Over the weekend, Ukraine launched a strike of more than 1,000 drones into Russia, setting fires at an oil export terminal and a refinery in the city of St. Petersburg, while Moscow pounded Kyiv with ballistic missiles.
said Russia fired 16 ballistic missiles at Kyiv and the surrounding region and more than 200 drones across the country in overnight attacks. He said the strikes damaged more than 10 energy infrastructure facilities and left at least 550,000 households without power. Casualties were reported, and a medical clinic, school, metro station and residential buildings were also damaged, according to his account.
had told Ukraine to stop striking Russian energy infrastructure, saying it was driving up global diesel prices. Despite an "energy ceasefire" announced by Trump on Oct. 11, Russia continued striking Ukrainian infrastructure; Kyiv paused its attacks for three days before resuming them, citing continued Russian strikes.
The strikes came amid mounting tensions between Ukraine and the U.S., Kyiv's largest military backer. Over the weekend, Trump defended his decision to temporarily lift sanctions on Russian diesel exports and an executive order on Oct. 18 waiving new Russia sanctions. Trump accused the Ukrainian president of not wanting peace, while Zelenskyy argued that Washington's easing of sanctions on Russia risks prolonging the conflict, writing in a post on X that undoing and blocking the measures seemed wrong to him.
has reportedly floated a three-way summit between himself, Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine, without Zelenskyy at the table. The Wall Street Journal reported the meeting was mentioned in a phone call to Trump on Oct. 9, citing a former Russian intelligence officer briefed on the matter, and said such a summit may take place at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in November in the Chinese city of Shenzhen. The summit is not confirmed. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said there had been talks of a meeting but that he did not know whether it had been finalized, Reuters reported.