Volodymyr Zelensky has ordered his military to increase its long-range drone strikes against Russia to 1,000 per day, up from around 300 currently.
"There needs to be more: there is a concrete goal, and we will fulfil this task," the Ukrainian president said in his evening address.
Zelensky also said the US had given Kyiv information about a number of meetings in Moscow over the last few days.
In a Telegram post, he wrote: "Today we received information from the American side about the meetings in Moscow that took place these days. There were a number of meetings there.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that CIA Director John Ratcliffe had travelled to Moscow to warn Russia off any attack on a NATO member.
Kremlin dismissed the report, while Donald Trump said Vladimir Putin would not attack a NATO country, playing down media reports on Ratcliffe's trip.
Two sources told Reuters that Ratcliffe had raised the possibility of a Russian operation against a NATO member during the meeting, although it was unclear whether that was the primary purpose of the trip.
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Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday that he has ordered his military to increase its long-range drone strikes against Russia to 1,000 per day, up from around 300 currently.
"There needs to be more: there is a concrete goal, and we will fulfil this task," the Ukrainian president said in his evening address.
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The United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross intensified a joint appeal on Tuesday for countries to enact bans and restrictions on autonomous weapons systems — often called killer robots — warning that "the risks have intensified."
Building on a proposal first issued three years ago and years of multilateral discussions, the stance stops short of requesting a complete ban.
It highlights that such systems are currently under development, though neither the U.N. nor the Red Cross has confirmed their deployment on the battlefield. Still, protections for civilians are urgently required for when that moment comes…
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Recap: What head of CIA told Russian counterpart on secretive visit to Moscow
The head of the CIA told his Russian counterpart to make a deal with Ukraine as Moscow’s position deteriorates during a secretive visit this week, according to a report.
US officials told the New York Times that CIA director John Ratcliffe presented FSB chief Aleksandr Bortnikov with evidence of the enormous price Russia has paid for relatively small gains in Ukraine, attributed to Kyiv’s “mastery” of drone technology.
The CIA boss urged that Russia should enter serious negotiations with Ukraine to end the war given their difficulties on the ground and mounting economic woes, the sources claimed in comments to the newspaper.
Mr Ratcliffe flew to Russia on Tuesday to meet briefly with his intelligence counterparts in the first visit by a CIA director since 2021, when William Burns warned Russia against sending troops into Ukraine.
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Trump must be pressed to hand over interceptor designs to Ukraine, says Gordon Brown
Ukraine is facing its “worst winter” since the conflict with Russian began, Gordon Brown has warned, as he called for Britain and other nations to press Donald Trump to do more to help the Eastern European nation.
The former prime minister said the US president should be pushed to allow Ukraine to produce Patriot interceptor missiles – saying these could help the country defend itself from Russian attacks.
Describing the conflict – which began when Vladimir Putin’s forces invaded Ukraine in February 2022 – as being at a “critical moment”, Mr Brown recalled how Mr Trump had previously “promised he would give the design for interceptors to Ukraine”, but “hasn’t yet done so”.
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Catch up: Moscow warns UK ‘playing with fire’ over plans to help Kyiv produce missiles
Russia has threatened Britain with retaliation after prime minister Andy Burnham vowed to provide Ukraine with access to technology to produce Storm Shadow missiles domestically.
Maria Zakharova, Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson, said that London was just “one step away” from becoming legally complicit – in their eyes – for what she called “terrorism” against Russian civilians and warned of “inevitable catastrophic consequences” unless Britain changed course.
“We have repeatedly warned that any British military installations and equipment in Ukraine and beyond its borders could be targeted in response to Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory carried out using British weapons,” she said.
Zakharova accused both the UK and France of “playing with fire” after France also agreed to supply long-range missile technology to Ukraine.
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