The Russo-Ukrainian War at a Glance: What We Know on 340th Day of Invasion | World news

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said ahead of next week’s EU-Ukraine summit that Ukraine it had unconditional support from the bloc and had to prevail against Russian attacks to protect European values. “We stand by Ukraine without any ifs or buts.” Ukraine is fighting for our shared values, it is fighting for respect for international law and for the principles of democracy, and therefore Ukraine must win this war.

A Russian strike killed three people in a residential area of ​​the eastern Ukrainian city of Konstantinovka on Saturday, the regional governor said. Fourteen other people were injured in the attack, which also damaged four apartment buildings and a hotel. According to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, Russia carried out strikes on Konstantinovka with rocket launchers.

Russia accused the Ukrainian army of a deliberate attack on a hospital in a Russian-controlled area of ​​eastern Ukraine on Saturday. It said the strike killed 14 people and injured 24 patients and medical staff. The strike hit a hospital in the Russian-controlled village of Novoaidar and was carried out using a US-supplied Himars missile launch system, the Russian Defense Ministry said. The claims could not be independently verified, the AP reported.

Kyiv and its Western allies are engaged in “quick” talks on the possibility of equipping Ukraine with long-range missiles and warplanes, said a senior aide to the President of Ukraine, AP reported. Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said Ukraine’s backers in the West “understand how the war is going” and the need to deliver aircraft capable of providing cover for the armored fighting vehicles that the United States and Germany have promised.

Ukraine said on Friday it would take its pilots about half a year to train to fight Western fighter jets like the US F-16, while Kyiv is stepping up its campaign to secure fourth-generation fighter jets. Ukraine received a huge boost this week when Germany and the United States announced plans to provide heavy tanks to Kyiv, which now hopes the West will also provide long-range missiles and fighter jets.

On Saturday, North Korea denounced US promises of battle tanks, claiming Washington is “further crossing the red line” to gain hegemony through proxy warfare, Reuters quoted state media KCNA as saying. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s sister, Kim Yo-jong, made the remarks in a statement, saying North Korea would “stand in the same trench” as Russia against the United States.

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia Sergey Ryabkov will hold a meeting with Lynn Tracy, the new US ambassador to Moscow at the beginning of next week, the RIA news agency reported.

Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday redoubled his efforts to stop Russian athletes from participating in the 2024 Olympics., saying they would try to justify the war against Ukraine if allowed to compete. Zelensky said on Friday that Ukraine would launch an international campaign to keep Russia out of the summer games to be held in Paris. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Friday that any attempt to push Moscow out of international sports over what she called a special military operation in Ukraine was “doomed to failure.”