Ukraine-Russia war latest: Zelensky hails good meeting with Trump as presidents discuss Patriot missile production

Russian online retailer Wildberries has evacuated its â logistics hub in the central Russian â city ​of Ryazan in â accordance with safety â requirements, the ​company â said in a ‌Telegram post.

It did not ‌provide other details. ‌A number of â industrial facilities in Ryazan caught fire after a drone attack, regional governor Pavel Malkov ‌said ​on Telegram ‌earlier â on Wednesday, without â providing details.

Ukraine has struck several targets in Russia, president Volodymyr Zelensky said, describing them as “facilities that work to support and prolong the war”.

Zelensky said that â a logistics centre ​in â the city ‌of Ryazan, an oil refinery in the ‌Perm region, ‌as well as an export terminal â and a military enterprise in the Rostov region had been struck.

He also reported a strike on a site where the Russian Black Sea Fleet’s high-speed boats are based in Russia-occupied Crimea.

Earlier, Russian online retailer Wildberries said it had evacuated its logistics hub in the central Russian city of Ryazan in accordance with safety requirements.

It did not ‌provide other details in a Telegram post about the incident. ‌A number of â industrial facilities in Ryazan caught fire after a drone attack, regional governor Pavel Malkov ‌said ​on Telegram ‌earlier â on Wednesday.

Ukraine’s military struck â Russia’s Ryazan oil â refinery ​overnight, â the â General ​Staff said â on Wednesday.

It ‌said on Telegram ‌that ‌a â strike on the target was recorded, resulting ‌in ​a ‌fire.

US president Donald Trump and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky met on Tuesday ahead of senator Lindsey Graham’s funeral, with the two leaders discussing ways for Ukraine to produce its own powerful weapons and “other ideas that could help†in its ongoing war against Russia.

Taken together, those meetings underscore how much the US president, once a major skeptic of continued assistance to Kyiv, has warmed to Zelensky as Ukraine continues to withstand the Russian barrage more than four years after Moscow’s invasion in 2022.

In a post on social media after the meeting, Zelensky thanked Trump for the “good meeting†and the Republican administration’s efforts to aid Kyiv in the long-running war.

Officials also agreed that Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the president’s main envoys, would make a trip to Kyiv sometime in the future, according to a person familiar with the talks who was granted anonymity to discuss the closed-door meeting.

Volodymyr Zelensky had a busy itinerary during his latest visit to the Washington, DC.

During his meeting at the Capitol, the Ukrainian leader argued that they have a window to bring Russian president Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table, according to one of the people with direct knowledge of the meeting.

The meeting was held just before a key vote on the Russia sanctions bill and after Lindsey Graham’s funeral.

In a bipartisan 86-12 vote, the Senate took the first steps toward passage of legislation to penalise countries that continue to buy Russian oil, gas and other exports after more than a year of negotiations.

The bill has dozens of backers from both major political parties and is seen as the main policy tribute to Graham, who died unexpectedly this month from a tear in his aorta. It imposes tariffs on goods from the world's top five purchasers of Russia oil or natural gas, including China and India.

The legislation also includes sanctions against Putin; senior Russian political and military leaders; and Russian financial institutions and energy projects.

Ahead of his meeting with Donald Trump, Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Russia has been aiding Iran as the war persists by capturing satellite imagery of US bases in the Gulf region that later appear in Iran.

The Ukrainian president also asserted that there was a “clear correlation†between Russia's images and subsequent Iranian strikes.

Iran is a key ally of Russia in its war against Ukraine and has helped Moscow build up its drone expertise.

But on Monday, the US president downplayed any impact of potential Russian assistance for Iran.

“I don't think they've been doing it, certainly not at a high level,†Trump told reporters on Air Force One as he travelled to Michigan.

“And if they have, it has been very un-impactful.

â€On the Caspian Sea attack, the foreign ministers of Iran and Ukraine spoke about the matter, according to statements posted on social media Tuesday.

Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha called the conversation “frank†and said Ukraine's focus is “solely at defending our country from Russian aggression” and not on targeting civilians.

Iran has said at least one sailor was killed in the attack. For his part, Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said Iran is also not seeking escalation but “made clear any attack on our citizens or interests is unacceptable.”

Donald Trump on Tuesday night weighed in on his meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky, calling it a “great honour†to meet with him. “Many things were discussed.

The meeting went very well!†he wrote on Truth Social.

The sit-down between Trump and the Ukrainian president in the Oval Office, which was closed to the media, followed a consequential meeting at the Nato summit earlier this month in Ankara, Turkey, where the US president announced that they will give Ukraine a license to make Patriot defence systems – a long-running request from Kyiv to counter Russian missile attacks.

Posting about it on social media, Zelensky said: “The President and I discussed licenses for Patriot interceptor production and several other ideas that could help.â€

Following Lindsey Graham’s funeral, Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky spoke for nearly an hour with US senators before entering the Senate chamber to witness a key vote on a bipartisan package of new sanctions on Russia.

Graham had long championed the measure and announced Trump’s support just days before his death.

“Sanctions pressure on Russia is very important,” he said, saying the legislation would squeeze Russia’s ability to finance the war, while signaling US support for the Ukrainian people.”

With this vote, we are going to show Putin he can’t bully Ukraine,” US Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters.

“America stands behind Ukraine … We are going to back Ukraine, and they’re going to win and beat Putin.”

Zelensky’s visit came after a letter from the Pentagon to lawmakers showed the Trump administration has told Congress it will not finish spending $400m authorised for aid to Ukraine until fiscal year 2029.

Democrats and some of Trump’s fellow Republicans have criticised the â Pentagon for sitting on aid for Kyiv that members of both parties backed last year.

Zelensky and Trump clashed repeatedly early in Trump’s second term, but relations between the two have improved in recent months as Ukraine has racked up more successes in the war, including with increased attacks on Russia’s oil industry.

Graham, a South Carolina Republican who died suddenly of a heart ‌ailment on 11 July at age 71, was ​one of Trump’s most visible allies.

He was a defence hawk who regularly called for an ‌interventionist US role on the world stage and strongly backed Ukraine.

He met ​with Zelensky in Kyiv only a day before his death, the 10th time he had visited Ukraine since Russia’s 2022 invasion.

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Wednesday that it had charged Telegram ​founder Pavel Durov with facilitating terrorist activities, ‌and that it had issued an international warrant for his arrest.

The FSB said that the charges related to ​Telegram’s failure to remove material “used by Ukrainian ​special services and by terrorist and extremist â organisations to prepare and coordinate acts of sabotage ​and terrorism, mass killings, and cyber-fraud operations within ​the Russian Federation.”

There was no immediate comment from Durov or Telegram.

Telegram, an encrypted messenger app founded in 2013, ​says it has more than 1 billion users, ​and is widely used on both sides of the Russia-Ukraine ‌war.

Russia â has repeatedly tried to restrict Telegram’s use in recent years, promoting its own state-backed MAX messenger service.

Durov, who was born in Russia but ​now holds Emirati ​and French â passports, founded Russia’s Facebook equivalent, VKontakte, before selling his remaining stake ​in 2014 amid pressure from Russian authorities.

French ​authorities â are investigating Durov over allegations that Telegram failed to adequately counter criminal activity on the platform â and ​did not sufficiently cooperate with ​law enforcement requests. Durov denies wrongdoing.