Ukraine war briefing: Deadly ballistic missile strike on Zelenskyy hometown

A Russian ballistic missile strike has killed at least four people and wounded 14 others in Kryvyi Rig, the home town of Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The head of Kryvyi Rig’s military administration, Oleksandr Vikul, said Russia attacked civilian infrastructure, sparking a large fire, and a rescue operation was launched. Earlier on Wednesday, a 45-year-old man was killed when a Russian strike hit cars parked outside a house in Zaporizhzhia, said Ivan Federov, the head of the Ukrainian region’s military administration.

Russian forces unleashed an hour-long barrage of 17 Shahed drones on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, late on Wednesday, triggering fires, said the regional governor, Oleh Syniehubov, who reported that five people were wounded in an attack on the same district earlier in the day. Syniehubov also reported a drone strike on the town of Derhachi, north-west of Kharkiv, with one person injured. A strike sparked a fire in Cherkaska Lozova, also outside Kharkiv.

Nato allies have pledged more than €20bn in military support for Ukraine in the first three months of the year, the Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte, said on Wednesday. Foreign ministers from the alliance meet in Brussels on Thursday and Friday to discuss further support for Ukraine. Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, is due to arrive in Brussels on Thursday for the two days of talks, bringing with him Matt Whitaker, the newly confirmed US ambassador to Nato.

More details emerged of secondary sanctions that US senators want to place on countries friendly to Russia if Moscow continues to disrupt peace negotiations. The group of 50 Republican and Democratic senators are proposing 500% tariffs on imports from countries that buy fuel and uranium from Russia. The Trump administration has so far failed to deliver on the president’s promise to broker a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia in as little as 24 hours. Ukraine has offered an unconditional 30-day general ceasefire which Moscow has rejected.

Vladimir Putin’s investment envoy Kirill Dmitriev met with US officials in Washington on Wednesday, officials said, as the Trump administration considers business dealings with Moscow even as Russia continues to wage war on Ukraine and refuse a ceasefire. Because of the war, Dmitriev is under sanctions that the US had to suspend so he could visit. He has close relations to the Trump team dating back to the 2016 election in which the Mueller investigation found “sweeping and systematic” Russian interference in Trump’s favour.

Dmitriev is the highest-ranking Russian official to travel to the US on state business since Russia started the full-scale war in 2022. It was not clear what he discussed with the US officials on Wednesday. Also on Wednesday, the Trump administration notably did not include Russia on an expansive list of countries that will face heavy new tariffs. Ukraine was slapped with a 10% levy, according to a fact sheet released by the White House.

A team from Ukraine may be coming to the United States as soon as this week or next week, the US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, told Bloomberg Television on Wednesday.

Ukrainian authorities accused five suspects on Wednesday of involvement in a military procurement scandal that led to swift wartime anti-corruption reforms. The five including a former defence ministry department head are accused of inflating prices while ordering food for troops and embezzling millions between August and December 2022. They have been issued with “notices of suspicion” that could lead to formal indictment for embezzlement, suspected embezzlement and money laundering. It is alleged that embezzled funds were likely used in part to buy properties abroad, including hotels in Croatia.

Russia and Ukraine accused each other on Wednesday of new attacks against each other’s energy facilities, citing a US-brokered moratorium, although there is no formal agreement in place.

The IT systems of Polish prime minister Donald Tusk’s Civic Platform party have been hit by a cyber-attack, he said on Wednesday. Poland has been on high alert for foreign interference and sabotage ahead of a presidential election scheduled for May, as it says its role in helping Ukraine has made it a key target for Russian security services.