KYIV (Reuters) -Russia targeted Ukraine with a record 728 drones overnight, shortly after U.S. President Donald Trump pledged to send more defensive weapons to Kyiv and aimed unusually direct criticism at Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Ukrainian air defence units destroyed almost all the drones, including through electronic jamming systems, Ukraine’s air force said on the Telegram messaging app.
The attack, which follows a series of escalating air assaults on Ukraine in recent weeks, showed the need for “biting” sanctions on the sources of income Russia uses to finance the war, including on those who buy Russian oil, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Telegram.
Trump said on Tuesday he was considering supporting a bill in the Senate that would impose steep sanctions on Russia, including 500% tariffs on nations that buy Russian oil, gas, uranium and other exports.
“We get a lot of bullshit thrown at us by Putin … He’s very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless,” Trump said at a cabinet meeting.
When asked by a reporter what action he would take against Putin, Trump said: “I wouldn’t tell you. We want to have a little surprise.”
Separately, Europe is working on a new sanctions package against Moscow.
Trump, who returned to power this year promising a swift end to the war in Ukraine, has shifted U.S. rhetoric away from staunch support for Kyiv towards accepting some of Moscow’s justifications for the full-scale invasion it launched in 2022.
But initial rounds of talks between Russia and Ukraine have so far borne little fruit, with Moscow yet to accept an unconditional ceasefire proposed by Trump and accepted by Kyiv.
The U.S. president’s promise to supply more defensive weapons reversed a Pentagon decision days earlier to stall some critical munitions supplies to Ukraine, despite rising Russian attacks that spread fear in Kyiv.
Following Trump’s new promise, Zelenskiy said on Tuesday he had ordered an expansion of contacts with the United States to ensure critical deliveries of military supplies, primarily air defence.
Trump’s Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg is due in Rome later on Wednesday to attend a July 10-11 international aid conference on Ukraine, attended by Zelenskiy and Kyiv’s European allies.
POLAND SCRAMBLES JETS
Residents of Kyiv and other major cities spent the night in air raid shelters including metro stations.
Part of Russia’s overnight strike was aimed at a western region close to NATO-member Poland. The northwestern city of Lutsk, some 200 km (125 miles) from Poland, was the main target, Zelenskiy said, listing 10 other provinces across the country where damage was also reported.
Polish and allied aircraft were activated to ensure air safety, Poland’s Operational Command of the Polish armed forces said.
Buildings were damaged but no deaths or injuries reported in what amounted to the biggest air strike of the war on Lutsk, a city of 200,000 people, regional authorities said.
A storage facility of a local enterprise and some parking structures were ablaze, the mayor of Lutsk, Ihor Polishchuk said.
Ivan Rudnytskyi, governor of the Volyn region that includes Lutsk, said 50 Russian drones and five missiles were in the region’s airspace overnight.
“It was the most massive enemy attack with UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) and missiles on our city and community,” Polishchuk said in a social media video.
(Reporting by Yurii Kovalenko, Lidia Kelly and Alexandar VasovicEditing by Frank Jack Daniel)
