Ukraine war briefing: US says striking deep in Russia no game-changer after Zelenskiy plea

The US has cautioned there is “no one capability” that would turn the war in Ukraine in Kyiv’s favour after President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged the west to let his forces use its long-range weapons to strike Russia. At a summit of Ukraine’s allies at Ramstein airbase in Germany, Zelenskiy on Friday repeated his plea for western nations to supply more long-range missiles and lift restrictions on using them to hit targets such as airfields inside Russia. However, the US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, pushed back on the idea that allowing deep strikes inside Russia would be a gamechanger, while also saying Washington and its allies would continue to strongly support Ukraine. “There’s no one capability that will in and of itself be decisive in this campaign,” Austin told reporters at the end of the meeting. He said Russia had already moved aircraft that launch glide bombs into Ukraine beyond the range of US-supplied Atacm missiles.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy also raised concerns about western partners’ policies and the pace of weapons deliveries. “Now we hear that your long-range policy has not changed, but we see changes in the Atacms, Storm Shadows and Scalps – a shortage of missiles and cooperation,” the Ukrainian president said.

Austin announced another $250m in US military aid for Ukraine at the Ramstein meeting. Other assistance included Germany pledging to supply an additional 12 self-propelled howitzers to Kyiv, and Canada saying it planned to send 80,840 surplus small unarmed air-to-surface rockets as well as 1,300 warheads in the coming months.

Russian strikes on the central-eastern Ukrainian city of Pavlograd on Friday killed one person and wounded 64 others, including several children, officials said. Five Iskander ballistic missiles were fired from Russian territory towards Pavlograd in the Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine’s air force said. The wounded included five minors including a nine-year-old girl and two boys aged 11 and four, said the regional governor, Sergiy Lysak. “Several enterprises in the city were damaged by rocket attacks. More than 30 multi-storey buildings, a kindergarten and 27 shops were damaged,” he added. The attack led to “several fires in the city”, including in an apartment in a high-rise building. Russia regularly hits Pavlograd, home to a chemical plant that produces explosives.

In a separate attack in the northern border region of Sumy, a Russian airstrike on the village of Krasnopillia on Friday killed a 66-year-old woman in her home and wounded four others, the regional prosecutor said.

Russian forces have taken control of the village of Zhuravka in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, Russia’s defence ministry said on Friday. The claim could not be independently verified.

Hundreds of residents of Lviv packed into a church on Friday to mourn three sisters and their mother killed in a Russian strike that hit their home in the western Ukrainian city. Seven civilians were killed and more than 50 wounded in Wednesday’s drone and missile strike that hit a residential area of Lviv. Among the dead were Yevheniia Bazylevych, 43, and her three daughters Yaryna, 21, Dariia, 18, and Emiliia, 7.

Any Iranian transfer of ballistic missiles to Russia would mark a “dramatic escalation” in the Ukraine war, the US said on Friday, after reports that the two countries had deepened ties in recent weeks with such an arms transfer. Reuters reported last month that Russia was expecting the imminent delivery of hundreds of Fath-360 close-range ballistic missiles from Iran and that dozens of Russian military personnel were being trained in Iran on the satellite-guided weapons for eventual use in the war in Ukraine. Short-range missiles have now been delivered to Russia by Iran, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing an unnamed US official.

France will use a share of €1.4bn ($1.5bn) in revenues from frozen Russian assets to finance purchase of military equipment for Ukraine, the defence ministry said. “Alongside other [EU] member states, the ministry … will take part in implementing the new support measure for Ukraine from the European Peace Facility,” it said on Friday. The European Commission in Brussels had given the go-ahead for “swift procurement of priority material from French industry” including ammunition, artillery and air defences, the ministry added. About €200bn of Russian assets have been frozen across the EU since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Ukrainian prosecutors said they had launched an investigation into the alleged Russian shooting of three surrendering Ukrainian servicemen on the eastern front near Pokrovsk, the main focus of Russia’s assault. Describing the latest in scores of such incidents Ukraine has reported, the prosecutor general’s office said on Telegram on Friday that it took place after Russian troops attacked a trench used by the Ukrainian military for cover on 27 August.