Ukraine war: Putin orders more Kyiv drone strikes after ‘biggest air raid yet’

US president Joe Biden has spoken with Indian prime minister Narendra Modi about Ukraine days after the latter visited Kyiv.

Mr Modi said that he spoke to Mr Biden about “India’s full support for early return of peace and stability” in Ukraine. He said they also discussed India’s concern about the safety of Hindus and other religious minorities in Bangladesh after this month’s ouster of the country’s long-serving prime minister.

White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters: “We welcome any other country that wants to help President Zelensky work towards this just peace, and any country that’s willing to come at that discussion by starting with President Zelensky’s perspective, by hearing him out.”

Mr Zelensky and Mr Modi discussed at length Ukraine’s peace formula during their meeting last week, which prioritises territorial integrity and the withdrawal of Russian troops, according to the Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

US president Joe Biden called the Russian attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure “outrageous” and said he had “re-prioritised US air defence exports so they are sent to Ukraine first”.

He also said the US was “surging energy equipment to Ukraine to repair its systems and strengthen the resilience of Ukraine’s energy grid.”

Russia battered much of Ukraine on Monday, firing scores of missiles and drones that killed four people, injured more than a dozen and damaged energy facilities in attacks that president Volodymyr Zelensky described as “vile.”

The Russian defence ministry said the attacks used “long-range precision air- and sea-based weapons and strike drones against critical energy infrastructure facilities that support the operation of Ukraine’s military-industrial complex. All designated targets were hit.”

The Russian defence ministry said that its strikes on Monday hit “all designated targets” in Ukraine’s critical energy infrastructure.

Kryvyi Rih, Kyiv and central and eastern regions of Ukraine were under air raid alerts for most of the night, starting at around 8pm GMT on Monday.

Five civilians may be still under the rubble and four were injured as a result of the Russian attack, Oleksandr Vilkul, head of Kryvyi Rih’s military administration, said on Telegram.

“The news is bad,” Mr Vilkul said.

Russia launched several waves of missile and drone attacks overnight targeting Kyiv and other regions, Ukraine’s military said early on Tuesday, a day after Moscow’s biggest such attack of the war.

At least one person was killed when a civilian object was “wiped out” in the central Ukraine city of Kryvyi Rih, regional officials said.

Kyiv region’s air defence systems were deployed several times overnight to repel missiles and drones targeting the Ukrainian capital, the region’s military administration said on Telegram.

Reuters’ witnesses reported at least three rounds of explosions overnight in Kyiv.

The size of the Tuesday attacks was not immediately known, but Ukraine’s air force said it recorded the launch of several groups of drones and the take-off from Russian airfields of strategic Tu-85 strategic bombers and MiG-31 supersonic interceptor aircraft.

The reports could not be immediately verified, while Russia issued no comments.

Ukraine says it has a new homegrown long-range weapon that will allow it to strike deep into Russia without asking permission from allies.

With the characteristics of a missile and a drone, the “Palianytsia” was created due to urgent necessity, Ukrainian officials said, as Russia has dominated the skies since the outbreak of the war in February 2022.

President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed on Saturday the existence of the Palianytsia, a type of Ukrainian bread and a word so notoriously difficult to pronounce correctly that it was used to unmask suspected spies early in the war. Mr Zelensky called it “a new class” of weapon.

Saturday, which marked Ukraine’s 33rd anniversary of independence from the former Soviet Union, also saw the first use of the new weapon, targeting a Russian military installation in the occupied territory, officials said without providing details.

A Ukrainian military video hinted that its range is up to 430 miles — on par with the US-supplied ATACMS. It showed a map with various airfields, including Russia’s Savasleyka air base, which lies within that range, adding that the Palianytsia can reach at least 20 Russian airfields.

Ryan Evans, a British safety adviser for the Reuters news agency, has been identified as the man killed in a missile strike on Hotel Sapphire in Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine on Saturday.

Evans had extensive experience advising journalists on safety in conflict zones, including Ukraine and Israel. He also worked on coverage of the Paris Olympics.

He had previously worked as an operations manager for the UK Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office in Libya for nine years. According to his LinkedIn profile, Evans was originally from Cheshire in the UK.

My colleague Maroosha Muzaffar has more in this report:

Donald Trump has claimed that Ukraine’s incursion into Russia risks another world war, as the Republican candidate for the US presidency attempted to paint his Democratic rivals as pushing America towards a dangerous all-out conflict.

The ex-president, who was speaking to members of the National Guard Association of the United States in in Detroit, appeared to take a stance against the recent Ukrainian incursion into Russian territory near Kursk.

“Look at what’s going on right now with Ukraine. They’re surging into Russia, okay? You’re going to end up with World War 3. And it’s going to be a bad one,” he said.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said he and his top commander had discussed Ukraine’s response to the largest Russian drone attack on energy facilities since the war began.

“We are preparing it,” Mr Zelensky said of Ukraine’s retaliation, after Moscow attacked it with more than 200 missiles and drones on Monday, killing seven people and striking energy facilities nationwide.

Power cuts and water supply outages were reported in many areas, including parts of Kyiv, as officials said the attack targeted power or other critical infrastructure across the country.

Russia stepped up its strikes on the Ukrainian power grid in March in what Kyiv has said looked like a concerted effort to degrade the system ahead of next winter when people need electricity and heating most.

The air force downed 102 out of 127 incoming missiles and 99 out of 109 drones, Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk said on Telegram, describing the attack from the air, ground and sea as “the most massive” of the war.

According to Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, 15 regions sustained damage. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said there was “a lot of damage in the energy sector”.

Zelenskiy said he had discussed Ukraine’s response to the attack with his top commander: “We are preparing it.”

Russia’s defence ministry said its forces used high precision weapons to strike important energy infrastructure in Ukraine which it said supported the military-industrial complex. It listed power substations, gas compressor stations and storage sites for aircraft weapons.