Ukraine-Russia war live: Trump finally agrees to meet Zelensky as Romania scrambles jets against Russia drone

A Russian drone attack on the southern town of Izmail killed three people and injured 11, including a child, authorities in the region of Odesa said this morning.

The “large-scale terror attack” in the early hours today also caused several fires besides damaging homes, Odesa regional governor Oleh Kiper said on his Telegram channel.

The Biden administration’s latest infusion of more than $2.7bn in military aid for Ukraine and the promise of billions more will give Kyiv a massive boost in air defences, but much of the aid is in long-range contracts for weapons that won’t be seen on the battlefield for some time.

Included in a $2.4bn long-term assistance package announced yesterday — just before meetings between Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and president Joe Biden and vice president Kamala Harris — is another Patriot missile battery and additional munitions for the system.

The targets Kyiv could hit if Washington gave the go-ahead to use Western long-range missiles to fire at military sites within Russia:

Russian forces fired the missile that killed Reuters safety adviser Ryan Evans and wounded two of the agency’s journalists last month, four Ukrainian security sources said.

The missiles was fired by Russian forces stationed in the southern border region of Rostov. The missile was launched from a site close to Taganrog, a Russian city on the coast of the Sea of Azov near the Ukrainian border, according to Ukraine’s intelligence services.

The intelligence services said there were two Russian units operating close to the launch site at that time: the 1st Guards rocket brigade of the 49th Army and the 107th Guards rocket brigade of the 35th Army.

The Ukrainian military’s general staff, in separate written responses to Reuters’ questions, said that there was also a third unit near Taganrog that could have conducted the strike: the 47th rocket brigade of the 8th Army.

The general staff’s statement said a Russian Iskander 9M723 ballistic missile was fired from the area at around 22.28 (1928 GMT) and struck the Sapphire Hotel in Kramatorsk, where the Reuters team was staying, seven minutes later.

In a written response to Reuters’ questions, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that they were for the armed forces to answer.

“For our part, we can repeat once again – our armed forces strike only at objects directly or indirectly connected with the military infrastructure,” Peskov added.

Joe Biden and Volodymyr Zelensky will meet on 12 October in Germany, the White House said, confirming one of the final interactions between the two before the US president’s term ends.

The two leaders, who met in the Oval Office yesterday, will discuss Mr Zelensky’s peace plan, said spokesperson John Kirby.

Mr Zelensky said the $7.9bn in aid announced by the White House “will be a great help” and revealed that he and the American president were “preparing to discuss the details” and “strengthen” his “plan for victory” over Russia.

The Ukrainian war-time president has been in the United States for the UN General Assembly, where on Wednesday he warned world leaders that Russian president Vladimir Putin is attempting to “break the Ukrainian spirit” by targeting his country’s energy infrastructure.

He also cautioned against accepting purported peace deals that would be negotiated without Ukraine having a say.

Outgoing Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said Moscow was attempting to intimidate alliance members with its new nuclear doctrine lowering the threshold for a nuclear response.

“Russia’s nuclear rhetoric is dangerous and reckless,” Mr Stoltenberg said at the Council on Foreign Relations. “We are closely watching what Russia is doing.”

Vladimir Putin has said Russia could use nuclear weapons if it was struck with conventional missiles, and that Moscow would consider any assault on it supported by a nuclear power to be a joint attack.

The move, his aide and Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said, should be considered a signal to Western countries that there will be consequences if they participate in attacks on Russia.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky presented the key points of his “victory plan” to members of the US House of Representatives, and said strong pressure was needed for his country.

President Joe Biden on Thursday said the billions of dollars of defense aid he has authorised for Ukraine will strengthen Kyiv’s hand “in future negotiations” as he met with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office for what could be the final time during his presidency.

Sitting alongside Zelensky, Biden thanked the Ukrainian leader for sharing his own plan for victory in his country’s nearly three-year-old war against Russian invading forces.

He added that it was important “to strengthen Ukraine’s position on the battlefield” by releasing all of the aid approved by Congress in the supplemental defense aid package he signed into law earlier this year.

The billions of dollars worth of defence assistance will be delivered to Kyiv before Biden leaves office in January.

Donald Trump has said he will meet Volodymyr Zelensky today in New York as the Ukrainian president wraps up his US visit.

The Republican presidential nominee told reporters he will meet Mr Zelensky at Trump Tower in Manhattan at 9.45am EDT. The Ukrainian war-time leader, who met president Joe Biden yesterday, has extended his stay in the United States in order to meet the former president.

Ukraine should be able to freely use arms it has been provided, Lithuania’s foreign minister has said.

The minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said he hoped Kyiv would be able to shoot further into Russia with weapons Washington announced it would deliver to Ukraine. Kyiv’s allies in Nato are deliberating sending long-range missiles to Ukraine which can be used to strike Russia, which routinely strikes Ukraine with its own ballistic and cruise missiles.

“The strategic goal that puts Ukraine in the strongest possible position requires to allow them to use the weaponry freely,” Landsbergis said. Arming Ukraine is one thing, but it is not very efficient if Kyiv is not allowed to use the arms, Mr Landsbergis told Reuters.

“I’m reading president Biden’s statement, and I’m seeing that there is a new type of rockets that are being delivered that are longer-range than the previous ones,” Mr Landsbergis said.

“My hope is that it’s not a rocket that they should shoot from afar, from a distance to the front, that they would be allowed to use those rockets and shoot further out.”

He also confirmed Lithuania’s support of including Ukraine in Nato’s common defence area. “It has to happen,” Mr Landsbergis said. “If you’re saying that, OK, we want Ukraine in a safe, secure position, without the risk that they will be attacked, you have to answer how. And, honestly, it’s not rocket science.”