Ukraine war live: Zelensky warns of Chernobyl ‘global threat’ after Russian shelling

Following recent Nato airspace incursions, EU leaders backed plans to build an anti-drone network to strengthen eastern Europe’s defences.

“We need to strengthen our production of drones, of anti-drone capabilities, and this includes building up a European network of anti-drone measures that can protect and, of course, also neutralise intrusion from outside,” Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen said at a summit in Copenhagen yesterday.

“Europe must be able to defend itself.”

The G7 countries vowed to take measures against states purchasing Russian oil, the group said in a statement.

The move echoed US president Donald Trump’s statement that Washington would impose further sanctions on Russia if all Nato members stopped importing Russian oil.

“We will target those who are continuing to increase their purchase of Russian oil since the invasion of Ukraine and those that are facilitating circumvention,” the G7 statement said.

G7 finance ministers said they were working on “significant and coordinated measures” to phase out their imports of Russian hydrocarbons.

Russian strikes over the past day killed four Ukrainians and destroyed a railway depot in Odesa as Moscow continued to target infrastructure across Ukraine in drone attacks, Ukrainian officials said.

At least 25 people were also injured in the attacks.

Russia struck railway infrastructure in Odessa, setting a depot ablaze, deputy prime minister for Restoration Oleksii Kuleba said.

Moscow launched 86 drones overnight of which Kyiv’s air defences intercepted 53, but 31 still struck six locations, according to Ukraine’s air force.

The French military intercepted a Russian “shadow fleet” oil tanker – known as the Boracay – suspected of being the source of drones that made incursions into Nato airspace recently, the Guardian reported.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky suspected such ships, used by Moscow to evade sanctions on Russian oil, were bases from which Russia would “launch and control” drones into European airspace.

Authorities are reportedly conducting an investigation of Boracay’s crew following their “failure to justify the nationality of the vessel” and “refusal to cooperate”.

Moscow may have around 20,000 North Korean workers manufacturing military goods, Ukrainian general Andrii Hnatov said.

The labourers are being used by Russia to produce Geran drones in Russia’s Republic of Tatarstan, the general said, adding that the data requires further confirmation.

“That is also participation in the conflict,” he said.

North Korea has so far aided Russia in its invasion of Ukraine, providing artillery, missiles, and thousands of troops.

The US will begin sharing intelligence with Ukraine to support its long-range missile strikes on Russia’s energy infrastructure, the Wall Street Journal reported.

US president Donald Trump has reportedly instructed Pentagon and intelligence agencies to assist Ukraine with the strikes.

“We are awaiting written guidance from the White House before sharing the necessary intelligence,” the paper quoted an official as saying.

French President Emmanuel Macron has accused an oil tanker off the nation’s coast of ‘very serious wrongdoings’, linking it to Russia’s ‘shadow fleet’, which is reportedly circumventing Western sanctions imposed over the war in Ukraine

Nine people including a family-of-five have died after severe flash flooding struck the Ukrainian city of Odesa.

Over two months of rain fell on the coastal area in seven hours, leading to storms, downpours and power outages across the region. The family was killed when they were swept away by flood waters from their ground floor flat according to emergency services.