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Volodymyr Zelensky has criticised allied nations, including the UK and the US, after Western parts were found in Russian drones used to attack Ukraine on Sunday.
Writing on X, Zelensky said microcomputers for flight control, manufactured in the UK, were found in drones involved in the assault. Other parts from allied countries, including the US, were also identified.
Sunday’s combined drone and missile strike on Lviv resulted in the deaths of four people, including a 15-year-old, and left six others injured.
“Unfortunately, many critical components are still being supplied to Russia from Europe and the US. And we are not talking about a dozen components, but hundreds of thousands of components, purely commercial supplies,” he said in his nightly address.
This comes after former German chancellor Angela Merkel said Poland and the Baltic states bear some of the blame for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, citing the Minsk accords.
“Not everyone supported this, above all the Baltic states, but Poland was also against it,” Merkel told Hungarian news outlet Partizan.
And Donald Trump has said he would like to know how Ukraine plans to use US-made Tomahawk missiles before supplying them to the war-hit nation.
Trump ‘sort of’ makes decision on Tomahawk missiles for Ukraine
Donald Trump was asked yesterday whether he had made a decision on supplying Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine.
“Yeah, I’ve sort of made a decision, pretty much,” the president told reporters in the Oval Office.
“I think I want to find out what they’re doing with them. You know, where are they sending them. I guess I’d have to ask that question.”
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has asked the US to sell Tomahawks to European nations that would send them to Ukraine.
Tomahawk missiles have a range of 2,500km (1,550 miles), putting Moscow in the range of Ukraine’s arsenal, were Kyiv to be granted them.
Arpan Rai7 October 2025 06:12
North Korea’s Kim wishes Putin birthday and says their alliance will grow
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said the country’s alliance with Russia will continue to develop, in a letter to Russian president Vladimir Putin celebrating his birthday. Putin turns 74 today.
“I do not doubt that the relations of alliance between the two countries will be invariably carried forward in the future, thanks to the warm friendly relations and close comradely ties between us,” Kim said.
Kim reaffirmed his support for Russia’s “just struggle” for national sovereignty, apparently referring to its war with Ukraine, and vowed to remain faithful to the implementation of the treaty signed between the two leaders last year, in the letter carried by state news agency KCNA.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un toast during a reception at the Mongnangwan Reception House in Pyongyang (POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Arpan Rai7 October 2025 05:48
European Union to curb Russian diplomats’ travel – report
European Union governments have agreed to limit the travel of Russian diplomats within the bloc, the Financial Times reported this morning.
With rising incidents of arson and cyberattacks, EU security services are looking into a co-ordinated campaign by Moscow-sponsored intelligence operatives working to destabilise Kyiv’s allies in Europe.
The restrictions are in response to a rise in sabotage attempts led by spies operating under diplomatic cover, according to the intelligence agencies.
Under the proposed limitations, the Russian diplomats posted in EU capitals will now be required to inform other governments of their travel plans before crossing beyond the border of their host country, the report said.
Senior EU diplomats said that Russian diplomats are posted in one place but are found to be working in another.
“The host country intelligence services know what they are up to but, if they cross the border, it can be harder for that country to keep tabs on them,” the diplomat said, citing intelligence reports.
Arpan Rai7 October 2025 05:30
Russian forces destroy drone flying towards Moscow, mayor says
Russia’s air defence units have destroyed a drone flying towards Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin, the mayor of the Russian capital, said this morning.
This is the second day in a row Moscow has been attacked by a drone approaching the Russian capital city as Ukraine looks to crank up pressure on Moscow’s military logistics.
Yesterday long-range Ukrainian drones and missiles hit a major Russian ammunition plant, a key oil terminal and an important weapons depot behind the front line.
The Ukrainian General Staff said it struck the Sverdlov ammunition plant in the Nizhny Novgorod region of western Russia overnight, causing multiple explosions and a fire.
It said the plant supplies Russian forces with aviation and artillery ordnance, aviation bombs, and anti-aircraft and anti-tank munitions.
A smoke rises behind a giant Ukrainian flag during a large-scale Russian drone and missile attack on Kyiv (AFP via Getty Images)
Arpan Rai7 October 2025 04:56
Merkel says Poland and Baltic states bear some blame for Putin’s war
Former German chancellor Angela Merkel said Poland and the Baltic states bear some of the blame for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, citing the Minsk accords.
“Not everyone supported this, above all the Baltic states, but Poland was also against it,” Merkel told Partizan, a Hungarian news outlet, in an interview.
The Minsk accords are a series of unsuccessful international treaties concerning Ukraine that were floated by several European nations and one which was personally overseen by then German chancellor Merkel and French president Francois Hollande.
The agreements were signed in Belarusian capital Minsk in September 2014 and in February 2015.
Resistance from Poland and the Baltic states enabled Russian president Vladimir Putin to push forth with his military plans against Ukraine, she said.
“In June 2021, I felt that Putin was no longer taking the Minsk Agreement seriously, and that’s why I wanted a new format where we could speak directly with Putin as the European Union,” she said.
Poland and the Baltic countries were “afraid” that there would be no common agreement among EU states on how to deal with Russia, Merkel said.
“In any case, it did not happen, I left office, and then Putin’s aggression began,” she told Partizan.
File: Angela Merkel, Emmanuel Macron and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin chat during a press conference after a summit on Ukraine at the Elysee Palace in Paris (POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Arpan Rai7 October 2025 04:43
Watch: British parts found in Russian drones being used to bomb Ukraine, says ZelenskyBritish parts found in Russian drones being used to bomb Ukraine, claims Zelensky
Arpan Rai7 October 2025 04:19
Ukrainian attacks have contributed to Russian fuel shortages
Ukraine’s long-range attacks on refineries and other oil facilities contributed to Russian fuel shortages at the pump in August.
Improving domestically produced weapons, especially drones, has been one of Ukrainian authorities’ chief goals as it strives to counter Russian’s invasion and reach deeper into Russia with strikes that put military, political and social pressure on President Vladimir Putin.
Though Russia’s national economy and army are much bigger than Ukraine’s, Kyiv has largely limited Russian battlefield gains to slow and costly progress across the Ukrainian countryside as cutting-edge drone technology makes up in part for its shortage of soldiers.
Daniel Keane7 October 2025 03:00
Pictured: Zelensky and Dutch PM attend memorial service in Kyiv
(UKRAINIAN PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SER)
Daniel Keane7 October 2025 02:00
UN watchdog says shelling heard at Ukrainian nuclear plant
The International Atomic Energy Agency said its team at Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia had heard several rounds of incoming and outgoing shelling from near the site on Monday.
The UN nuclear watchdog’s chief Rafael Grossi said in a post on X the shelling “adds to nuclear safety risks at ZNPP, which has had no off-site power for nearly two weeks.”
Daniel Keane7 October 2025 01:00
Trump ‘sort of made a decision’ on supplying Tomahawk missiles
Donald Trump said he would want to know what Ukraine planned to do with US-made Tomahawk missiles before agreeing to supply them because he does not want to escalate Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has asked the US to sell Tomahawks to European nations that would send them to Ukraine.
Tomahawk missiles have a range of 2,500 km (1,550 miles), putting Moscow in the range of Ukraine’s arsenal, were Kyiv to be granted them.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a video clip released on Sunday that if Washington supplied Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine for long-range strikes deep into Russia, it would lead to the destruction of Moscow’s relationship with Washington.
Asked by reporters at the White House whether he had decided about supplying Ukraine with Tomahawks, Trump did not rule it out and said he had “sort of made a decision” on the matter.
“I think I want to find out what they’re doing with them,” he said. “Where are they sending them? I guess I’d have to ask that question.”
“I would ask some questions. I’m not looking to escalate that war,” he added.
Alex Ross7 October 2025 00:13