KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia unleashed another missile and drone blitz of civilian areas in Ukraine, killing at least seven people, officials said Tuesday, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy scrambled to ensure more American and European help during a visit to Norway.
U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff, who along with Jared Kushner has tried without success to steer Russia and Ukraine toward a settlement and end the war, was also expected in Oslo, the Norwegian government said. Kushner, who is U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, will attend the meeting by videoconference, it said.
Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre and Finnish President Alexander Stubb were due to meet with Zelenskyy in Norway’s capital.
With further U.S. support for Ukraine in doubt as relations between Zelenskyy and Trump sour again, the Ukrainian leader said that he spoke with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is on a trip to Asia.
That conversation came after Zelenskyy told a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers on Monday that he believes “some political decision has been made to slow down … support for us.”
Ukraine has nearly run out of American-made Patriot air defense interceptors that it needs to stop Russia’s ballistic missiles, according to Zelenskyy, who has pleaded for Washington to send more. But he said that the Pentagon is delaying the delivery of missiles that other countries have purchased for Ukraine.
Zelenskyy also said that he sought Rubio’s help to ensure that the United States continues to share vital intelligence with Ukraine after Kyiv had received none or belated warnings about Russian missile attacks in recent days.
Also, Zelenskyy said that speed restrictions were still in place on Kyiv’s use of the military-grade version of U.S. company SpaceX’s satellite internet service, hampering battlefield operations.
Trump has also waived sanctions on Russia, a move which Zelenskyy slammed as helping Russian President Vladimir Putin push on with Moscow’s full-scale invasion, which will hit the five-year mark in February.
Zelenskyy said that he had “a substantive conversation” with Rubio.
“I am grateful for his readiness to help and his clear position,” Zelenskyy said on social media.
With the Russian army held up on the front line, Putin is trying to bomb Ukraine into submission while robbing it of vital U.S. support, Western leaders and analysts say.
European countries, worried by Russia’s plans on the continent and viewing Ukraine as a bulwark against Moscow’s ambitions, are trying to take up the slack of any falloff in U.S. supplies, but some key assets are American-made.
European countries and European Union institutions have allocated 237 billion euros ($266 billion) to supporting Ukraine, compared with 115 billion euros ($129 billion) from the U.S., according to Germany’s Kiel Institute, which tracks assistance to Kyiv.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas on Tuesday questioned whether U.S. negotiators have been honest brokers in peace efforts. Ukrainian officials say the Trump administration has encouraged Kyiv to surrender land to Russia in return for peace.
“Although American negotiators have been trying to push Ukraine into surrender for … one and a half years now, why Ukraine hasn’t surrendered on Putin’s terms is because Europe has been supporting Ukraine,” Kallas said.
“Ukraine wants peace more than anybody because they have been under this bombardment for already four years now,” she told EU lawmakers in Strasbourg, France. “The only one who doesn’t want peace is Russia.”
Four people were killed and 27 others wounded, including children, in Russian missile and drone attacks on the Kyiv region over the past day, regional police said.
Three were killed and six were wounded in the Obukhiv district, where warehouses were damaged, police said. In the Bucha district, one woman was killed and 21 people were wounded, eight of them children, while hundreds of buildings were damaged, according to police.
On Tuesday morning, three people were killed and four injured when two vehicles caught fire in a Russian attack on the Kyiv-Odesa highway, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said. The dead included the driver of a shuttle bus that was hit. The bus transports people from Kyiv to the National Military Memorial Cemetery.
National grid operator Ukrenergo reported power outages in 12 regions of Ukraine following the Russian attacks.
The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement that its forces carried out drone strikes on logistics centers, port infrastructure, and three cargo ships in the port of Reni in the Odesa region. It said another bulk carrier was hit at sea on its way to Odesa.
Meanwhile, air defenses intercepted 136 Ukrainian drones over multiple Russian regions overnight, the Defense Ministry said.
A fire broke out at an unspecified industrial facility in the Tambov region as a result of the attack, Gov. Yevgeny Pervyshov said.
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Hatton reported from Lisbon, Portugal. Associated Press writer Lorne Cook in Brussels contributed to this report.
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Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
