Zelenskyy says defence industry event should not have taken place; US influencer Laura Loomer visits Kyiv. What we know on day 1,613
A Russian ballistic missile strike in Ukraine’s Kyiv region has killed 10 people and injured almost 100 at the site of a defence industry event that Volodymyr Zelenskyy said should never have taken place. Pictures posted online by the Ukraine Emergency Services showed teams sifting through piles of rubble at the site north of the capital, adjacent to several houses, after Friday’s attack.
“Of course, the cause of this attack is Russian missiles, nothing but Russian terror,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address. “However, we have said a thousand times that under these wartime conditions, with such an enemy, it is absolutely unacceptable to hold any weapons exhibitions with large crowds of people, especially near residential buildings.” The event, hosted by a drone manufacturers’ association, was taking place in an area a short drive from the outskirts of the capital. The acting governor of Kyiv region, Ruslan Oliynyk, said that a day of mourning would be observed on Saturday in the region.
The rightwing US influencer Laura Loomer has visited Ukraine and met Zelenskyy, who says he expects to meet Donald Trump in Washington next week. In an interview with Loomer, the Ukrainian president said he would probably attend the funeral of senator Lindsey Graham and hold talks with Trump. Loomer interviewed Zelenskyy in the garden of the presidential palace in Kyiv – a remarkable move for the online provocateur who has previously minimised Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and amplified Kremlin propaganda to her nearly 2 million followers on social media.
In the interview Zelenskyy said cooperation between Kyiv and Washington on drones would include a US factory to produce the unmanned aerial vehicles using Ukraine’s advanced technology. He said Ukraine wanted to build quickly on an initial agreement on drones clinched with Washington. Ukraine has excelled at drone innovation as it has pursued asymmetrical warfare against Russia during their four-year-old conflict, and Kyiv has shared its advances with some allies.
“Important technology. This is what we have. And America has great technology. Our drone deal is win-win,” Zelenskyy said. “We will build a great factory in the United States. We want to [have] lines of production.” In Washington, a source familiar with the matter said details of an agreement were still being worked out ahead of Zelenskyy’s talks with Trump, scheduled for Tuesday, according to a White House official.
Romania’s defence ministry said a second drone breaching national airspace in as many days was shot down by a pilot in an F-16 fighter jet in an uninhabited area near the border with Ukraine. The first drone, which Romanian prosecutors investigating the fragments said was Russian, was shot down by the Nato state on Friday, marking the first time it has done so after dozens of airspace breaches.
In eastern Ukraine, a Russian aerial bomb attack killed five people and injured nine in the city of Sloviansk, regional governor Vadym Filashkin said on Friday. He later said that a new Russian strike on the city in the evening injured 16 people and damaged residential buildings. In the northern Sumy region, a Russian drone strike killed two people, regional governor Oleh Hryhorov said on Telegram. And in the south-eastern city of Zaporizhzhia, a Russian strike set fire to a shopping centre, injuring a number of people.
On the Russian side, the acting governor of the Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, reported on social media early on Saturday a “massive enemy drone attack” on the city of Belgorod. “Sadly, there are wounded, who have been promptly taken to hospitals,” he said. “There is damage and fires on the streets, which fire crews are extinguishing.”
A wave of Ukrainian attacks on warehouses belonging to Wildberries – Russia’s largest e-commerce company and the country’s answer to Amazon – has brought the war closer to ordinary people, Pjotr Sauer writes. The strikes have destroyed billions of dollars worth of goods made, sold and bought by everyday Russians and devastated small businesses.
Continue reading...