US and Ukraine to work on strengthening air defences, Zelenskyy says, after call Trump says was ‘meaningful'
Date: 2025-07-04T16:36:01.000Z
Title: Volodymyr Zelenskyy
Content: All-night attack on Kyiv followed conversation between US president and Putin. This live blog is closed
Russian drone attack on Kyiv
Jakub Krupa and
Tom Ambrose (earlier)
Fri 4 Jul 2025 18.31 CEST
First published on Fri 4 Jul 2025 09.27 CEST
From
4.28pm CEST
16:28
Ukrainian president said he spoke with US president Donald Trump about the need to strengthen Ukraine's air defence amid escalating Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities.
In a brief note about their call, published on Telegram, he said the US president was 'very well informed' about the situation in Ukraine, as the pair discussed 'the possibilities of air defence and agreed that we will work on increasing the protection in the sky.'
He said they agreed to hold a separate meeting between their teams on this issue.
Zelenskyy added that they also talked about the opportunities for joint arms production, saying 'we are ready for direct projects with America,' as well as potential other joint purchases and investments.
The Ukrainian president also passed his best wishes on the US Independence Day, thanking for the US support so far.
'We have done a lot together with America and support all efforts to stop the killings and restore a normal, stable, dignified peace. A decent agreement is needed for peace, and Ukraine supports American proposals,' he said.
Updated
at 4.30pm CEST
6.31pm CEST
18:31
Jakub Krupa
… and on that note, it's a wrap!
Donald Trump spoke with Ukraine's president, , on Friday as the US president appears increasingly disheartened over his chances of fulfilling a campaign pledge to end the war between Russia and Ukraine (9:27).
Ukrainian president said the US president was 'very well informed' about the situation in Ukraine, as the pair discussed 'the possibilities of air defence and agreed that we will work on increasing the protection in the sky' (16:28).
Germany also earlier said it would look to help with air defence, confirming 'intensitve discussions' on the issue, including on buying the US Patriot defence system for Ukraine (11:57), with chancellor Friedrich Merz also speaking with Trump in the last 24 hours (15:43).
The phone call came after Russia struck Kyiv with the highest number of drones and missiles since the start of the war, Ukraine said (9:59), with Polish foreign minister telling Trump in a social media post that Russia's Putin was 'mocking his peace efforts' (11:21).
Separately, French president Emmanuel Macron and British prime minister Keir Starmer will co-chair a Ukraine summit in the UK on 10 July (13:17).
In other news,
Only half of young people in France and Spain believe that democracy is the best form of government, with support even lower among their Polish counterparts, a study has found (13:59).
A strike by French air traffic controllers entered its second day, leaving many passengers stranded at the start of Europe's peak travel season (14:21).
Large parts of the Czech Republic including the capital city of Prague were hit by a major blackout, causing widespread disruption (13:42).
The number of people injured in a massive gas explosion at a petrol station in Rome on Friday has risen to 45, with two in a critical condition (16:48).
Finland's president Alexander Stubb approved the country's withdrawal from a treaty banning anti-personnel mines, citing a 'deteriorated security situation' and longer-term threat from Russia (14:08).
Germany's interior minister plans to host an EU summit to push for stricter rules for the bloc's asylum system in Bavaria on 18 July, a ministry spokesperson said, as the new government seeks to deliver on a campaign pledge (13:46).
In Spain, more than 35,000 people have signed onto a petition calling on the government to decree a maximum temperature at which people can work outdoors (13:33).
And that's all from me, Jakub Krupa, for today.
If you have any tips, comments or suggestions, email me at jakub.krupa@theguardian.com.
I am also on Bluesky at @jakubkrupa.bsky.social and on X at @jakubkrupa.
6.13pm CEST
18:13
EU and US negotiators will hold final stretch talks through the weekend as Brussels chases a deal before a 9 July deadline to avoid the return of steep tariffs, diplomats said, as reported by AFP.
If the European Union does not clinch an agreement with the United States by Wednesday next week, higher levies will snap back in and unleash economic pain on the bloc.
During a Friday briefing for member states, a senior EU official told countries there was no deal yet but talks would continue 'likely over the weekend', an EU diplomat told AFP.
5.59pm CEST
17:59
We're now getting a bit more on this developing story with Ukraine saying that a Russian strike hit power line to the plant, causing blackout.
5.47pm CEST
17:47
As we wait to hear from Trump, the International Atomic Energy Agency said the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine has lost all off-site power today.
They said it's the 9th time this happened during 'military conflict,' but added that it's only the first time since late 2023.
'The ZNPP currently relies on power from its emergency diesel generators, underlining extremely precarious nuclear safety situation,' it added.
AFP noted that the power plant's six reactors are all shut down but the plant requires power to its cooling systems for safety.
Updated
at 5.54pm CEST
5.19pm CEST
17:19
Ajit Niranjan
European capitals scorched by extreme heat this week – such as Berlin, Paris and Madrid – can expect to see twice as many heatwave days by the end of the century, a new analysis from Climate Analytics has found, unless faster action is taken to reduce fossil fuel pollution.
Current climate policies are projected to heat the planet by about 2-3C by the end of the century, a level of warming that will translate into a catastrophic worsening of weather extremes.
The analysis found annual heatwave days are set to more than double by the end of the century in Paris (to 41 days) and Berlin (to 48 days). In Madrid, they are on track to almost triple (to 57 days).
Athens and Rome could expect to see 58 and 61 heatwave days, respectively.Bill Hare, CEO of Climate Analytics, said it was important that people understood the dangers of overshooting 1.5C of global warming – the level world leaders agreed to aim for by 2100 at a climate conference in Paris 10 years ago – and that they redoubled efforts to cut pollution if it was breached.
'It's doubly disappointing in the same week that European citizens have been losing loved ones to unmanageable heat, that the EU has watered down its own 2040 climate target,' he said.
On Wednesday, the European Commission proposed cutting planet-heating pollution by 90% by 2040 but - in a bid to win over reluctant member states - allowed the limited purchase of foreign carbon credits to offset slow action at home. The proposal fell short of recommendations from the EU's own climate science advisors, who had called for a 90-90% target without the use of offsets.
'We need European leadership on this issue now more than ever,' said Hare. 'Watering down commitments is completely the wrong move at the wrong time.'
4.48pm CEST
16:48
Lorenzo Tondo
in Palermo
The number of people injured in a massive gas explosion at a petrol station in Rome on Friday has risen to 45, with two in a critical condition. Among the wounded are police officers, firefighters and emergency workers who had responded to an earlier, smaller blast triggered when a truck struck a gas pipe.
The second explosion, which occurred in the northeast of the capital, was powerful enough to be heard across the city, sending a wave of panic through neighbourhoods. A thick column of smoke was visible from many areas of Rome.
The injured were taken to nine hospitals across the city. They include local residents hurt by flying shards from shattered windows. Medical officials said six people were in a 'code red' condition, with two on life support. The critically injured pair suffered burns over 55% and 25% of their bodies, along with inhalation trauma and barotrauma – injuries caused by the force of the air displacement from the blast.
Of the 45 injured, 24 are civilians, 12 are police officers, six are firefighters and three are emergency services personnel.
Fabio Balzani, who manages a nearby summer camp, told state agency Ansa it was fortunate the explosion happened early in the day. 'It would have been a massacre if the usual 60 children and 120 pool guests had been there,' he said. Early-morning staff and the first children to arrive were evacuated after the initial gas smell was detected.
Environmental campaign group Legambiente called for fewer petrol and gas stations in urban areas, warning that extreme summer heat raises the risk of such incidents. Taxpayers' association Federcontribuenti added that 'the facility should not have been placed in that location'.
Health authorities issued warnings about the dangers of exposure to Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG). 'LPG, a mixture of propane and butane, if inhaled in high concentrations can cause nausea, dizziness, neurological issues, loss of consciousness and, in the most severe cases, asphyxiation,' said the Italian Society of Environmental Medicine (SIMA). 'Direct contact with the cryogenic liquid can also result in cold burns and serious skin damage.'
Local residents were advised to keep windows shut as fumes and ash from the blaze continued to spread through the area.
4.43pm CEST
16:43
Jakub Krupa
As we wait to hear from Trump on his call with Zelenskyy, let me bring you updates on that gas explosion in Rome earlier today and on the European heatwave.
4.28pm CEST
16:28
Ukrainian president said he spoke with US president Donald Trump about the need to strengthen Ukraine's air defence amid escalating Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities.
In a brief note about their call, published on Telegram, he said the US president was 'very well informed' about the situation in Ukraine, as the pair discussed 'the possibilities of air defence and agreed that we will work on increasing the protection in the sky.'
He said they agreed to hold a separate meeting between their teams on this issue.
Zelenskyy added that they also talked about the opportunities for joint arms production, saying 'we are ready for direct projects with America,' as well as potential other joint purchases and investments.
The Ukrainian president also passed his best wishes on the US Independence Day, thanking for the US support so far.
'We have done a lot together with America and support all efforts to stop the killings and restore a normal, stable, dignified peace. A decent agreement is needed for peace, and Ukraine supports American proposals,' he said.
Updated
at 4.30pm CEST
4.10pm CEST
16:10
Jakub Krupa
If and when we hear from Trump or Zelenskyy, I will bring you their comments here immediately.
3.48pm CEST
15:48
Andriy Yermak, the most senior aide to Ukrainian president , said in a brief social media update that the call with Trump was 'a very important and meaningful conversation between the presidents.'
'All details will be available very soon,' he added.
3.43pm CEST
15:43
Meanwhile, German magazine Spiegel reports that German chancellor Friedrich Merz also spoke with US president Donald Trump, discussing the situation in Ukraine and EU-US trade.
Spiegel reported that Trump made no commitments during the call, with Germany reportedly calling for more support for Ukraine on air defence.
Updated
at 3.46pm CEST
2.56pm CEST
14:56
Russia pummelled Kyiv with the largest drone attack of the war, killing one person, injuring at least 23 and damaging buildings across the capital hours after US president Donald Trump spoke to Russia's Vladimir Putin, officials said on Friday.
Air raid sirens, the whine of kamikaze drones and booming detonations reverberated from early evening until dawn as Russia launched what Ukraine's Air Force said was a total of 539 drones and 11 missiles.
Families huddled in underground metro stations for shelter. Acrid smoke hung over the city centre. Kyiv's military administration chief said on Friday afternoon a body had been found in the wreckage of one of the strike sites.
Updated
at 3.06pm CEST
2.23pm CEST
14:23
Jakub Krupa
That brings you up to date on most important things happening in Europe today.
Let's go back to Ukraine, as we wait more details on that much anticipated Trump-Zelenskyy call.
Updated
at 2.24pm CEST
2.21pm CEST
14:21
A strike by French air traffic controllers entered its second day, leaving many passengers stranded at the start of Europe's peak travel season, Reuters reported.
Civil aviation agency DGAC told airlines to cancel 40% of flights at the three main Paris airports because of the strike, which the air traffic controllers say is over staff shortages and ageing equipment.
Up to half of flights at France's other airports, mostly in the south, were also affected, DGAC added.
The Airlines for Europe (A4E) lobby group said late on Thursday that 1,500 flights had been cancelled over the two-day strike, affecting 300,000 passengers and causing cascading delays.
2.08pm CEST
14:08
Finland's president Alexander Stubb approved the country's withdrawal from a treaty banning anti-personnel mines, citing a 'deteriorated security situation' and longer-term threat from Russia, AFP reported.
Finnish lawmakers voted to leave the anti-landmine Ottawa Convention in June but the decision needed to be signed by the president.
'Finland is not facing an immediate military threat, but the changes in the operating environment require that we strengthen our defence,' Stubb said in a statement.
'We have a long border with Russia, which is not a party to the Ottawa Agreement. We have seen how Russia wages war today.'
AFP noted that Finland's decision will come into effect six months after the country formally notifies the United Nations.
Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia, as well as Poland, also plan to exit the treaty.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Telegraph
33 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Just raise tax? No, there's only one way out of this mess
On Wednesday, fears that Donald Trump's 'big beautiful bill' would further swell America's towering public debt triggered a sharp sell-off in government bonds across the advanced world. As anxiety swept global markets, UK gilts were hit especially hard, with US jitters coinciding with Labour's failed welfare bill. Before reversing on Thursday, government borrowing costs in the UK increased by even more than in the US. You would be hard-pressed today to find a serious investor who believes that Rachel Reeves's fiscal arithmetic adds up. The only question ahead of the autumn Budget now seems to be not whether, but by how much, she will raise taxes to balance the books. This week's cover of the New Statesman captures the view from the Left. It reads 'Just raise tax'. Since our ageing population is adding to the demands on public healthcare systems and welfare, Left-of-centre analysts argue that Britain simply needs to face the facts and increase taxes to finance the necessary spending. The solution put forward by the Right is not to raise tax thresholds but to cut them. Have you not heard of the Laffer curve? They say that the way to increase tax receipts is to reduce tax rates. Both sides are wrong. Putting taxes up would not only be wildly unpopular, but it would further weaken Britain's already mediocre growth rate. Cutting taxes in a major way is also a non-starter – Liz Truss tried that already, and remember what happened. Across the whole spectrum of British politics, policymakers have become prisoners of their own economic ignorance when it comes to the causes and solutions of our present fiscal dilemma. Is this situation hopeless? Not at all. There is, in fact, a way to increase tax yields and hence finance higher public spending without raising tax rates. But the debate needs to refocus on the underlying causes of the fiscal gap and escape the siloed thinking about whether tax rates should go up or down, as if that is the only choice. The Government faces a serious constraint because of its promise not to raise rates on the big three taxes – on income, employee National Insurance and VAT. But this does not mean that policymakers have no options to increase the tax yields in these areas. Britain's persistent tax shortfall is a symptom of a persistent growth shortfall, caused by the excessive weight of misguided rules and regulations that arbitrarily slow and even prohibit all sorts of economic activities that would otherwise take place. Remove the economic straitjacket on our factors of production – land, labour, capital and entrepreneurship – and the fiscal problems will be solved. Needlessly restrictive and complex planning and zoning regulations prevent a much-needed increase in the stock of housing, transport infrastructure, factories and offices. We have left the EU only to discover that our Eurosclerosis is home-grown. The surest way to boost the revenues to the Exchequer from income tax and National Insurance would be to implement pro-employment policies that increase the number of people in jobs. Instead, with the Employment Rights Bill, minimum wage increases and the uplift in employers' National Insurance, Labour has delivered the most anti-employment policies in a generation. The unemployment rate has risen from 4.1pc to 4.6pc during Labour's first year in office and looks likely to rise further. Over the coming years, any rise in employment and incomes will be lower than it could have been. Economists have long known that increasing the ratio of capital to workers is the only way to increase productivity in the long run. But capital, which includes vehicles, machines and computers, needs power. The more cheap power is available, the greater the opportunities for capital to deepen and productivity growth. However, under our dogged decarbonisation push, we have reduced the availability of electricity to the economy by around a fifth since the peak in 2005. This decline has occurred due to the planned decommissioning of electricity production facilities powered by coal, oil, and even nuclear. Ahead of the election, Labour was making all the right noises. But the early promises to focus on growth with a pro-business message seem to have given way to a damaging and self-defeating cycle of growth disappointments and tax increases. Fears over higher taxes encourage saving and lacklustre spending and investment, which lowers tax yields across the board. Chronically fearful consumers are saving more than 10pc of their income, despite average annual real wage gains of nearly 2pc for over two years while businesses sit on near-record cash balances. Taxes, like public services, are a second derivative of the real economy. We depend on the profits and investment of British industry, as well as the incomes and spending of private sector workers, to finance our public sector. The UK does not need to raise taxes; it needs to raise supply. Cutting red tape to promote these activities is the path to fiscal sustainability.
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
State leader's bold new plan to entice Donald Trump to Australia
US President Donald Trump will join a meeting of Australia's most important allies in Brisbane next year if the Queensland Premier can convince Anthony Albanese. David Crisafulli is campaigning for his state to host the next leaders summit of the Quad, the diplomatic partnership between Australia, India, Japan, and the US. 'I'm leading a campaign to get the Quad to Queensland,' he told an American Chamber of Commerce in Australia event in Brisbane on Friday. 'Australia is due to host it (next year), and I couldn't think of a more appropriate place than Queensland to have it.' He said he had floated the idea with the Prime Minister as recently as Thursday and he had been 'pretty persistent'. Crisafulli said he plans to travel to Japan and India along with representatives of Queensland universities in coming weeks to lobby for the opportunity. The last time global leaders descended on Brisbane was 2014 when it hosted the G20 summit, with guests including then US President Barack Obama and Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Crisafulli said Queensland did not get the 'buzz and recognition' some had expected from the summit, claiming its high-calibre invites had overshadowed the host city. He said he couldn't think of a 'more appropriate place' to host the Quad meeting and promoted commercial ties between Queensland and the United States. Crisafulli said Trump-era 'uncertainties' did not spell 'doom and gloom' but were a time of opportunity for the major trading partners. Australia is North America's biggest supplier of beef, with Queensland being responsible for roughly half of Australia's production of beef. He said demand for Queensland's resources will help offset impacts from the end of the US' country-specific tariff pause on July 9. 'It really plays into our strengths, what's happening on the trade front,' he said. 'Almost half of our exports at the moment are beef, and I see that as a good opportunity for a couple of reasons. 'First, the demand for Aussie beef isn't going anywhere in a hurry, and it will be a bedrock of great trade relationships for many years to come. 'But I also look at the new opportunities, and particularly with a lens of those tariffs over it, and how great that could be for Queensland. 'Start with critical minerals. Imagine an exemption for our critical minerals at a time when others are competing to get their products into one of our major markets.' Washington hosted this week's Quad meeting, where Australia sought to brand itself as an alternative to Beijing in the supply and processing of critical minerals. A meeting of foreign ministers from each member state agreed on a 'Quad Critical Minerals Initiative' designed to shore up global supply. The joint statement cited concerns over the 'abrupt constriction and future reliability of key supply chains, specifically for critical minerals'. 'Reliance on any one country for processing and refining critical minerals and derivative goods production exposes our industries to economic coercion, price manipulation, and supply chain disruptions, which further harms our economic and national security,' the statement said.
Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
EU to stockpile critical minerals amid geopolitical risks, FT says
July 5 (Reuters) - The European Union plans to stockpile critical minerals as a precaution against potential supply disruptions due to geopolitical tension, the Financial Times reported on Saturday, citing a draft document by the European Commission. "The EU faces an increasingly complex and deteriorating risk landscape marked by rising geopolitical tensions, including conflict, the mounting impacts of climate change, environmental degradation, and hybrid and cyber threats," the newspaper quoted the draft as saying. The document warns that the higher-risk environment was driven by "increased activity from hacktivists, cybercriminals and state-sponsored groups", the FT said. The European Commission did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. The draft document, due to be published next week and still subject to change, says there is "limited common understanding of which essential goods are needed for crisis preparedness against the backdrop of a rapidly evolving risk landscape", the newspaper reported. In March, the European Commission unveiled its EU Preparedness Union Strategy, urging member states to strengthen stockpiles of critical equipment and encouraging citizens to keep at least 72 hours' worth of essential supplies in case of emergencies. The strategy was designed to prepare the bloc for risks such as natural disasters, cyberattacks and geopolitical crises, including the possibility of armed aggression against EU countries.
