(LONDON) — Munich’s famous Oktoberfest event briefly closed on Wednesday following a bomb threat linked to a fire at a residence in the north of the city, police said.
A 57-year-old German man who police said was behind the threat was found near the residence with a backpack containing an explosive device that had to be defused. He died by suicide, according to Munich police.
Oktoberfest resumed Wednesday afternoon following a search of the grounds involving explosive detection dogs, authorities noted.
“The threat has not been confirmed,” Munich police said.
The man allegedly set fire to the residence during a family dispute in the Lerchenau district of northern Munich early Wednesday before taking his own life near a lake, police said.
Two other people — the suspect’s 81-year-old mother and 21-year-old daughter — were injured during the incident and subsequently hospitalized, according to police.
Officials said they discovered “explosive devices” in the building and that special forces were called in to defuse the bombs.
Police said they also found a letter written by the suspect containing an unspecified threat of explosives related to Oktoberfest, prompting authorities to temporarily close the fairgrounds in the vast Theresienwiese public space for several hours to conduct the searches. The grounds opened at 5:30 p.m. local time.
The investigation is ongoing, officials noted.
In a video statement posted to X, Munich police spokesman Thomas Schelshorn said the “major operation” in Lerchenau had been underway since 4:45 a.m. Wednesday.
“We’ve discovered a burning house, a single-family home, burning cars nearby and a dead man at Lerchenau Lake, which may also be related to this,” Schelshorn said.
“We also have an unspecified threat of explosives for the Theresienwiese,” he added. “That’s why cordoning off and searching measures are taking place here. And that’s also why the Oktoberfest isn’t opening on time today.”
Police said there is no indication of any threat at other Munich locations.
(NEW YORK) — A powerful 6.9-magnitude earthquake killed at least 69 people in the Philippines, officials said on Wednesday.
The quake was recorded at 9:59 p.m. local time on Tuesday with the centre at 19 km east-northeast of Bogo City, Philippines, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said. After the offshore earthquake, the institute recorded several aftershocks, many more than 4-magnitude.
The institute issued a tsunami warning due to the disturbance, which was later canceled.
At least 69 people were reported dead on Wednesday, officials said. The office of Civil Defense Deputy Administrator Bernardo Rafaelito Alejandro IV, said the number of fatalities would likely remain less than three digits.
He also added that they have evacuated almost 1,000 people from the city.
The earthquake nterrupted the Miss Asia Pacific International 2025 beauty pageant in Cebu City, Philippines. In one of the videos, candidates are seen on the catwalk when the earthquake hits. Everyone was safe after the incident, according to a statement released by the organizers.
Rescue and relief operations are underway, with doctors and nurses deployed from Manila to quake-hit Bogo with the Philippine Coast Guard. The Philippine Air Force was continuing its “rescue and relief operations,” as per the Office of Civil Defense’s Facebook account.
The emergency response is expected to continue as Tropical Depression Paolo slightly intensified while moving west over the Philippine Sea, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said in a brief issued at 5 p.m. local time.
That storm may make landfall over Isabela or northern Aurora on Friday, the brief said.
Last week, Typhoon Bualoi and before that Super Typhoon Ragasa hit the Philippines.
Philippine Area of Responsibility is hit by more tropical cyclones than anywhere in the world, with an average of 20 per year, according to the Philippines Atmospheric Geophysical And Astronomical Services Administration.
(LONDON) — Police in the southern German city of Munich said the famous Oktoberfest event would be closed until Wednesday afternoon, following a bomb threat linked to a deadly fire at a home in the north of the city.
“Due to a bomb threat in connection with the explosion in northern Munich, the Theresienwiese will remain closed until 5:00 p.m.,” Munich police said in a statement, referring to the open area west of the city center where the festival is located.
“A letter from the perpetrator has been sent to this effect,” police said. “A decision on further action will be made in the early afternoon.”
The bomb threat was linked to a fire at a residential building that killed one person in northern Munich on Wednesday morning, authorities said.
Police and fire department personnel were dispatched to the scene in the Lerchenau area. Police said there was a “burning residential building” and there they had received reports of “loud bangs.”
“According to current information, the residential building was deliberately set on fire during a family dispute,” police said. “The injured person found has since died. Another person is missing and poses no danger.”
Police later said they discovered “explosive devices” in the building. “Special forces have been called in to defuse the bombs,” the police said.
Munich police confirmed to ABC News that the person who was found dead in connection to the explosion at the residence was “probably the suspect.”
In a video statement posted to X, Munich police spokesman Thomas Schelshorn said the “major operation” in Lerchenau had been underway since 4:45 a.m.
“We’ve discovered a burning house, a single-family home, burning cars nearby and a dead man at Lerchenau Lake, which may also be related to this,” Schelshorn said.
“We also have an unspecified threat of explosives for the Theresienwiese,” he added. “That’s why cordoning off and searching measures are taking place here. And that’s also why the Oktoberfest isn’t opening on time today. And we assume it won’t open before 5 p.m.”
(LONDON) — NATO fighter jets were scrambled and air defense units put on alert in the early hours of Sunday in response to a major Russian drone and missile strike on Ukraine, the Polish Operational Command said in posts to X.
“Due to the activity of the Russian Federation’s long-range aviation, which is carrying out strikes on the territory of Ukraine, Polish and allied aviation has begun operating in our airspace,” the command said in a statement.
“On-duty fighter pairs have been scrambled, and ground-based air defense systems as well as radar reconnaissance have reached a state of highest readiness,” the post added.
“These actions are of a preventive nature and are aimed at securing the airspace and protecting citizens, especially in areas adjacent to the threatened regions,” it said.
Dutch F-35 stealth fighters and a German Patriot surface-to-air missile system were among the forces put on alert, the command added. Airspace over Lublin and Rzeszow near the Ukrainian border was also briefly closed.
The alert ended after around three-and-a-half hours with no reported violations of Polish airspace, the command said.
There have been no reported violations of Polish airspace by long-range Russian drones since dozens crossed into the country during strikes on Ukraine on Sept. 10, prompting Polish and allied jets to shoot down several.
Kyiv was the focus of the overnight Russian strikes. Zaporizhzhia, Khmelnytskyi, Sumy and Odesa were also attacked, President Voloydmyr Zelenskyy said in a post to Telegram. The barrage lasted for more than 12 hours, the president said.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 593 drones and 50 missiles of various types, making the overnight barrage the largest combined strike on Ukraine since Sept. 7.
Defenders downed or suppressed 566 drones and 45 missiles, the air force said. Five missiles and 31 drones impacted across 16 locations, the force said.
At least four people — among them a 12-year-old girl — were killed in the capital, according to a post by head of the Kyiv City Military Administration Timur Tkachenko to Telegram.
At least 14 people were also injured in Kyiv, local officials said.
“As of now, there are over 15 locations with damage,” Tkachenko said. “Among them are drone strikes on multi-story residential buildings.” Tkachenko reported damage in at least five city districts.
Mayor Vitali Klitschko said a five-floor apartment building in the Solomyanskyi district was partially destroyed and caught fire. Strikes also hit a state medical facility, warehouses, private homes, cars and a children’s educational center, officials said.
At least 31 people — among them three children — were injured by Russian strikes on the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, according to local Gov. Ivan Fedorov. A high-rise apartment building and several other structures were hit and set ablaze in the city, Fedorov said.
The city — home to more than 710,000 people before Russia’s full-scale invasion — is now only around 16 miles from the front line and subject to continuous Russian attacks.
Ukraine’s Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said in a post to Telegram that at least 70 people were injured by strikes across the country.
Zelenskyy noted that the “cowardly” attack took place at the end of a week of high-level meetings and speeches at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
“This is exactly how Russia declares its real position,” Zelenskyy said. “Moscow wants to continue fighting and killing and deserves only the harshest pressure from the world.”
Zelenskyy again called for more international measures to choke Russia’s energy export industry. “We count on a strong response from the U.S., Europe, the G7 and the G20,” he wrote.
Andriy Kovalenko — the head of the Counter-Disinformation Center operating as part of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council — said in a post to Telegram that it was a “difficult night for many cities.”
“The Russians are also under attack,” Kovalenko wrote. “And the level of these attacks will only increase.”
Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces shot down at least 41 Ukrainian drones overnight.
Rosaviatsiya, Russia’s federal air transport agency, reported temporary flight restrictions at multiple airports, including at the Zhukovsky International Airport in Moscow.
Restrictions were also imposed at airports in Volgograd, Kaluga, Penza, Samara, Pskov and Yaroslavl.
(NEW YORK) — The U.S. State Department said it was revoking the visa of Colombian President Gustavo Petro, who had traveled to New York this week for the United Nations General Assembly.
“Earlier today, [Petro] stood on a NYC street and urged U.S. soldiers to disobey orders and incite violence,” the State Department said Friday in a post on X. “We will revoke Petro’s visa due to his reckless and incendiary actions.”
Petro, who traveled to New York for the U.N. General Assembly, participated in a pro-Palestinian demonstration earlier Friday. In video clips posted to social media, he can be heard appealing to American soldiers — urging them to disobey orders from President Donald Trump.
Based on the video clips, there did not appear to be any uniformed U.S. service members in the audience listening to Petro.
Petro, responding to the revoking of his visa on Saturday, posted a lengthy response to President Donald Trump on X, saying that “international laws grant me immunity to go to the UN and that there should be no reprisals for my free opinion, because I am a free person.”
He also criticized Trump’s advisers and urged the president to “see humanity clearly and what’s happening” in regards to the situation in Gaza and the crackdown on migrants in the U.S.
Steffen Trumpf/dpa (Photo by Steffen Trumpf/picture alliance via Getty Images
(LONDON) — Drone overflights again caused disruptions at Danish airports on Wednesday night, officials said, in the latest instance of unexplained drone sightings over sensitive facilities in the Scandinavian nation.
Danish officials held a press conference on Thursday morning detailing the latest incidents, which prompted the complete closure of Aalborg Airport — which is also used by the Danish armed forces — on the northern tip of Denmark’s Zealand island.
“Drones have been observed near Aalborg Airport and the airspace has been closed,” the Danish National Police said in a statement on Wednesday night. “The police are present and investigating further.”
Danish Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard said at a Thursday press conference that drones were also reported over the southern cities of Esbjerg and Sonderborg, as well as over the Fighter Wing Skrydstrup air base, which is home to Danish F-16 fighter jets.
“The goal of this kind of hybrid attack is to create fear,” Hummelgaard said. “It is to create discord and it is to make us afraid.”
The Danish government is planning to “acquire new capabilities for detection” and to present a bill that will “provide increased opportunities for infrastructure owners to also shoot down drones,” Hummelgaard added.
The latest reports came after Copenhagen Airport was forced to close for several hours on Monday night, as was Oslo Airport in southern Norway. Both capitals sit along the Skagerrak and Kattegat straits, home to busy shipping lanes which connect the North Sea to the Baltic Sea.
The origin or purpose of the drone flights is not yet clear. But Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen told a Thursday press conference, “There can be no doubt that everything points to this being the work of a professional actor when we are talking about such a systematic operation in so many locations at virtually the same time.”
“This is what I would define as a hybrid attack using different types of drones,” Poulsen said, adding that Copenhagen has options to respond through NATO, including by triggering the alliance’s Article 4 which calls for a formal consultation with allies.
“We have no evidence to make the direct link to Russia,” Poulsen added.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said Tuesday that she considered the initial drone intrusions over Copenhagen and elsewhere to be “a serious attack against critical infrastructure in Denmark.”
Asked if Russia — drones from which have repeatedly violated NATO airspace in recent months — should be considered responsible, Frederiksen said, “I cannot reject in any way that it could be Russia.”
The Kremlin on Tuesday dismissed the assertion. “A country that takes a serious position should probably not make such baseless accusations time and time again,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.
And on Thursday, the Russian embassy in Denmark suggested the drone sightings “are a staged provocation.”
“Undoubtedly, they will be used as a pretext for further escalating tension in the interests of forces seeking by all means to prolong the Ukrainian conflict and extend it to other countries,” the embassy wrote on Telegram. “The Russian side firmly rejects the absurd speculations of involvement in the incidents.”
Danish police Chief Superintendent Jens Jespersen told reporters on Tuesday that authorities were investigating several theories as to the origin of the drones, including that they may have been launched from nearby ships.
Danish authorities identified three tankers with links to Russia — the Astrol 1, Pushpa and Oslo Carrier 3 — as possible launch points, Reuters reported.
Of the three, only the Pushpa was close to Aalborg on Wednesday night when the latest drone overflights were reported.
As of Thursday morning, open-source maritime tracking websites showed the Pushpa sailing southwest through the North Sea toward the English Channel, with its eventual destination listed as Vadinar in India.
The Ukrainian government’s “War Sanctions” website lists the Pushpa as part of Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet” of tankers — vessels that are often uninsured and with unclear ownership which Moscow uses to evade international sanctions.
The Puspha also uses the name Boracay and sails under the flag of Benin, according to the Ukrainian government.
(LONDON) — Typhoon Ragasa swept along the southern coast of China on Wednesday, bringing lashing rain, fierce winds and coastal flooding as it made its way toward landfall.
The powerful storm was forecast to make landfall in the evening near Guangdong, China, where local officials called for about two million people to be evacuated. The storm was expected to churn through China and along the northern borders of Vietnam and Laos, according to local weather officials.
It was expected to weaken as it approached landfall near the Leizhou Peninsula, according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center, which is run by the U.S. Navy.
Ragasa had left a trail of destruction in recent days as it passed Taiwan — where officials said at least 15 people had died — and the Philippines and moved toward mainland China.
At the height of the storm, Hong Kong issued it’s highest-level warning — a 10 on a scale of 1 to 10. That level was since lowered and, by mid-afternoon, the storm had passed by the city, but officials were still urging caution.
Parts of Hong Kong were flooded, the Hong Kong Observatory said, adding that there “may be hidden danger” in the city.
“Although the tropical cyclone is moving away from Hong Kong, gales are expected to persist for some time,” the observatory said in a mid-afternoon update. “Please continue to stay indoors until winds moderate. Do not touch electric cables that have been blown loose.”
Ragasa was churning on Wednesday afternoon about 98 nautical miles — or about 112 miles — west-southwest of Hong Kong, according to the U.S. Naval tracking center.
It had maximum sustained winds at the time of 105 knots, or about 120 mph, with gusts up to an estimated 130 knots, the center said, and driving waves up to 38 feet.
(LONDON) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy praised his “productive meeting” with U.S. President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, after which Trump appeared to jettison his long-held skepticism of Kyiv’s battlefield ambitions.
Shortly after the meeting, Trump wrote on social media, “After getting to know and fully understand the Ukraine/Russia Military and Economic situation and, after seeing the Economic trouble it is causing Russia, I think Ukraine, with the support of the European Union, is in a position to fight and WIN all of Ukraine back in its original form.”
It was not immediately clear whether Trump’s rhetorical shift would be matched with a policy pivot. But the post was met with cautious optimism in Kyiv, Oleksandr Merezhko — a member of the Ukrainian parliament representing Zelenskyy’s party and chair of the body’s foreign affairs committee — told ABC News.
Trump’s statement marked a dramatic pivot away from the White House’s established position that Kyiv will not be able to liberate the 20% or so of its internationally-recognized territory occupied by Russian forces since 2014.
Trump has repeatedly suggested that Zelenskyy will have to cede — or “swap” — some territory to achieve a peace deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin, telling the Ukrainian president at a fractious February Oval Office meeting, “You don’t have the cards.”
But on Tuesday, the president appeared to have changed his tune. “With time, patience, and the financial support of Europe and, in particular, Nato, the original Borders from where this War started, is very much an option. Why not?” Trump wrote.
“Russia has been fighting aimlessly for three and a half years, a war that should have taken a Real Military Power less than a week to win,” he continued, suggesting Moscow was a “paper tiger” citing its battlefield failures.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov disputed Trump’s comments, telling the RBC news agency on Wednesday, “Russia is not a tiger; Russia is more closely associated with a bear. There are no paper bears. Russia is a real bear.”
Peskov also rejected Trump’s suggestion that the Russian economy was struggling. “Let’s not forget that the world has entered a stage of completely unpredictable macroeconomic conditions,” he told RBC.
“We are continuing our special military operation to protect our interests and achieve the goals” set by Putin, Peskov said. “We are doing this for the present and future of our country. For many generations to come. Therefore, we have no alternative.”
Trump, Peskov said, “heard Zelenskyy’s version of events. Apparently, this version was the reason for the assessment we heard. We cannot agree with everything here.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is expected to meet with Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the sidelines of the UNGA on Wednesday.
Noting that planned meeting, Peskov said that Russia-U.S. “channels of dialogue are working, we are talking to the Americans, and President Putin still highly values Trump’s willingness to help, Trump’s willingness to seek a solution together.”
On Tuesday, Zelenskyy said in a post to Telegram that he was “grateful to President Trump for strong cooperation with the United States.”
“The president clearly understands the situation and is well informed about all aspects of this war,” Zelenskyy added. “We highly appreciate his determination to help end this war.”
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Zelenskyy described Trump’s pivot as “a big shift, a really big shift.”
Asked if the social media post by Trump is a “game changer” for the war, Zelenskyy responded: “Trump is a game changer by himself.”
Zelenskyy added that he thinks the president is now aware of “more details” of what is happening on the battlefield, and suggested that U.S. intelligence on the situation is aligned with Ukraine’s.
Zelenskyy also said it was “good news” that Russia’s economy is struggling amid the strains of its full-scale invasion, but that it was “bad news” that Moscow still has the resources to fund its war.
“Trump agreed with me that Putin won’t wait for the war in Ukraine to end,” he added. “He will try to exploit weak places in Europe, in NATO countries, he will try to do it.”
Merezhko said he saw Trump’s statement as a “pleasant surprise, giving some hope that he finally is starting to view Russia’s war against Ukraine in a different light.”
“At the same time, knowing how often Trump might change his stance, we should be cautiously optimistic,” Merezhko added. “What matters are his actions, concrete steps to help Ukraine, not only rhetoric, however good it might be.”
“Trump’s statement implies that the U.S. will continue to sell weapons to the European and NATO countries for Ukraine,” he added. “And also it can be inferred from this statement that Ukraine won’t be restricted in the use of American weaponry in the territory of Russia.”
Oleksiy Goncharenko, a prominent opposition member of parliament, was less sanguine.
“Trump’s statement is not about Ukraine’s victory, it is about washing hands of the war,” he wrote on Telegram. “He directly says: ‘You deal with the EU there. I hope you succeed. Good luck to everyone!'”
“Obviously, right now Russia does not want to stop,” Goncharenko added. “But our task is not to risk the lives of hundreds of thousands, but to be on the defense.”
“The reality is that we are neither losing nor winning,” he continued, warning that embarking on a costly “war of attrition” would be “idiocy.”
(LONDON) — The Trump administration’s tariffs on Indian goods, initially 25% and then additional 25%, “due to India’s direct or indirect importation of Russian Federation oil,” is expected to make Indian basmati rice significantly more expensive for American consumers.
Basmati is an aromatic rice variety grown mostly in the Punjab region in northern India and is popular for its long grain, fluffy texture and distinct smell. This premium variety is sold for twice the price of other varieties meaning, even with limited quantity, basmati is considered a high value export.
India dominates the global market, providing the world with 65% of its basmati supply. Most of the rest comes from Pakistan.
The Indian price of exporting Indian rice is expected to rise sharply due to U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs on India, and the consequences for India could be extreme due to the stark tariff differential when compared to Pakistan.
While India faces a 50% duty, Pakistan has only a 19% tariff.
“We definitely see this [tariffs] as a positive thing,” Mudassar Ahmed, of Rice Partners, a Pakistani agricultural cooperative, to ABC News.
“The 50% tariff on Indian rice will effectively price it out of the U.S. market,” Malik Faisal Jahangir, chairman of the Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan, told Arab News.
Meanwhile, the northern state of Punjab in India, which shares borders with Pakistan’s Punjab province, has been experiencing the worst flooding since 1988.
Arvind Shukla, a journalist from local media outlet NewsPolti, told ABC News that the devastation from the floods has been widespread and that most of the districts that grow basmati have been severely impacted.
The floods submerged more than 150,000 hectares of farmland — an estimated 10% of potential output, the Indian Rice Exporters’ Federation (IREF) spokesperson told ABC News.
Farmers in Punjab have an average landholding of 8.95 acres per farmer, significantly more than the national average of 1.08, according to the Government’s Agriculture Census, and farming is more mechanized and resource-intensive, with farmers often investing in costly equipment financed through high-interest loans, leaving them among the most debt-burdened in the country.
Any disruption in crop yields, particularly of high value crops like basmati, makes them vulnerable to significant debt and potential default.
Punjab province in Pakistan has also flooded, with the region producing 90% of the country’s Basmati rice. More than 1,000 people have died in the floods since August 2025, as per Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority.
Officials estimate that 30 to 35% of their basmati output may have been impacted, according to the early estimates of Rice Partners Pvt Ltd., with the overall basmati damage may being up to 10% or 15%.
Pakistan exported approximately 772,725 tons of basmati rice in the last fiscal year, earning $876.9 million, an increase from 595,120 tons when compared to the year before, as reported by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.
India, however, in the last fiscal year exported 234,467 metric tons of basmati rice which is valued at $300 million to the U.S. alone, as per the Indian Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority.
The U.S. rice import market has grown from 7% of the domestic market in 1993-94 to over 25% in 2022-23, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the aromatic variety accounts for 60% of U.S. imports, with basmati from India and Pakistan as well as jasmine from Thailand.
The Basmati rice market is expected to grow to approximately $27 billion by 2032, as per Market Research Future’s Global Basmati Rice Market report.
“Pakistan can provide some basmati because of tariff difference, but can’t compensate for India’s quantity,” Vinod Kumar Kaul, executive director of India Rice Exporters Federation (IREF), said to ABC News.
Viktor Kovalchuk/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images
(LONDON) — At least 41 drones were shot down while heading toward Moscow from Monday evening through to Tuesday morning, according to city Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, amid what Russian Defense Ministry data suggested was a major Ukrainian drone barrage.
Sobyanin said the first Ukrainian drones were downed at around 7:30 p.m. Moscow time — 12:30 p.m. EST — on Monday, with interceptions over the capital region continuing through into Tuesday morning.
Sobyanin reported no casualties but said emergency services were responding to reports of falling debris.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces downed at least 69 drones from midnight on Monday through to Tuesday morning.
On Monday, the ministry claimed to have downed a total of 236 Ukrainian drones — the largest daily tally since Sept. 12, and the second largest daily total through both August and September to date.
Elsewhere, Andriy Kovalenko — the head of the Counter-Disinformation Center operating as part of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council — suggested in a post to Telegram that Ukrainian drones also targeted the Russian city of Yelabuga, in the Republic of Tatarstan and around 565 miles east of Moscow.
Yelabuga is home to the Alabuga Special Economic Zone, which houses a major Russian long-range strike drone manufacturing facility.
Flight disruptions occurred across Russia amid the attacks.
Rosaviatsiya, the federal air transport agency, reported temporary restrictions on commercial flights at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport.
The state-run Tass news agency said disruptions affected the capital’s other three airports — Vnukovo, Domodedovo and Zhukovsky.
Other airports in Yaroslavl, Saratov, Samara, Begishevo, Kazan and Gelendzhik were also put under temporary restrictions, Rosaviatsiya said.
The latest Ukrainian drone strikes come on the eve of U.S. President Donald Trump’s planned meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.
Trump’s efforts to forge a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine have so far been unsuccessful. The president has expressed frustration with both Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin, calling on both to make concessions to secure a settlement.
Kyiv and its European allies are pressing Trump to impose new sanctions on Russia while expanding military aide for Ukraine and offering future security guarantees to guard against repeated Russian aggression.
Upon his arrival in New York, Zelenskyy said in a post to social media, “Almost two dozen meetings are planned. A busy few days lie ahead. Ukraine must become stronger.”
On Sunday, the Ukrainian president again urged international partners to do more to force Russia to negotiate an end to its three-and-a-half-year-old full-scale invasion of its neighbor.
“There is a real need for strong pressure on Russia, new joint steps from everyone in the world who believes that international law must work again,” Zelenskyy said, calling specifically on “Europe, the USA, the G7 and G20 countries — all those who have real influence on Russia.”
“Strong sanctions, strong political pressure, Russia’s accountability for the war — all of this is necessary,” Zelenskyy wrote. “All of this will happen.”
Russia, meanwhile, continued its own nightly long-range strike campaign overnight into Tuesday.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched three missiles and 115 drones into the country overnight, of which 103 drones were downed or suppressed.
The air force reported the impacts of all three missiles and 12 drones across six locations.
