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Russian forces damaged Ukrainian energy and gas infrastructure overnight in their first major missile attack since the U.S. paused intelligence sharing with Ukraine, piling pressure on Kyiv as President Donald Trump seeks a swift end to the war. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, seeking to shore up Western support for his country after Trump's diplomatic pivot towards Moscow, called for a truce covering air and sea, though not ground troops - an idea first mooted by France. "The first steps to establishing real peace should be forcing the sole source of this war, Russia, to stop such attacks," Zelenskiy said on...

WARSAW, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Poland said on Saturday it has been paying for Ukraine's Starlink subscription and will continue to do so despite sources saying the United States could consider cutting Ukraine's access to the satellite internet system. U.S. negotiators pressing Kyiv for access to Ukraine's critical minerals have raised the possibility of cutting the country's access to Elon Musk's vital Starlink satellite internet system, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. Starlink provides crucial internet connectivity to the war-torn country and its military. "We pay and will continue to pay a subscription fee for satellite internet for Ukraine,"...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy pored over a once-classified map of vast deposits of rare earths and other critical minerals during an interview with Reuters on Friday, part of a push to appeal to Donald Trump's penchant for a deal. The U.S. president, whose administration is pressing for a rapid end to Ukraine's war with Russia, said on Monday he wanted Ukraine to supply the U.S. with rare earths and other minerals in return for financially supporting its war effort. "If we are talking about a deal, then let's do a deal, we are only for it," Zelenskiy said, emphasising Ukraine's...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy pored over a once-classified map of vast deposits of rare earths and other critical minerals during an interview with Reuters on Friday, part of a push to appeal to Donald Trump's penchant for a deal. -snip- "We need to stop Putin and protect what we have - a very rich Dnipro region, central Ukraine," he said. -snip- "The Americans helped the most, and therefore the Americans should earn the most. And they should have this priority, and they will. I would also like to talk about this with President Trump." -snip- In addition, Zelenskiy said Kyiv...

KYIV/PRAGUE (Reuters) -Ukraine will continue to meet its obligations to transit Russian oil to Europe, a presidential aide said on Friday after earlier suggesting it could halt supplies via the Druzhba pipeline next year.Comments by Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak, reported by local media on Friday, had suggested flows of Russian oil may stop from January, but he later said Ukraine supported EU efforts to diversify its oil supply and would not break contracts running to 2029."Ukraine has fulfilled and will fulfill its contractual obligations in full until the scheduled completion date... because it concerns our bilateral relations with European...

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy touted a newly developed Ukrainian "drone missile" on Saturday that he said would take the war back to Russia and scornfully derided Russia's Vladimir Putin as a "sick old man from Red Square". As Ukraine marked 33 years of post-Soviet independence, Zelenskiy said the new weapon, Palianytsia, was faster and more powerful than the domestically made drones that Kyiv has so far used to fight back against Russia, striking its oil refineries and military airfields. "Our enemy will ... know what the Ukrainian way for retaliation is. Worthy, symmetrical, long-ranged," he said. Zelenskiy said the new class...

Ukraine's top commander said on Thursday Kyiv had set up a military commandant's office in the occupied part of Russia's Kursk region where he said his forces were still advancing, even as Moscow's troops stepped up its offensives in Ukraine's east. The remarks by Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi were the strongest sign yet that Kyiv's forces plan to dig in after launching a lightning cross-border assault on Russia last week that has opened a new front in the 2-1/2 year-old all-out war. "We are moving forward in Kursk region. A military commandant's office has been created which must ensure order...

A Russian war reporter was killed and three were wounded in Ukraine on Saturday in what the defence ministry said was a Ukrainian attack using cluster munitions, prompting outrage from Moscow. In a separate incident, German broadcaster Deutsche Welle said one of its journalists, Yevgeny Shilko, had been wounded elsewhere in Ukraine in a Russian attack with cluster munitions that killed a Ukrainian soldier. It said his life was not in danger. Cluster bombs are in the spotlight after Ukraine received supplies of them from the United States this month. Many countries ban them because they rain shrapnel over a...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy returned from a visit to Turkey on Saturday, bringing home five former commanders of Ukraine's garrison in Mariupol despite a prisoner exchange last year under which the men were meant to remain in Turkey. Russia immediately denounced the release of the men. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Turkey had violated the prisoner exchange terms and had failed to inform Moscow. -snip- "We are returning home from Turkey and bringing our heroes home," said Zelenskiy who met Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan for talks in Istanbul on Friday. "Ukrainian soldiers Denys Prokopenko, Svyatoslav Palamar, Serhiy Volynsky, Oleh Khomenko,...

Ukraine has a mixed record on attracting foreign private investment. In 2021, it ranked as the second-lowest country in Europe on Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index, behind only Russia. Vavrishchuk said the country would need to enforce the rule of law, ensure transparency and fair competition. "Participation in the post-war reconstruction could be attractive for investors," he said. "But still we will have to address all those issues (transparency and corruption) that we have not had time to before the war began."