Ukrainian paratroopers regain control of Kotlyne near Pokrovsk. An overnight Russian drone attack kills two, injures two others in Kyiv region. The UK, Germany and France are willing to send troops to Ukraine, Trump is ready to backstop the effort.
Ukrainian paratroopers regain control of Kotlyne near Pokrovsk
The Ukrainian 25th Separate Sicheslavska Airborne Brigade has regained control of the village of Kotlyne that sits near Pokrovsk, in Donetsk region, Ukraine’s Air Assault Forces said on Wednesday.
“Paratroopers of the 25th Separate Sicheslavska Airborne Brigade of Ukraine’s Air Assault Forces have cleared the village of Kotlyne near Pokrovsk,” the Air Assault Forces said in a statement. Russian control of the village would have allowed Moscow to take control of a key highway running from Pokrovsk toward the city of Dnipro, the Ukrainian military said. That’s why Russia sent significant forces to capture it. The 25th Separate Sicheslavska Airborne Brigade and other branches of the Ukrainian military have impeded Russia’s plans to consolidate positions in Kotlyne, and have forced Russian troops out of the village, the statement reads.
According to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, 1,170 Russian soldiers were killed or wounded on Tuesday. Ukrainian troops destroyed 19 Russian tanks, 15 armored fighting vehicles, 34 artillery systems, two air defense systems, 194 operational-tactical drones and 120 vehicles in the past day, the General Staff said in a morning report Wednesday.
Overnight Russian drone attack kills two, injures two others in Kyiv region
The Ukrainian Air Force said on Wednesday that it shot down 110 out of 177 drones launched by Russia overnight. Sixty-six decoy drones disappeared off radar after likely being disabled by electronic warfare systems.
The attack caused destruction in the regions of Kyiv, Kharkiv, Kropyvnytskyi and Sumy.
Two people were killed and two others wounded in Kyiv region. The strike damaged private homes, apartment buildings, cars and garages in the Bucha district.
Private energy company DTEK said its energy facility in the region of Dnipro was hit, without providing details. Emergency power cuts were implemented in the regions of Odesa and Dnipro. They resulted from a shortage of network capacity after Russia’s attack, Ukrenergo national energy operator said. Repair works were underway.
In Kharkiv, a drone crashed into an apartment building, injuring two, the city’s mayor Ihor Terekhov said.
UK, Germany, France willing to send troops to Ukraine, Trump ready to backstop effort, French Finance Minister says
The UK, Germany and France “are already willing” to put their troops on the ground in Ukraine to help guarantee its security, while other EU states will contribute as well, French Finance Minister Eric Lombard told Bloomberg Television in an interview in Cape Town, where he’s attending a meeting of Group of 20 finance chiefs on Wednesday.
Lombard said he expects the U.S. to provide backup for European troops to help maintain peace once a ceasefire is agreed between Ukraine and Russia. U.S. President Donald Trump said he would agree to provide the backstop, he added.
“If we want a ceasefire to be respected, we need a U.S. backup,” Lombard said on Wednesday. “I believe the Americans have agreed to do that.”
France and the UK have developed a plan to provide security guarantees to Ukraine, French President Emmanuel Macron said on a visit to Washington Monday. The countries agreed that any peace deal should include the deployment of European peacekeeping forces in Ukraine. “They would not be along the front lines. They would not be part of any conflict. They would be there to ensure that the peace is respected,” Macron said in the Oval Office.
Britain and France are developing a plan to deploy up to 30,000 European peacekeepers in Ukraine with U.S. backing, earlier media reports said.
The U.S. is not sending troops into Ukraine, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said earlier this month.
