KYIV, Ukraine — Russia unleashed another missile and drone blitz of civilian areas in Ukraine, killing at least nine people, officials said Tuesday, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky scrambled to ensure more American and European help during his visit to Norway.
U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff, who along with Jared Kushner has tried without success to steer Russia and Ukraine toward a settlement and end their war, was also in Oslo. Kushner, who is President Trump’s son-in-law, was due to attend the meeting with Zelensky by videoconference.
Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre and Finnish President Alexander Stubb were also scheduled to meet with Zelensky in Norway’s capital.
“We are maintaining all contacts that can help bring peace,” Zelensky said in a post on X after he arrived in Oslo. He said that officials gathered in Norway would discuss strengthening Ukraine’s air defenses and joint production of weapons.
Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Moscow hopes that a meeting in Russia with the U.S. envoys can be organized soon, though he didn’t give any indication about where or when.
He said that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s meetings with Trump’s envoys — potentially as early as Wednesday — would be “very important.”
“We highly appreciate the mediation efforts of the American negotiators,” Peskov said.
Zelensky speaks with Rubio after U.S. support slows
With further U.S. support for Ukraine in doubt as relations between Zelensky and Trump sour again, the Ukrainian leader said that he spoke with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is on a trip to Asia.
That conversation came after Zelensky told a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers on Monday that he believes “some political decision has been made to slow down … support for us.”
Ukraine has nearly run out of American-made Patriot air defense interceptors that it needs to stop Russia’s ballistic missiles, according to Zelensky, who has pleaded for Washington to send more. But he said that the Pentagon is delaying the delivery of missiles that other countries have purchased for Ukraine.
Zelensky also said that he sought Rubio’s help to ensure that the United States continues to share vital intelligence with Ukraine after Kyiv had received no or belated warnings about Russian missile attacks in recent days.
Zelensky also said that speed restrictions were still in place on Ukraine’s use of Starshield, the military-grade version of U.S. company SpaceX’s satellite internet service Starlink, hampering battlefield operations.
Trump also has waived sanctions on Russia, a move which Zelensky slammed as helping Putin push on with Moscow’s full-scale invasion, which will hit the five-year mark in February.
Zelensky said that he had “a substantive conversation” with Rubio.
“I am grateful for his readiness to help and his clear position,” Zelensky said on social media.
Rubio, who arrived in India on Tuesday on an official trip, denied that the U.S. is withholding assistance from Ukraine.
“Nothing has changed,” he told reporters.
The Patriot ammunition Ukraine needs is in short supply and is also required elsewhere in the world, Rubio said.
“There has not been some deliberate political directive to go out and harm Ukraine,” he said.
Europe is helping Ukraine avoid surrender, official says
With the Russian army held up on the front line, Putin is trying to bomb Ukraine into submission while robbing it of vital U.S. support, Western leaders and analysts say.
European countries, worried by Russia’s plans on the continent and viewing Ukraine as a bulwark against Moscow’s ambitions, are trying to take up the slack of any falloff in U.S. supplies, but some key assets are American-made.
European countries and European Union institutions have allocated $266 billion to support Ukraine, compared with $129 billion from the U.S., according to Germany’s Kiel Institute, which tracks assistance to Kyiv.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas on Tuesday questioned whether U.S. negotiators have been honest brokers in peace efforts. Ukrainian officials say the Trump administration has encouraged Kyiv to surrender land to Russia in return for peace.
“Although American negotiators have been trying to push Ukraine into surrender for … one and a half years now, why Ukraine hasn’t surrendered on Putin’s terms is because Europe has been supporting Ukraine,” Kallas said.
“Ukraine wants peace more than anybody because they have been under this bombardment for already four years now,” she told EU lawmakers in Strasbourg, France. “The only one who doesn’t want peace is Russia.”
Russian attacks cause power outages in 12 Ukrainian regions
Four people were killed and 27 others wounded, including children, in Russian missile and drone attacks on the Kyiv region over the past day, regional police said.
Three were killed and six were wounded in the Obukhiv district, where warehouses were damaged, police said. In the Bucha district, one woman was killed and 21 people were wounded, eight of them children, while hundreds of buildings were damaged, according to police.
On Tuesday morning, three people were killed and four injured when two vehicles caught fire in a Russian attack on the Kyiv-Odesa highway, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said. The dead included the driver of a shuttle bus that was hit. The bus transports people from Kyiv to the National Military Memorial Cemetery.
Two more people were killed in a Russian attack on warehouses on the outskirts of Dnipro in central Ukraine on Tuesday, authorities said.
National grid operator Ukrenergo reported power outages in 12 regions of Ukraine following the Russian attacks.
The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement that its forces carried out drone strikes on logistics centers, port infrastructure and three cargo ships in the port of Reni in the Odesa region. It said that another bulk carrier was hit at sea on its way to Odesa.
Meanwhile, air defenses intercepted 136 Ukrainian drones over multiple Russian regions overnight, the Defense Ministry said.
A fire broke out at an unspecified industrial facility in the Tambov region as a result of the attack, Gov. Yevgeny Pervyshov said.
Arhirova and Hatton write for the Associated Press. Hatton reported from Lisbon, Portugal. AP writer Lorne Cook in Brussels, and Bill Barrow in Atlanta, contributed to this report.
The post Russian aerial blitz kills 9 in Ukraine as Zelensky meets U.S. and European officials in Norway appeared first on Los Angeles Times.
