‘If Ukraine burns, your Moscow will burn,’ Zelenskyy warns after overnight strikes
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that “if Ukraine burns, your Moscow will burn” as he ramped up his rhetoric after overnight drone strikes on the Russian capital.
Scores of drones targeted Moscow overnight, hitting the Russian capital’s oil refinery for the second time this week, Reuters reported.
“We don’t want this war, we never did, and everyone knows it, and our partners know it,” Zelenskyy said in a voice message sent to reporters on a WhatsApp group, quoted by Reuters.
double quotation mark But if Ukraine burns, your Moscow will burn.
Zelenskyy also called on Europe and the United States to increase pressure on Russia through sanctions on Russia’s defence and energy sectors and broader economy to force president Vladimir Putin into ending the war.
Key events
-
Ukraine bolsters its northern defences amid fears Belarus is being dragged into war
-
‘If Ukraine burns, your Moscow will burn,’ Zelenskyy warns after overnight strikes
-
US defence secretary urges UK to spend more on defence, ‘step up and do even more’
-
US force review will ‘change how we look at continent,’ Hegseth says
-
Russian oil refinery on fire after barrage of Ukrainian drones strike Moscow
-
Trump was ‘pumped with’ harmful ideas during G7 summit, Kremlin says
-
Nato agrees to modernise nuclear capabilities, strengthen planning
-
Hegseth’s frustration is not new, but still striking – snap analysis
-
‘Our direction of travel is and has been clear,’ Hegseth tells Nato
-
Some Nato countries ‘will fail’ US posture review, Hegseth says
-
US to conduct a review of forces in Europe
-
Hegseth says ‘era of free riding’ is over
-
Nato allies refusal to help on Iran ‘shameful,’ Hegseth says
-
US ‘gave allies test to support America … and too many failed it,’ Hegseth says
-
‘There have been real setbacks we cannot ignore,’ Hegseth tells Nato
-
‘Europe was not supposed to be a dependency of the US,’ Hegseth tells Nato
-
‘Nato has been a paper tiger and a one-way street,’ US Hegseth tells Nato ministers
-
Morning opening: Ukraine hits Moscow oil refinery, disrupts flights in retaliation attack as Nato, EU leaders meet for talks
Back to Brussels, we are going to hear from Nato’s secretary general, Mark Rutte soon, as he is expected to face the media after today’s Nato ministerial in Brussels.
Expect him to get asked about Hegseth’s comments this morning.
We will bring you his press conference live, obviously.
Meanwhile, local authorities in Moscow said that the supply of petroleum products to Moscow and the operation of petrol stations in the Russian capital is “proceeding as normal” after a major Ukrainian drone attack, Reuters reported.
Separately, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakovwas quoted by Interfax as saying that the latest strikes set back the prospect of any direct contacts between Russia’s Putin and Ukraine’s Zelenskyy.
Ukraine bolsters its northern defences amid fears Belarus is being dragged into war
Peter Beaumont
on the Ukraine-Belarus border
Russian spy drones flying into Ukraine from Belarusian airspace have sharply increased since the beginning of the year, as senior officials in Kyiv express mounting concern over Belarus’s involvement in the war.
Ukraine has stepped up by reinforcing fortifications on its northern border, including anti-tank ditches, concrete “dragons’ teeth” obstacles to block armoured vehicles and new areas of barbed wire. Troops operating along the border say they have noted a jump of about 20% in Russian intelligence drones since January.
The increase in drone sightings comes in parallel with reports that Russia has constructed five new drone bases near its shared border with Belarus as part of its efforts to use Minsk’s airspace to attack Ukraine.
Ukrainian officials, including the president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, have spoken of “unusual activity” on the Belarus border, amid concern that Moscow is seeking to draw its ally further into the conflict, and warnings that have been given to Minsk.
‘If Ukraine burns, your Moscow will burn,’ Zelenskyy warns after overnight strikes
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that “if Ukraine burns, your Moscow will burn” as he ramped up his rhetoric after overnight drone strikes on the Russian capital.
Scores of drones targeted Moscow overnight, hitting the Russian capital’s oil refinery for the second time this week, Reuters reported.
“We don’t want this war, we never did, and everyone knows it, and our partners know it,” Zelenskyy said in a voice message sent to reporters on a WhatsApp group, quoted by Reuters.
double quotation mark But if Ukraine burns, your Moscow will burn.
Zelenskyy also called on Europe and the United States to increase pressure on Russia through sanctions on Russia’s defence and energy sectors and broader economy to force president Vladimir Putin into ending the war.
US defence secretary urges UK to spend more on defence, ‘step up and do even more’
US defence secretary Pete Hegseth has also offered his view on the relationship with the UK, after meeting Britain’s new defence minister Dan Jarvis.
His predecessor resigned in protest against low government spending on defence.
Hegseth said it was “a good meeting,” stressing that “the US-British defence alliance is an important one.”
He praised Jarvis for having first-hand experience of serving in a combat zone.
But he said “the message was the same: hey, we need you guys to step up and do even more, spend even more.”
He added:
“If we need access and basing, whether it’s in the UK or say at Diego Garcia, we can’t live in a world where other countries are standing at the end of a runway with a clipboard trying to decide what flies and what doesn’t. It’s not gonna, it’s not gonna work for us. It’s not good in contingencies, and I don’t think it’s what he wants either.”
He continued saying that “the more the UK spends on defence, the stronger Nato is going to be, the stronger western civilization is, and that’s a good thing.”
“I think [it was] a good start to a relationship that we need to renew even more,” Hegseth said.
US force review will ‘change how we look at continent,’ Hegseth says
We are now again hearing from US defence secretary Pete Hegseth again, as he’s speaking with reporters after his explosive speech at the Nato ministerial in Brussels this morning.
Just as I argued (10:15), he tells them that the message is not new, with many countries already stepping up – but not all of them.
“We will be clear with them, and as we do this review, we’ll change how we look at the continent as a result,” he says.
Separately, speaking on Iran, he also notes that a number of European countries are “prepared to step up” to help with the strait of Hormuz.
“It’s an international water bill, and frankly, European countries and Asian countries use it a lot more than we do,” he says.
Russian oil refinery on fire after barrage of Ukrainian drones strike Moscow
Peter Beaumontin Pavlograd andWarren Murray
Ukrainian drones have hit several locations across Moscow, including setting an oil refinery on fire, sending out flames and towering plumes of smoke over the city and forcing the capital’s airports to suspend flights.
The scale of the long-range attack, apparently designed to shut down operations at the key oil refinery in the Kapotno area, caught most Muscovites by surprise in a city that does not typically warn residents with air raid alarms, and prompted panicked messages on social media.
Footage posted online showed three plumes of smoke rising from the refinery.
The strike was the second in two days on the facility, in what the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, then called “a just response to Russian strikes”.
“Air defence forces are continuing to repel a large-scale attack. Several drones managed to reach the [Moscow oil refinery],” said Sergei Sobyanin, Moscow’s mayor, adding that a shopping centre was also damaged. He claimed about 180 drones heading for the capital had been downed.
Sobyanin said emergency crews were working at the site and also reported “damage” to Sadovod shopping centre in the south-eastern part of the city. At least seven drones appear to have beaten Russia’s air defences to strike targets in the city.
Traffic was halted on Moscow’s ring road near the refinery, the broadcaster RIA cited the interior ministry as saying, while air traffic was disrupted at Vnukovo, Sheremetyevo, and Zhukovsky airports.
Jakub Krupa
Let’s get a bit more on these Ukrainian drone strikes on Moscow.
Trump was ‘pumped with’ harmful ideas during G7 summit, Kremlin says
Meanwhile, the Kremlin has offered its take on yesterday’s G7 summit –including a supportive statement on Ukraine (Europe Live, Wednesday) – saying that the US president, Donald Trump, was “pumped with” harmful ideas by the EU.
The US had no contacts with Moscow after the meeting, Kremlin adviser Yuri Ushakov was quoted by Interfax and Reuters as saying.
Ushakov also disputed the EU’s assumption that the battlefield situation was changing in Ukraine’s favour.
Nato agrees to modernise nuclear capabilities, strengthen planning
Separately, Nato has agreed to modernise its nuclear capabilities and strengthen its nuclear planning capacity, the alliance’s senior body for nuclear deterrence said in a statement quoted by Reuters.
All Nato allies except France are members of the Nuclear Planning Group, which serves as a forum for consultation and decision-making on nuclear deterrence.
Defence ministers taking part in the meeting “recalled that the strategic nuclear forces of the Alliance remain the supreme guarantee of Allied security and underpin Nato’s extended deterrence architecture,” the statement said.
Hegseth’s frustration is not new, but still striking – snap analysis
Jakub Krupa
None of this is reallynewnew – Hegseth largely repeats the US’s main frustrations and grievances with the alliance, repeatedly expressed by Trump – but the tone of the delivery is stillvery, very striking.
Hegseth has laid into Nato allies for not helping enough with bases and overflights during its early Iran operations – and once he did not name any countries, it’s likely targeted at the likes of Spain, Italy, Portugal.
In other parts, it is just a broader criticism of what the US sees as “free riding” from the allies, as they do not move quickly enough on spending.
Coming just weeks before the Nato summit in Ankara, it is clearly intented to serve as a warning to several of the allies that still don’t spend enough and don’t seem to act with the urgency the US is expecting them to increase that spending – or even offer a credible path towards it.
The proposed posture review – and explicit threat that some of them will fail it – and the suggestion the US could reduce its contributions if others do not pay enough, will make some think twice about their plans in the next few weeks.
As Hegseth ends his remarks, Rutte says “there’s much to discuss and decide today.”
You bet it’s going to be lively.
‘Our direction of travel is and has been clear,’ Hegseth tells Nato
Hegseth says “our direction of travel is and has been clear.”
“This is the right thing to do by the American people. It’s the right thing to do by this alliance.
Europe can and must take primary responsibility for its conventional defence as it pledged at The Hague Summit, and in the process safeguarding Europe’s defence for generations to come, we know our allies can do it, and it’s time.”
