Gunfire erupts in Kyiv as Ukrainian forces attempt to shoot down drone over capital
Luke Harding
Luke Harding is a Guardian foreign correspondent
Gunfire erupted in Kyiv as Keir Starmer held talks on Thursday with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, during the prime minister’s first official trip to Ukraine.
The presidential palace – where the two leaders are due to hold a press conference – echoed with loud booms, as Ukrainian air defence tried to shot down a drone.
The drone – possibly a Russian decoy – could be seen and heard buzzing above the Marynskyi presidential palace, not far from Zelenskyy’s office. It was not immediately clear if the drone was downed.
Key events
Ukraine’s air force announces drone attack threat as sirens reportedly go off in Kyiv
There are reports of sirens going off in Kyiv where UK prime minister Keir Starmer is on an official visit. Air defences were engaged, the city mayor wrote in a post on Telegram. Ukraine’s air force announced a drone attack threat. We will give you more details on this as soon as we get more information.
Russian attacks against Ukraine killed four people and injured at least 27 others over the past day, regional authorities said this morning. Russian attacks were reported in various areas in Ukraine, including on the town of Nikopol in the Dnipropetrovsk region and in the Kherson region.
We must ensure Ukraine is in ‘strongest possible position’, Starmer says ahead of Trump re-entering office
Here are some comments Keir Starmer, the UK’s prime minister, gave to broadcasters after his visit to a hospital in Kyiv (he is in the capital to sign what Downing Street is calling a “landmark 100-year partnership” with Ukraine). Starmer said:
It’s very important we ensure that Ukraine is in the strongest possible position.
That’s something I’ve been arguing for since I was prime minister. This is my seventh meeting with President Zelenskyy.
I’m here at the burns unit of one of the Kyiv hospitals, which is a grim reminder of the heavy price Ukraine is paying.
So we must give the necessary support, and that’s what I’m discussing with President Zelenskyy today. We must never let up on that and we’ve been leading the way.
Italy’s defence minister, Guido Crosetto, has also arrived in Kyiv. The Italian defence ministry says Crosetto will be engaging in a “series of institutional meetings”. It is not clear who he will meet or when he will meet them.
Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Italy has approved 10 packages of military aid for Ukraine, including two Franco-Italian air defence systems known as SAMP/T. European officials appear to wanting to show solidarity with Ukraine before Donald Trump enters office next week as potential negotiations to end the war loom and the extent of future US involvement in Nato is called into question.
Here are some of the latest pictures being sent to us over the newswires of Keir Starmer, the UK’s prime minister, visiting injured Ukrainians at a Kyiv hospital specialising in treating burns:
Photograph: Carl Court/Getty Images
As we mentioned in the opening post, Ukraine’s air force has said the country’s forces downed 34 out of 55 drones launched by Russia overnight. Local authorities are now saying that the falling drone debris damaged energy infrastructure in the central Ukrainian region of Poltava, reportedly leaving more than 300 users without power. The region borders Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Kirovohrad, Cherkasy and Kyiv oblasts.
UK prime minister makes surprise visit to Kyiv to sign ‘100-year deal’
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
The UK’s prime minister, Keir Starmer, has arrived in Kyiv to sign a security and trade pact with Ukraine, in a public show of support for Volodymyr Zelenskyy before the much anticipated return of Donald Trump to the White House on Monday.
The two countries will sign a partnership deal to deepen the existing defence relationship, with further military assistance to Kyiv on offer amid concerns Trump could reduce aid to Kyiv at a time when Russia continues to make battlefield gains.
Starmer, who is today making his first visit to Ukraine since he became prime minister last July, was due to sign a 100-year partnership with Kyiv, which will be laid before the British parliament in the coming weeks.
Starmer’s office said the treaty, aimed at deterring ongoing Russian aggression, will bolster military collaboration by seeking to strengthen security in the Baltic Sea, Black Sea and Azov Sea.
Zelenskyy had earlier said that he and Starmer would discuss the possibility of having western troops stationed in Ukraine to oversee a ceasefire agreement, a divisive proposal initially put forward by French President Emmanuel Macron.
Trump has vowed to end the war within 24 hours of taking office, without specifying exactly how. It is expected that pressure for negotiations will mount when his administration takes over next week.
Trump’s nominee for secretary of state, Marco Rubio, told the Senate foreign relations committee that the new administration would seek “bold diplomacy” to end the war. “There will have to be concessions made by the Russian Federation, but also by the Ukrainians,” he said yesterday.
You can read more on Starmer’s visit to Kyiv and what it signals about Europe’s views on Trump’s policy on Ukraine here.
Here are some of the other latest developments:
-
The Ukrainian military said on Thursday that its forces had captured more than two dozen troops in the western Russian region of Kursk, where Russian troops have been trying to eject Ukrainian forces for the past five months. “Ukrainian paratroopers together with adjacent units captured 27 enemy servicemen in the Kursk region,” a military statement said, adding that the Russian troops had surrendered.
-
Ukraine downed 34 out of 55 drones launched by Russia across 11 of the country’s regions in an overnight attack, the Ukrainian air force said, with a further 18 failing to reach their targets.
-
Russia launched missiles and drones at Ukrainian energy facilities on Wednesday, one day after Kyiv said it had carried out its largest aerial attack of the war on Russian army factories and energy hubs hundreds of kilometres from the frontline. The mayor of the southern city of Kherson said there were power cuts as a result of the barrage. After the attack, Zelenskyy called on the west to use around US$250bn of unallocated frozen Russian assets to buy Kyiv weapons.
-
Europe must “take responsibility” for its own security, Poland has told its fellow EU member states, as Warsaw takes over the rotating presidency of the bloc at a time of increasing geopolitical uncertainty.
