Ukraine-Russia war latest: Trump chuckles as Orban tells him victory for Kyiv would be ‘miracle’

President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday that Russia launched 450 drones and 45 missiles in overnight attacks targeting the energy sector and other infrastructure.

Russian regional governor Georgy Filimonov said that three Ukrainian drones hit an electricity substation in the northern Russian region of Vologda overnight.

Zelensky reiterated his call for allies to introduce stronger sanctions against the Russian energy sector.

President Volodymyr Zelensky has approved the appointment of a Commander of Unmanned Air Defense Systems to “scale up the development of the unmanned component within the Air Force”, the Ukrainian leader wrote in a post on X/Twitter on Friday.

A corresponding order has been signed by Minister of Defense Denys Shmyhal. The new commander, Yurii Cherevashenko, helped create the first group of mobile rapid-response air-defense brigades and has worked on interceptor drones, Zelensky said.

“At the Staff meeting, we approved numerous tasks for the new commander, with emphasis on actively integrating unmanned systems – in particular, interceptor drones – and strengthening our air defense capabilities with advanced armaments,” he wrote.

Naive, self-sabotaging and riddled with Moscow’s agents, Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons and an arms industry that produced a third of the Soviet Union’s supply, trusted the West and the Kremlin to protect it – and was left fighting for its life.

Now, thirty years on, the start-up nation redefining how war is fought has been forced into a bodge-and-make-do world of arms production, fusing old technology with IT know-how to break the bonds its allies tied to make Kyiv fight one-handed.

The latest innovation is a cruise missile with a range of 3,000km, a maximum speed of 900km/h and a payload of over a tonne which has been used in strikes deep into Russian territory.

The Independent’s foreign correspondent Sam Kiley reports:

Russia launched another overnight assault on Friday, firing hypersonic, cruise and ballistic missiles at cities across Ukraine, officials said.

Air raid alerts rang out as explosions were reported in Kyiv, Dnipro, Kharkiv, Chernihiv and Kremenchuk, with strikes also hitting parts of Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava, Sumy and Odesa oblasts.

In the capital, blasts were heard around 4.30am local time (2.30am GMT), as air defences intercepted incoming drones. Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said debris caused a fire in the Pechersky district, where four trucks and two buildings were damaged before the blaze was contained.

Russia launched a large-scale missile and drone strike on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure on Friday, triggering emergency power outages in multiple regions as winter approaches.

“The enemy is massively attacking Ukraine’s energy infrastructure again. Because of this, emergency power outages have been introduced in a number of regions of Ukraine,” Energy Minister Svitlana Grynchuk wrote on Facebook, without specifying affected areas. She added, “Despite the enemy’s plans, Ukraine will have light and heat this winter.”

Authorities reported strikes on critical facilities in Kyiv, Odesa, and Dnipro, with fires and extensive damage recorded. Recent Russian barrages have knocked out more than half of Ukraine’s gas production and damaged key sites that supply most of the nation’s heating fuel, raising the risk of heating outages for millions of civilians.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky announced the start of mass production of a domestically made drone modelled after the Chinese DJI Mavic, aiming to reduce reliance on foreign drones used widely on the battlefield.

Ukraine’s new “Shmavic” drone is being produced by local firms and incorporates locally made components designed to resist Russian electronic warfare.

The move comes after China restricted DJI drone shipments to Ukraine, prompting Kyiv to accelerate domestic alternatives.

The United States has granted Hungary a one-year exemption from US sanctions for using Russian oil and gas, a White House official said on Friday, after Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban pressed his case for a reprieve during a friendly meeting with President Donald Trump in Washington.

Last month, Mr Trump imposed Ukraine-related sanctions on Russian oil companies Lukoil and Rosneft that carried the threat of further sanctions on entities in countries that buy oil from those firms.

Mr Orban, a long-time Trump ally, met with Mr Trump at the White House on Friday for their first bilateral meeting since the Republican returned to power and explained why his country needed to use Russian oil at a time when Trump has been pressing Europe to stop doing so.

Mr Orban said the issue was vital for Hungary, which is a European country, and pledged to lay out “the consequences for the Hungarian people, and for the Hungarian economy, not to get oil and gas from Russia.”

Mr Trump, aiming to put pressure on Moscow to end its war with Ukraine, appeared sympathetic to Mr Orban’s position.

“We’re looking at it, because it’s very different for him to get the oil and gas from other areas,” Mr Trump said. “As you know, they don’t have … the advantage of having sea. It’s a great country, it’s a big country, but they don’t have sea. They don’t have the ports.”

“But many European countries are buying oil and gas from Russia, and they have been for years,” Mr Trump added. “And I said, ‘What’s that all about?'”

The battle for Pokrovsk in Ukraine’s Donetsk region has reached a pivotal stage, with Russian and Ukrainian forces locked in intense combat, according to soldiers and analysts.

Russia says its forces have encircled Pokrovsk and successfully thwarted Ukrainian attempts to re-establish supply lines.

Ukraine refutes claims of a blockade, stating that fighting continues and its forces are inflicting significant casualties on the Russians.

NATO chief Mark Rutte said the success earlier this month of the military alliance’s annual nuclear exercise gave him “absolute confidence in the credibility of NATO’s nuclear deterrence” in the face of Russian threats.

“When Russia is using dangerous and reckless nuclear rhetoric, our populations must know that there is no need to panic, because NATO has a strong nuclear deterrent,” he was quoted as saying by German weekly Welt am Sonntag.

“And (Russian president Vladimir) Putin must know that nuclear war can never be won and must never be fought.

Mr Putin has repeatedly warned the West of potential nuclear consequences since Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

He declared last month that 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.

Donald Trump met with Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban at the White House on Friday to discuss Hungary’s reliance on Russian oil.

Trump offered a glowing appraisal of Orban’s handling of domestic policy, calling him a “great leader” before they walked into the building.

Orban spoke of a ‘Golden Age’ in US-Hungarian relations, and showered Trump with praise in turn.

Reporters were more interested in the war in Ukraine. Orban maintains friendly relations with both Washington and Moscow as Trump pushes Europe to wean itself off Russian oil and gas.

Orban accused “other governments” of “misunderstanding” the war, thinking Ukraine could win. Asked by Trump whether he thought Ukraine cannot win the win, Orban said: “Miracles can happen.” Trump laughed: “Yeah, that’s right.”

Trump maintained that he would discuss a possible summit with Putin after talks on one in Budapest collapsed. Trump said he would like for a summit to be in Budapest still.

He also said he believed Russia would soon push for an end to the nearly four-year conflict. He said Russia was losing the lion share of soldiers prosecuting its invasion.