Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders are holding emergency Ukraine talks in Brussels, where the Ukrainian leader has thanked Europe „for staying with us“ during a week in which Donald Trump attacked him in the White House, paused military aid and suspended intelligence sharing.
Thursday 6 March 2025 13:42, UK
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Moving away from the summit on Ukraine for a moment, we can bring you some news from Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s hometown, where a Russian missile strike struck a hotel overnight.
According to the local authorities, four people were killed and 31 people injured in the strike on Kryvyi Rih.
We’ve just spoken to two survivors from the site of the attack, who for 10 minutes describe in harrowing detail what happened and show us the damage inflicted by the strike.
Karol Swiacki, chief executive of charity Ukraine Relief, arrived in the central Ukrainian city with sports equipment and generators to support schools, shelters and refugees in need of electricity.
„It’s so hard to describe how we feel at this time, standing here,“ he tells Sky News from the site of the attack.
„We are a witness of absolutely terrible events.“
Marc Edwards, an aid worker from Texas in the US, describes the moment the attack happened as hotel guests gathered for dinner.
He says people received a 20-second warning via text that a Russian missile was incoming.
„We stood up, we started running to the shelter. We’d barely left the table and it had taken out the building,“ he said.
„We were protected from the flying glass because of some heavy curtains. We climbed out through broken windows.“
‚This is Russia’s message‘
This is not the first time this hotel has been hit by a Russian strike, having been struck on 20 October last year.
„That is a direct hit on the hotel,“ says Edwards.
„It wasn’t a fluke, it wasn’t a rogue missile, it was a direct hit to take out civilian people.
„That’s the message Russia wants to send the world.“
Russia says it expects the US to appoint a team of negotiators for talks over Ukraine, after which it will appoint its own team.
Diplomats including US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov met in Saudi Arabia last month for a preliminary round of talks, with no invite extended to Ukraine.
Reacting to the news, military analyst Sean Bell says: „It’s no great surprise, there’s a lot going on at the moment.
„President Trump is appearing to put a lot of pressure on President Zelenskyy and playing a little bit into President Putin’s hands.
„On the flip side, you have Europe meeting today trying to work out how to bolster their defences and talking about potentially France’s nuclear capabilities.
„There’s no doubt there’s a lot going on at the moment, and I’d be surprised if Russia does anything demonstrable, they’re going to be watching with fascination.“
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk says Russia has started a „new arms race“ – and Europe must win it.
Speaking at a summit of EU leaders in Brussels alongside Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Tusk said it was in all of Europe’s interests to build „one well-coordinated military power“.
„Europe must take up this challenge, this arms race, and it must win it,“ he said.
Adding to his comments on X, Tusk said that Europe will, „from today“, arm itself „more wisely and faster“ than Moscow.
He said Russia „will lose“ the arms race like the Soviet Union did 40 years ago, referring to the end of the Cold War.
France is providing Ukraine with military intelligence, the French defence minister confirmed, after the US announced it was pausing all aid to Ukraine.
Washington’s freeze on aid to Kyiv includes vital intelligence data used both for attacks against Russian forces, and defence against missile attacks.
Speaking to France Inter radio on Thursday, Sebastien Lecornu said France is continuing its intelligence sharing.
„Our intelligence is sovereign,“ he added. „We have intelligence that we allow Ukraine to benefit from.“
He also said that Emmanuel Macron had asked him to „accelerate“ French aid to Ukraine following the US pause on assistance.
Overnight, a missile attack on a Ukrainian hotel killed four people and wounded many more.
UK officials held talks yesterday with representatives from around 20 countries interested in contributing to the „coalition of the willing“, a British official said.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced that Britain and France were leading the project that could see soldiers from a group of countries sent to Ukraine as peacekeepers.
The official would not say which other countries had shown an interest in offering support, but added: „It shows the willingness of the coalition of the willing to convene and the desire of a number of different countries to play their part.“
„This is still early stages and the situation is very fluid.“
Russia has said that it will not accept European peacekeepers in Ukraine.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy is now in the central chamber of the EU’s headquarters in Brussels for today’s summit.
He is joined by leaders from across Europe, as well as European Council president Antonio Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
The UK’s armed forces minister is currently delivering a speech on security and defence at Chatham House in London.
Among the things outlined by Luke Pollard so far, he says a deal has been struck with a defence tech company to allow Ukrainian armed forces to use more advanced attack drones in the Black Sea.
The Ministry of Defence says the drones, costing nearly £30m, will be supplied by Anduril UK and delivered to Ukraine „in the coming months“.
You can follow his speech on YouTube below and in the Politics Hub.
Two Ukrainian opposition leaders have dismissed the idea of holding elections while the country is at war.
Former president Petro Poroshenko and Yulia Tymoshenko both said elections should take place only when peace has been established.
Their remarks come after Donald Trump called Volodymyr Zelenskyy a „dictator without elections“ for not holding one since Russia invaded – a narrative often pushed by the Kremlin in an attempt to delegitimize the Ukrainian leader.
This is despite Zelenskyy winning nearly 75% of the vote in 2019, beating Poroshenko.
Members of Trump’s entourage have reportedly held talks with Poroshenko and Tymoshenko.
The discussions focused on whether Ukraine could hold quick presidential elections, according to Politico.
Ukraine’s constitution does not permit elections while the country is under martial law, and there would be severe challenges in getting the vote out to people in occupied territories and soldiers on the front line in any case.
Poroshenko said on Telegram that elections should only happen after peace had been established – no later than 180 days after the end of the war.
Tymoshenko said her team „is talking with all our allies who can help in securing a just peace as soon as possible,“ and said that elections should not take place before this had been achieved.
European leaders are beginning to gather in the central chamber of the EU headquarters for today’s security summit.
Before that meeting begins, we can bring you some images from behind the scenes, showing Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Emmanuel Macron.
This is the first time the two leaders have seen each other since Sunday, when they were gathered in London for another summit.
The European Commission vice president has called for „unity and resolve in these very turbulent times“.
Answering questions as she arrived at the emergency summit in Brussels, Kaja Kallas, the former Estonian prime minister spoke repeatedly about the importance of increasing defence spending, and fast.
The difficulty in reaching a consensus among the EU’s 27 members was also put under the spotlight during the questions to Kallas.
„What about Hungary’s blockade,“ one reporter asked the diplomat, a reference to Budapest’s repeated vetoes of EU policy towards Ukraine. There has been speculation that Hungary could have its voting rights revoked.
Kallas responded: „This is increasingly difficult and that’s why we have on the new initiative also considered the coalition of the willing, so that one country can’t block everybody else.
„I will not speak for Hungary, we are still striving for having the unity of 27 leaders – and if that’s not possible Hungary can speak for themselves.“
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