The number includes 930 casualties suffered over the past day.

The figures, reported early Sunday, are broadly supported by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, which assessed 1.2m casualties since Feb 2022 earlier this year.

That figure included killed, missing and wounded.

Ukraine could now face a shortage of air defence missiles to protect its cities from attacks, he said, as the US and its allies use hundreds to defend against Iran’s waves of drones and rockets.

“The focus will shift to the Middle East, to the Iranian war, now, and to the United States and also to Israel,” Zelensky told the World of Trouble podcast. “This is very understandable. And to the countries in the Middle East, who are now under attacks, massive attacks of drones and missiles from the Iranian side.

Read Sam Kiley’s interview with Zelensky.

Vladimir Putin said the crisis in Ukraine stemmed from Western support for the 2014 change of power in Kyiv, accusing Western countries of making a “systemic mistake”.

Speaking to journalist Pavel Zarubin on Russia’s Vesti programme, the Russian president said the conflict began after Western backing for the political upheaval in Kyiv, followed by developments in Crimea and eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region.

“One could say that everything happening now [in Ukraine] is undoubtedly a mistake, first and foremost by Western countries. A systemic mistake,” he added, according to Tass news agency.

Putin also accused Ukraine’s leadership of manipulating European countries, describing the situation as “the tail wagging the dog”.

“The situation is very strange. Because I get the impression that we are dealing with a case that is called ‘the tail wagging the dog,’ rather than the other way around,” he said.

He added that Western nations were now “reaping what they sowed” through their policies towards Ukraine, and warned that tensions had pushed the situation on global energy markets to the limit.

Rescue operations were still ongoing yesterday after at least 11 people died in a missile strike on a five-story building in the city of Kharkiv on Saturday.

Mayor Ihor Terekhov said the victims included a teacher and her nine-year-old son, as well as a 13-year-old girl and her mother.

Regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said two boys aged six and 11 and a 17-year-old girl were among the injured. Officials said on Sunday that another 11 people were believed to be trapped under the rubble.

Russia launched 480 drones and 29 missiles across Ukraine overnight, including Shahed drones, Zircon hypersonic missiles and Iskander‑M ballistic missiles, Ukraine’s air force said. Ukrainian forces said they shot down 453 drones and 19 missiles.

“There must be a response from partners to these savage strikes against life,” president Volodymyr Zelensky said.

“Russia has not abandoned its attempts to destroy Ukraine’s residential and critical infrastructure, and therefore support must continue.”

A Russian drone struck a passenger train in northeastern Sumy Oblast early on Sunday, according to Ukrainian media reports.

The attack occurred at around 5.30am local time and hit a train carrying about 200 passengers, local prosecutors told the outlet Suspilne. Authorities said no injuries were reported, and passengers were later redirected to their final destinations.

Ukraine’s state rail operator Ukrzaliznytsia said the strike was part of a broader overnight drone campaign targeting railway infrastructure across the country, with additional damage reported in Rivne Oblast, Zhytomyr Oblast and Vinnytsia Oblast.

The drone was preliminarily identified as a Lancet drone, a strike drone widely used by Russia.

Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday that Ukrainian drone specialists would travel to the Middle East “next week”, as Kyiv seeks additional US air defence missiles in exchange for its battlefield expertise in countering drones.

Ukraine is facing a shortage of the costly PAC-3 air defence missiles supplied by the United States, and officials fear that a prolonged conflict in the Middle East could further disrupt supplies.

Asked how Kyiv intended to help the US and its Gulf allies counter drone attacks, Zelensky said it was too early to provide details.

“It is too early to say anything else at this stage,” he said, adding: “I think that next week, when the experts are on site, they will assess the situation and help.”

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky said he and the newly elected Dutch prime minister Rob Jetten discussed joint arms production and strengthening sanctions against Russia’s “shadow fleet” during talks in Kyiv.

Speaking at a joint briefing, Zelensky said Russia’s war effort depended heavily on revenue from oil exports and urged European countries to take stronger steps to curb the movement of tankers transporting Russian oil.

“Russia’s war directly depends on Putin’s ability to earn money from oil. That is why it is so important for European countries to stop the movement of tankers carrying Russian oil, which are still numerous in European seas,” Zelensky said.

He also emphasised Ukraine’s unique experience in defending against Iranian-made drones used by Russia.

“It is important that we are producing weapons together with the Netherlands – and we will certainly continue and expand this joint work,” Zelensky said on X, adding that the two leaders had discussed investment and possible production volumes in detail.

In recent months, Ukraine has stepped up efforts to establish joint arms production with European countries, opening several factories to manufacture drones.

The U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran have raised concerns among Democrats and others about diminishing American stockpiles of certain weapons, illustrating a long-standing production problem that some experts say could present challenges if another conflict emerges.

Missile defense systems are under the most strain, according to experts, with Patriot and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, interceptors in high demand in Ukraine and Israel, respectively.

Here’s why it matters:

Russia’s defence ministry said on Sunday that its air defence units had intercepted 234 drones over various parts of central and southern Russia over a nine-hour period, including six drones headed towards Moscow.

The ministry reported no damage or casualties during the period from 2pm to 11pm. The governor of the Bryansk region, which borders Ukraine, said one farm worker was injured.

The Russia-installed governor of the eastern Donetsk region areas under Moscow’s control said a Ukrainian military attack killed a family of four in the town of Hirnyak near Pokrovsk – a Ukrainian logistics centre that has long been under pressure from Russian forces.

A representative of Russia’s Investigative Committee, now operating in Russian-held areas of Ukraine, said Ukrainian shelling had damaged a children’s clinic in Donetsk, the region’s main city.