Ukraine latest: Starmer pledges £2bn weapons loan to Zelensky

Russia launched a record number of drone strikes across Ukraine last week, including a series of UAV strikes on Friday night and into Saturday morning.

Moscow sent 154 Shahed and decoy drones from the directions of Russian cities including Oryol, Kursk, Bryansk, and Millerovo, according to the ISW, which warned that Putin continues to rely on Iranian drones.

Ukraine’s air force said it shot down over 100 out of 208 drones launched by Russia overnight on Friday.

The intensified drone warfare comes as Ukrainian forces destroyed the largest number of Russian vehicles since the start of the full-scale invasion in February.

Despite being the shortest month of the year, Ukraine destroyed 3,472 vehicles and fuel tanks, as well as 596 armoured combat vehicles and 331 tanks, the Ukrainian defence ministry said.

Russia is also facing significant manpower losses as its army lost 36,570 people in February, the ministry said.

Following Friday’s White House showdown with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, the US vice president JD Vance was confronted by angry pro-Ukraine protesters on his way to a weekend family trip to Vermont.

Protesters booed Mr Vance, telling him to “go ski in Russia”.

A protester told local news that the US vice president “crossed the line” on Friday.

“After the meeting yesterday with Zelensky, I mean I feel like all of America should be out here protesting,” another told Vermont Public.

Kyiv’s attacks on Russian regions on and near the border with Ukraine have killed 652 civilians so far, according to the head of Russia’s investigative committee.

The dead include 23 children, according to the committee’s head Alexander Bastrykin, who said the number of injured could be nearly 3,000.

Thousands of civilians have been killed since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine three years ago, the vast majority of them Ukrainian.

Russian attacks across Ukraine have killed at least five civilians and injured over 25 in the last day, regional authorities say.

The overnight attacks on Friday were mainly carried out using drones, Ukraine’s air force said.

The Ukrainian Air Force said Russia launched 154 drones from the directions of Russian towns Oryol, Kursk, Bryansk, and Millerovo.

Over 100 drones were shot down over the course of day, according to the air force.

Another 50 drones were “lost” likely due to Ukrainian electronic warfare (EW) interference, it said.

Four people were killed and six injured in Donetsk Oblast, and one man was killed in Odesa, the regions’ governors said.

Ukraine said the drones also damaged houses and civilian infrastructure in Chernihiv, Odesa, and Cherkasy oblasts and Kyiv and Kharkiv cities.

Russian forces continued operations in Kursk Oblast yesterday but did not make confirmed advances, according to the Washington-based think tank the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

Russian troops also continued ground attacks northeast of Kharkiv City, but did not make any confirmed progress, ISW said.

Sources claim US vice president JD Vance did not have a pre-determined strategy to confront the Ukrainian president during the intense 45-minute exchange at the Oval Office on Friday.

The conversation took a heated turn as Mr Vance asserted that “America engaging in diplomacy” was the way forward to peace and prosperity in Ukraine.

Mr Zelensky then took permission to address the US vice president directly, highlighting that all attempts by Ukraine for diplomatic agreements with Russia were violated.

“What kind of diplomacy, JD [Vance], you are speaking about ?,” Zelensky asked.

Mr Vance immediately shot back that it was “disrespectful” for the Ukrainian president to “come to the Oval Office to try to litigate this in front of the American media”.

The US vice president felt compelled to confront Mr Zelensky after finding his demeanour needlessly provocative, NBC News reported, citing a source familiar with the planning of the meeting.

The Trump administration is reportedly seeking a public apology from the Ukrainian president following Friday’s heated exchange at the Oval Office.

Following the diplomatic clash at the White House, Fox News host Bret Baier pressed Mr Zelensky on whether he thought he owed the US president an apology.

“No,” the Ukrainian president responded.

“I respect president. And I respect American people. And if – I don’t know if – I think that we have to be very open and very honest. And I’m not sure that we did something bad,” he said.

Mr Zelensky is now under pressure from the US to apologise for questioning the value of a ceasefire with Vladimir Putin, Bloomberg News reported, citing European officials privy to the matter.

Ukrainian MP Vadym Halaichuk said the country can withstand Russia’s onslaught even if the US stops sending monetary and military aid to Kyiv.

Even if the supplies from the US dropped, it “will not mean that we are incapable of getting supplies from some other countries,” Mr Halaichuk said.

He also stressed Kyiv’s focus on self-sufficiency in manufacturing drones and weapons.

“A year before, we had a pretty sad experience of a certain break in supplies from the US for six months. There were no deliveries, and that affected Ukraine’s ability to withstand Russian pressure on the frontlines. It also caused us to be more serious and independent in terms of weapon supplies to have a greater variety of those supplies,” the MP told Indian news agency ANI.

The leaders of France, Germany, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Canada, Finland, Sweden, Czechia and Romania will join UK prime minister Sir Keir Starmer and Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday for a summit on Ukraine.

Representatives from Turkey, Nato and the EU will also be present at the summit to discuss strong security guarantees, ongoing military support to Ukraine, as well as measures to put increased economic pressure on Russia.

The leaders will also discuss the need for a strong lasting deal for peace in Ukraine to help Kyiv deter and defend against any future Russian attack, the prime minister’s office said in a statement.

“In partnership with our allies, we must intensify our preparations for the European element of security guarantees, alongside continued discussions with the US,” Mr Starmer said.

“Now is the time for us to unite in order to guarantee the best outcome for Ukraine, protect European security, and secure our collective future,” he said.

Ukraine’s military intelligence directorate warned that Russia is preparing to declare “victory” over Ukraine with the Kremlin ordering its state-sponsored media personalities to propagate narratives to discredit Kyiv among Western allies.

This strategy of depicting an inevitable Russian victory over Ukraine is aimed at deterring further Western military assistance, analysts say.

Karin Kneissl, former Austrian foreign minister and current head of Russian think tank GORKI, said in an interview with TASS yesterday that “Russia has won in the sense that it was not defeated”.

“The [Russian] population supports the government” and “no one expected Russia to be so stable” after years of war, the think tank head said.

The Washington Post has reported – citing senior Trump administration officials – that the US may cut all aid to Ukraine.

However, doing so may undermine the US president’s stated goal of achieving sustainable peace in Ukraine and encourage Russian president Vladimir Putin to continue increasing his demands and get him closer to total victory through war, analysts say.

The Washington-based think tank Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said that without continued and timely Western military assistance to Ukraine, Russia could seize more territory in Ukraine and may exhaust European support.

It could also strengthen Putin’s belief he can seize and control other former Soviet countries, including current Nato member states, the ISW warned.