# Ukraine war briefing: Deadly Odesa drone attack cuts power, water and heating for second day

## Excerpt

**A Russian drone attack late on Tuesday killed one person and caused power, water and heating cuts in Odesa for the second day running,** said the regional governor, Oleh Kiper. A 77-year-old woman died of shrapnel wounds on the outskirts of the city, he said, and drone strikes damaged critical infrastructure, leaving neighbourhoods without services.

**Kiper said fragments from downed drones had damaged private houses and started fires in outlying city districts.** A missile strike had destroyed an empty sanatorium near the town of Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi, south of Odesa, he added.

**East of the capital, Kyiv, drones targeted a multi-storey apartment building near the town of Boryspil,** smashing windows and triggering a fire in a business. Local officials reported no casualties.

**Zelenskyy ,** saying he is willing to work “constructively” under Donald Trump’s “strong leadership” and to sign a deal giving the US access to Ukrainian mineral wealth. In an attempt to mend fences with Washington after Trump abruptly , Zelenskyy said on Tuesday he was “ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible … I would like to reiterate Ukraine’s commitment to peace”.

**Keir Starmer, the British prime minister, welcomed Zelenskyy’s “steadfast” commitment to securing peace** in a phone call between the two leaders on Tuesday, his office said. Starmer told Zelenskyy “it was vital that all parties worked towards a lasting and secure peace for Ukraine as soon as possible”.

**The British defence minister, John Healey, will meet the US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, in Washington on Thursday** to discuss a peace plan, according to Britain’s Ministry of Defence.

**The British foreign minister, David Lammy, on Tuesday said he had spoken to counterparts in France, Germany, Poland, Italy and Spain and that their determination to strike a peace deal remained clear.** “We will step up and we are stepping up – together.”

**Germany’s likely next chancellor, Friedrich Merz, said on Tuesday that his CDU/CSU party and the Social Democrats would propose an unprecedented package of billions of euros  and infrastructure.** Merz also said he wanted to get immediate approval for a €3bn aid package for Ukraine that has been held up for weeks.

**Merz’s proposals would also mark a “sea change” and “a major loosening of Germany’s fiscal straitjacket”, said the Berenberg bank economist Holger Schmieding,** noting the country’s longstanding avoidance of large public debts. Merz’s promise of “whatever it takes” recalled the pledge made in 2012 by the then president of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, during the sovereign debt crisis. Schmieding described Merz’s plans as “a really big bazooka”, the phrase used to describe the ECB’s interventions under Draghi.

**The German foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, on Tuesday welcomed European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen’s plans to raise European defence funds** as “an important first step”. “Two things are now essential for peace through strength: additional aid – military and financial – for Ukraine, which is defending our freedom. And a quantum leap to strengthen our EU defence,” Baerbock said.
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