Zelenskiy says cost of no more US aid is Russian war against Nato as he invites Trump to Ukraine Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, called for further US war funding – warning a Russian victory would spell war for US soldiers in Nato countries – and invited former US president Donald Trump to visit and see the conflict for himself, Reuters reports. Zelenskiy said that if Russia were allowed to win the war in Ukraine it would not stop its aggression and become enboldened – and begin to attack Nato countries. “If Russia will kill all of us, they will attack Nato countries and you will send your sons and daughters [to fight],” Zelenskiy said. Zelenskiy made the comments on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday. Republicans in the US have become sceptical about further funding for Ukraine’s war effort. The US president, Joe Biden, has urged Congress to pass a $106bn supplemental spending bill for military spending. But Republicans in the House of Representatives instead passed a bill last week to provide $14.3bn in aid to Israel, but nothing new for Ukraine. Trump, running again for president in 2024, has been critical of US support for Ukraine and claimed to be able to solve the war in 24 hours. “If [Trump] can come here, I will need … 24 minutes to explain to President Trump that he can’t manage this war,” Zelenskiy said. “He can’t bring peace because of Putin.” This blog is now closing for the day. Thanks for following along. Volodymyr Zelenskiy has denied a suggestion from the Ukrainian military’s commander-in-chief that the war with Russia had reached a stalemate, and a senior spokesperson for his administration has rebuked the general in question and accused him of making “the aggressor’s job easier”. Gen Valerii Zaluzhnyi had offered his blunt assessment of the situation in an interview published last week. “Just like in the first world war, we have reached the level of technology that puts us into a stalemate,” he told the Economist, adding: “There will most likely be no deep and beautiful breakthrough.” Zaluzhnyi said the war had entered a phase of attritional fighting in which neither side would make much progress unless there was a technological breakthrough. He also suggested that Russia was slowly getting the upper hand thanks to its superior numbers. Sunday Summary It’s almost 6pm in Kyiv and here are the day’s top headlines from Ukraine’s war against the Russian invasion. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said the cost of letting Russia win the war would be further conflict involving ground troops from Nato countries, as he urged US lawmakers on NBC’s Meet the Press to increase war funding. Zelenskiy also urged former US president Donald Trump to visit Ukraine, where he said it would take minutes to show war-sceptic Trump his errors about the conflict. Tensions simmered between the civilian and military wings of Ukraine’s leadership, as the president’s office publicly rebuked top military commander Valerii Zaluzhnyi for his comments the war was at a stalemate. The office of Zelenskiy said Zaluzhnyi’s words were helpful to Russia, and stirred panic. Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the war in Gaza was distracting focus from Ukraine’s war against Russia, as humanitarian, diplomatic and media attention shifts to the Middle East. Russian casualties climbed to more than 305,000 dead or injured, Ukraine said, with the US estimating 120,000 Russian deaths and 180,000 injured in the invasion. Ukraine’s Colonel Oleksandr Shtupun said Russian forces were following “cannon fodder” tactics, referring to fighting in the Tavria region. Fake Russian propaganda linking the Gaza and Ukraine wars is spreading online, with a fabricated Israeli promotional video claiming to show Ukrainians fighting in Israel exposed by the news organisation Ukrinform. Russia and Saudi Arabia confirmed they would be restricting the supply of crude oil until the end of 2023, in efforts to raise the price of oil worldwide. The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said on Saturday that Ukraine had “made excellent progress” towards EU accession, as she visited Kyiv and affirmed EU support for Ukraine “for as long as it takes”. Russian forces in the Tavria region are using “cannon fodder assaults”, said Colonel Oleksandr Shtupun, according to a report from the Ukrainian news organisation Ukrinform. “Over the past day, the enemy launched eight airstrikes and 26 artillery barrages in the Tavria direction. There were also 42 combat clashes, most of which occurred near Marinka. It is worth noting that the enemy pursues the tactics of ‘cannon fodder assaults’ and keeps its equipment safe,” Shtupun said. About 120,000 Russian forces have been killed and 180,000 injured, in the war so far, according to US estimates. Zelenskiy says cost of no more US aid is Russian war against Nato as he invites Trump to Ukraine Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, called for further US war funding – warning a Russian victory would spell war for US soldiers in Nato countries – and invited former US president Donald Trump to visit and see the conflict for himself, Reuters reports. Zelenskiy said that if Russia were allowed to win the war in Ukraine it would not stop its aggression and become enboldened – and begin to attack Nato countries. “If Russia will kill all of us, they will attack Nato countries and you will send your sons and daughters [to fight],” Zelenskiy said. Zelenskiy made the comments on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday. Republicans in the US have become sceptical about further funding for Ukraine’s war effort. The US president, Joe Biden, has urged Congress to pass a $106bn supplemental spending bill for military spending. But Republicans in the House of Representatives instead passed a bill last week to provide $14.3bn in aid to Israel, but nothing new for Ukraine. Trump, running again for president in 2024, has been critical of US support for Ukraine and claimed to be able to solve the war in 24 hours. “If [Trump] can come here, I will need … 24 minutes to explain to President Trump that he can’t manage this war,” Zelenskiy said. “He can’t bring peace because of Putin.” Ukrinform exposes Russian propaganda hoax of Israel recruiting Ukrainian soldiers Fake Russian propaganda about Ukrainian soldiers fighting for Israel in Gaza is spreading online. That’s according to a report from the Ukrainian news organisation Ukrinform, which has exposed a fabricated Israel Defence Forces recruitment video. The hoax, posted to YouTube, shows a soldier in Israeli uniform, with an overlaid sound track claiming he is a Ukrainian who has gone to fight for Israel for better pay and conditions. The news outlet reveals that the video is fake and is compiled from footage available online. The piece of disinformation is a reminder of the global geopolitics that lie behind both wars, which have become proxies for conflict between the US and Russia. Russia has confirmed it will keep voluntarily cutting the supply of crude oil and petroleum product exports by 300,000 barrels a day until the end of 2023, the deputy prime minister, Alexander Novak, said. Reuters has more details: Russia has agreed to undertake two separate reductions in oil supply: in April it decided to cut crude output by 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) until the end of 2024, while in August it said it would reduce exports by 300,000 bpd until the end of this year. “The additional voluntary cut is intended to strengthen the measures taken by Opec+ countries to maintain the stability and balance of oil markets,” Novak said. According to him, Russia will consider next month whether to deepen its voluntary export cuts or increase production. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia said it would continue its voluntary output cut of 1m barrels a day until the end of 2023, an official source at the ministry of energy said on Sunday. The goal of restricting supply by Opec+ countries is to raise the price of oil worldwide, with Saudi Arabia using the money from energy sales for government spending. But western countries have argued the global economy needs lower oil prices to support growth. In energy markets, the price for crude oil futures ticked up 0.47% on Sunday to $80.89 a barrel. Oil prices spiked in the early months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, soaring to more than $120 a barrel in June last year, but have stabilised since then. The west can’t afford to waver over its support for Ukraine’s war against Russian aggression, the Observer writes in an editorial. Recent events in the Middle East have drawn international political and media attention away from the war in Ukraine at what looks like a critical juncture. This is understandable but nonetheless alarming. The principal beneficiary of this loss of focus is Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, who ordered an illegal, unprovoked full-scale invasion in February last year that has caused more than 27,000 civilian casualties and appalling destruction. The UN believes that the true casualty figure is “considerably higher”. Putin has been accused of war crimes by the international criminal court. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and his western backers were optimistic earlier this year that Russian ground forces, badly led and often poorly equipped, could be ejected from occupied territory in eastern and southern Ukraine. But a much anticipated counteroffensive, using tanks, missiles and other modern weapons supplied by Nato states, was delayed. When it finally began five months ago, progress was disappointing, obstructed by minefields and entrenched Russian defences. There was no breakthrough. Ukrainian troops continue to fight with extraordinary courage and valour, but they risk exhaustion as a second winter of fighting looms. Estimates suggest that Moscow’s forces have sustained huge losses in recent battles. Yet it is evident that Putin and his generals care little for the lives of their young conscripts. That was a key criticism levelled by the Wagner mercenary chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin, whose temerity cost him his life. Instead, Putin is intensifying drone, artillery and missile attacks. Ukraine says it faced the biggest bombardment of the year last week. One aim is to destroy Ukraine’s already battered energy infrastructure as winter approaches, increasing pressure on civilians. With Putin apparently intent on “victory”, whatever that means and whatever the cost, now is not the moment for the west to waver in its support for Ukraine. Has Ukraine’s counteroffensive against the Russian invasion been successful? That depends on the criteria of how you measure success. Paul Poast, associate professor at the University of Chicago, has an interesting threat on X (formerly Twitter) exploring this question. Poast argues that Ukraine’s counteroffensive was “a tactical fail, a strategic draw, [and] a political win”. Ukraine has launched an investigation after Ukrainian soldiers were killed by a Russian missile strike at an awards ceremony, AFP reports. The Ukrainian news organisation Ukrainska Pravda reported that more than 20 Ukrainian soldiers were killed in Zaporizhzhia on Friday. Ukrainian officials confirmed the strike but did not mention the number of casualties. Russia “fired an Iskander-M missile at the personnel of the 128th Mountain Assault Brigade, killing the soldiers and causing injuries of varying severity to local residents,” the Ukrainian army said. The defence minister, Rustem Umerov, called the incident a tragedy and ordered a full investigation. “We must make every effort to protect our people and give honest answers to the families and friends of the fallen soldiers,” he said. War in Gaza drawing focus from Russia"s invasion of Ukraine, Zelenskiy says Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the war in Gaza was distracting focus from the war against Russia. “The war in the Middle East, this conflict takes away the focus,” Ukraine’s president said on Saturday. The focus of humanitarian, diplomatic and media attention recently has shifted to the Israeli bombardment and troop advances in Gaza – leading to almost 9,500 casualties, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry – after Hamas’s 7 October rampage in Israel killed about 1,400 people. Zelenskiy’s comments come amid emerging scepticism about long-term funding for Ukraine’s war effort in some European countries and from Republicans in the US. Ukraine’s counteroffensive has failed to change the picture of the war and some politicians worry the conflict is at a stalemate. On Saturday, NBC reported, citing an unnamed US official, that western leaders including US and EU officials have discussed possible Ukraine-Russia peace negotiations. But while visiting Kyiv on Saturday the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said the EU would stand by Ukraine “for as long as it takes”.