Ukraine war latest: Putin ‘mocking Trump’s peace efforts’, Poland says – as Zelenskyy slams ‘cynical’ Russian attack | World News

Thanks for following our live coverage of the war in Ukraine.

We’ll be back with any breaking news. Until then, here’s a rundown of what’s happened during the last 24 hours…

Huge overnight attacks

Russia launched its biggest overnight aerial attack of the war so far, with Ukraine’s air force saying a combined 550 drones and missiles were fired at the country.

Kyiv was under an all-night attack, injuring at least 23 people, damaging railway infrastructure and sparking fires across Ukraine’s capital, authorities said.

Russia said its forces successfully carried out strikes against military targets in the city.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the “cynical” attack began “almost simultaneously” with the start of yesterday’s phone call between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.

Kremlin responds to Trump comments

Trump described his call with Putin as “disappointing,” adding that he did not believe the Russian leader wanted to end the war.

The Kremlin effectively confirmed that this morning, with spokesperson Dmitry Peskov saying that a diplomatic end to the war “does not appear possible” at the moment.

He added that Moscow was still waiting to coordinate the dates for a third round of peace talks with Ukraine.

Latest prisoner swap goes ahead

At the last round of talks, Ukraine and Russia agreed to several rounds of prisoner swaps, the latest of which happened today.

Zelenskyy said most of the prisoners who were returned to Ukraine today had been captured during the first year of the war.

In other news…

• Germany says it’s in talks to buy Patriot missiles from the US and forward them to Ukraine after Washington paused several shipments of military aid to Kyiv this week;
• Trump said he was “trying to help” Ukraine over the shipments, while also claiming that Joe Biden had depleted American stockpiles with military aid to Kyiv;
• Intelligence agencies in Germany and the Netherlands say Russia has increased its use of chemical weapons in Ukraine;
• Poland’s foreign minister said that Putin was “mocking Trump’s peace efforts” with his intensifying bombing raids on Ukraine.