Ukraine-Russia war latest: Zelensky calls Putin a ‘global threat’ after Moscow’s deadliest aerial attack this year

Romanian radar systems caught a drone breaching its ⁠national airspace during a Russian overnight attack on neighbouring ⁠Ukraine ​before ⁠losing contact southeast of the ⁠border village of ​Chilia ⁠Veche, the ‌defence ministry said on Friday.

Romania, an ‌EU and Nato state, shares a 650km (400-mile) land border ⁠with Ukraine and has had drones breach its airspace and fragments fall onto its ‌territory repeatedly since ​Russia began ‌attacking Ukrainian ⁠ports across the ⁠Danube river from ‌the country.

A court ​in Russian-controlled Luhansk sentenced a Polish citizen to 13 years in a maximum-security penal colony for ⁠participating in armed conflict on the side of Ukraine, the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office said on Thursday.

The 47-year-old Pole, ⁠Krzysztof Flaczek, arrived ​in September ⁠2024 in Ukraine, where he began participating in combat operations ⁠after receiving training, it said.

Russia ​said ⁠he received financial ‌compensation for fighting for Ukraine. He was detained by the Russians in ‌November 2024.

“Taking into account ‌the position of the state prosecutor, the court sentenced the militant to 13 ⁠years of imprisonment to be served in a maximum-security penal colony,” prosecutors said.

Flaczek had been tried by a court in Russian-controlled Luhansk, one of four Ukrainian regions which Moscow ‌claimed as its own in ​2022 in a move ‌Kyiv and the ⁠West rejected as an illegal land ⁠grab.

Russian courts have sentenced several western ‌Europeans for fighting ​for Ukraine, including ‌two Britons.

Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Svyrydenko left Washington on Thursday describing her talks with top US officials as “very supportive”, amid waning attention on Russia’s war as the focus has shifted to Iran conflict.

She said treasury secretary Scott Bessent backed Kyiv’s position on maintaining pressure on Russia in an interview with Reuters.

In her only interview during the visit, Svyrydenko said she urged US officials not to weaken, waive or delay sanctions imposed on Moscow after its full-scale invasion, stressing their importance in limiting Russia’s war capacity.

“I think Secretary Bessent stands with Ukraine,” she said, adding that US counterparts understand the need to tighten sanctions and prevent circumvention.

Svyrydenko also reiterated Kyiv’s stance that any peace deal with Russia must include firm security guarantees and a clear reconstruction plan.

“I dream that this war will end,” she said, “but with proper security guarantees and a recovery plan that allows Ukrainians to live the life they deserve.”

Russia has warned Finland and the Baltic nations that Moscow reserves the “right to self-defence” if Ukrainian drones strike using their airspace.

Russian Security Council secretary Sergei Shoigu issued the warning to Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

Sergei Shoigu, who was Russia’s defence minister at the time of Moscow’s full-scale invasion in 2022, pointed to incidents where drones crashed in Finland and the Baltic states during Ukrainian strikes on Ust-Luga, a key Russian deep-water port in the Gulf of Finland.

He said that Ukrainian drone attacks on Russia have been launched through the Baltic states via Finland.

“This could occur in two scenarios: either Western air defence systems are extremely ineffective… or the states in question are deliberately allowing their airspace to be used, meaning they are actively complicit in the aggression against Russia,” he said.

“In the latter case, under international law, Article 51 of the UN Charter regarding the inherent right of states to self-defence in the event of an armed attack comes into effect.”

It comes a day after Moscow warned that Europe’s support for Ukraine’s drone capabilities could bring “unpredictable consequences,” and said these countries have become part of Kyiv’s “strategic rear.”

The Baltic states have denied these accusations as false.

A Russian attack on Thursday with more than 700 drones and missiles across Ukraine has killed at least 18 people in what local officials said was the deadliest attack in months.

Officials said nine people were killed in the southern port city of Odesa, five in the central city of Dnipro, and four, including a child, in the capital, Kyiv.

In Russia, Moscow said a Ukrainian drone strike killed two people, including a child, in the southern Krasnodar region.

The attacks follow a brief ceasefire over Orthodox Easter last weekend, with both sides accusing each other of hundreds of violations.

In Kyiv, air raid sirens woke residents at around 2.30 local time on Thursday (23.30 GMT Wednesday), with explosions heard shortly afterwards.

It is not in the ⁠interest of the United States that Russia is the ⁠winner ​of the ⁠Iran war, German finance ⁠minister Lars Klingbeil ​said ⁠on Thursday ‌in Washington.

“It’s not in our interest and ‌it cannot ‌be in the interest of the ⁠United States,” he said in a joint statement with the finance ministers of Ukraine and ‌Norway on ​the sidelines ‌of the International ⁠Monetary Fund ⁠spring meetings.

Klingbeil said the Russian economy is ⁠growing thanks to the Middle East conflict and is making a profit ​from the energy situation.

“All the meetings here are about the question of what’s happening ​with the war in Iran, and I think it’s really important that we show ‌solidarity with ⁠our friends in Ukraine,” Klingbeil said.

Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia ⁠nuclear ​power ⁠plant temporarily lost ⁠all off-site ​power ⁠for ‌around 40 minutes before ‌being restored ‌on Thursday ⁠evening, ​the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) ⁠said.

The cause of power loss is not yet known, ‌the ​IAEA ‌said ⁠in a post ⁠on X.

The European Union is expected to disburse between €2.5bn and €2.7bn to Ukraine after its parliament completed key reforms last week, according to EU enlargement commissioner Marta Kos.

Speaking in Washington alongside Ukrainian finance minister Serhiy Marchenko, Kos said the EU would also move ahead with a €90bn loan package following Hungary’s election, which saw prime minister Viktor Orbán voted out of power.

Marchenko said Ukraine’s $52bn financing gap for 2026 would be covered once the EU loan is in place, though discussions are ongoing over how to bridge a projected shortfall in 2027.

Part of a high-level delegation attending the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, Marchenko noted that the EU has already covered nearly two-thirds of Ukraine’s financial needs. However, uncertainty remains over whether other major governments will step up support.

“If Ukraine fails, it means all of our partners will feel this,” he said. “We cannot give even the slightest chance of failure.”

A Ukrainian drone attack on the Russian Black Sea port of Tuapse killed two people, including a 14-year-old girl, injured seven, and sparked a large fire, Russian officials said on Thursday.

Tuapse is one of Russia’s major southern ports, serving as an oil product export hub and also handling dry bulk cargo such as coal and fertiliser. It is also home to a major oil refinery of the same name owned by Rosneft, Russia’s biggest oil producer.

Veniamin Kondratiev, governor of the Krasnodar region, said that an unidentified adult woman had been killed in what he called a massive attack by Ukrainian drones on Tuapse in addition to the teenager.

Drone fragments had damaged 24 private houses, six apartment blocks, two educational facilities and a music school, he added.

The Ukrainian military later said it had struck two oil depots in Russia-occupied Crimea and infrastructure in Russia’s southern port of Tuapse, Kyiv’s drone forces commander said on the Telegram app.

Residents surveyed the damage and took shelter Thursday following a Russian strike on a residential area in Kyiv, Ukraine.

This is a photo gallery curated by photo editors for The Associated Press: