Ukraine war briefing: Another 1.5m artillery shells for Ukraine under Czech scheme

The Czech-led ammunition initiative for Ukraine can deliver another 1.5m artillery rounds in 2025, as many as last year, the Czech prime minister, Petr Fiala, said on Thursday after the Paris summit of Ukraine’s allies. The initiative was launched last year and funded by a number of allies. Among the rounds provided in 2024 were 500,000 units of 155mm shells, the Czech defence ministry said in February this year. The 155mm rounds fit Nato artillery guns provided by western allies to Ukraine, whereas its post-Soviet arsenal uses 152mm shells. The Czech-led initiative supplies both kinds.

European leaders affirmed their support for Ukraine at a Paris summit and agreed now was “not the time” to lift sanctions against Russia, Jon Henley and Kiran Stacey report. Leaders “on the contrary” discussing how sanctions could be increased “to support the US initiative to bring Russia to the table”, said Keir Starmer, the British prime minister. “It means increasing the economic pressure on Russia, accelerating new tougher sanctions bearing down on Russia’s energy revenues and working together to make this pressure count.”

Starmer confirmed that French, British and also German army chiefs would travel to Kyiv to help with planning support for Ukraine’s army, with a new Ukraine defence contact group to meet “to marshal more military aid and keep Ukraine in the fight”. Emmanuel Macron, the French president, spoke about France and Britain’s “coalition of the willing” plan to send forces to Ukraine to help maintain an eventual ceasefire. “It does not have unanimity today, but we do not need unanimity to do this,” Macron said. Italy is among Ukraine allies that have said they would not send troops. “There will be a reassurance force with several European countries who will deploy [to Ukraine],” Macron said.

“Massive shelling” killed a 55-year-old woman and a man at a public transport station in Ukraine’s southern city of Kherson, the regional governor said. Railway infrastructure was damaged and power supplies disrupted. It led Kyiv to accuse Russia of breaking a commitment not to strike Ukraine’s energy targets. “There has been shelling, seemingly not aimed at the energy sector, but the energy sector was affected,” a senior Ukrainian official told AFP, adding: “We qualify this as a clear violation.” Ukraine has dismissed as “fake” Russian allegations that Ukrainian drones hit energy facilities in Russia’s Kursk and Bryansk regions, and in the occupied Crimean peninsula.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday called on the US to respond to what he called Moscow’s violation of its commitment not to strike Ukrainian energy targets. “I think there should be a reaction from the US,” the Ukrainain president told reporters in Paris, saying that energy facilities had been damaged in a strike on Thursday and that it was “unclear who is monitoring” the pledges to halt such strikes.

Zelenskyy has struck a tone of strategic optimism this week, Dan Sabbagh writes in this analysis piece. Though he complained about “messages of the Kremlin” repeated by Steve Witkoff, a Donald Trump envoy, Zelenskyy reasoned that over time the White House team would appreciate the Kremlin was not acting in good faith. It would become clear that “the Russians don’t want” an unconditional ceasefire as they threw up more and more objections. “People,” he said, meaning Trump’s top team “will not believe the Russians more and more with every day”.

Ukraine’s state-owned and main railway carrier Ukrzaliznytsia said it had partially restored online services after a big cyber-attack hit passenger and freight transport systems. The company said the first 12,000 tickets were bought through Ukrzaliznytsia’s online services after their restoration – though the system remained under heavy demand and consumers should only use it if they had no other way to get a ticket.

Germany’s Eurofighter jets intercepted and escorted away a Russian Ilyushin Il-20 reconnaissance plane that approached north-eastern Germany over the Baltic Sea on Thursday, the Luftwaffe said. “The reason was an unknown aeroplane over the Baltic Sea, which was flying without a flight plan or activated transponder,” the air force said. It was steered back towards the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad from where it was first tracked, said the German news outlet Bild.

Zelenskyy told reporters the US was “constantly” changing the terms of a proposed minerals deal, but added that he did not want Washington to think Kyiv was against it. According the Financial Times, a new proposal would give the US first rights to purchase resources extracted under the agreement and that it recoup all the money it has given Ukraine since 2022, in addition to a 4% annual interest rate, before Ukraine begins to gain access to the profits. This week, Scott Bessent, Trump’s treasury secretary, said the US hoped to “go to full discussions and perhaps even get signatures next week” – though the Trump administration has promised repeatedly for several months that a deal is about to be signed.

The Netherlands will speed up the release of its promised €3.5bn of support for Ukraine and send €2bn this year instead of in 2026, a spokesperson for the prime minister said on Thursday.