Putin launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and has shown little willingness to end the conflict despite pressure from Trump.
The US President’s pledge to ship more arms to Ukraine came after Moscow said its forces captured their first village in Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region after advancing towards it for months.
Russia launched a fresh, large-scale drone and missile barrage before the announcement, including on Ukraine’s military recruitment centres.
Kyiv also said it carried out a drone attack on a Russian ammunition factory in the Moscow region.
‘Difficult’ situation
Russia said its forces captured the village of Dachne in the Dnipropetrovsk region, an important industrial mining territory that has come under mounting Russian air attacks.
Last month, Moscow said its forces had crossed the border into the Dnipropetrovsk region for the first time in its campaign.
Russian forces appear to have made crossing the regional border a key strategic objective in recent months, and deeper advances there could pose logistical and economic problems for Ukraine.
Kyiv has so far denied that Russia has any foothold in Dnipropetrovsk.
Ukraine’s military said earlier today that its forces “repelled” attacks in Dnipropetrovsk, including “in the vicinity” of Dachne.
Dnipropetrovsk is not one of the five Ukrainian regions – Donetsk, Kherson, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia and Crimea – that Moscow has publicly claimed as Russian territory.
Describing the situation in Dnipropetrovsk as “difficult” for Kyiv’s forces, Ukrainian military expert Oleksiy Kopytko said Russia hopes to create some kind of buffer zone in the region.
“Our troops are holding their ground quite steadily,” he told AFP.
Counting on partners
The White House last week said it was halting some key weapons shipments to Ukraine that were promised under Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden, without providing details on which weapons programmes were affected.
It said the decision was taken after a review of US defence needs and of its military assistance to foreign countries.
Kyiv has long feared halts to US aid after Trump returned to the White House in January, having criticised the tens of billions of dollars in support and weapons sent by Biden.
Under the Biden administration, Washington committed to providing more than US$65 billion ($108b) in military assistance to Ukraine.
Trump has announced no new military aid packages for Kyiv since taking office for the second time.
The Republican President instead has pushed the two sides into peace talks, including in phone calls with Putin. The Russian leader has rejected pleas for a ceasefire and demanded that Ukraine cede more territory if it wants an end to the war.
Before Trump’s remarks today, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said air defence remained the “top priority for protecting lives”, and his country was counting on partners to “fully deliver on what we have agreed”.
Explosions were heard overnight last night in the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv, Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych wrote on Telegram, adding that the “threat of drones” was ongoing.
Mykolaiv regional governor Vitaliy Kim said a fire broke out in the city’s outskirts because of shelling and a 51-year-old man was wounded.
– Agence France-Presse
