Key European defence ministers meet in Paris to discuss Ukraine support

Defence ministers of key European countries are meeting in the French capital to discuss military support for Ukraine amid continuing Russia-Ukraine attacks.

A Russian strike on ⁠Ukraine’s southeastern city ⁠of Zaporizhzhia injured four people on Monday morning, according to regional Governor Mykhailo Semikin, while a Ukrainian drone attack on Russia’s Voronezh killed two people and wounded 17, regional Governor Alexander Gusev said.

In Ukraine, two more people were injured in Russian strikes on the Chernihiv region, Ukraine’s emergency service ⁠said on Telegram on Monday.

The Russian Ministry of Defence also claimed its forces hit a power station in ‌Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, as well as a nearby warehouse, and a power station in the Khmelnytskyi region.

The ministry said Russian forces also targeted port infrastructure in Chornomorsk in southwestern Ukraine, and a cargo vessel en route to Odesa, which it claimed was being used for military purposes.

Meanwhile, officials say that many of those wounded in the Ukrainian drone attack on Voronezh were passengers on a commuter train hit by falling debris.

“A significant number of the injured, including two seriously wounded, were on a train that was moving in the left-bank suburb of Voronezh when debris from a UAV fell on it,” Gusev said on Telegram.

The attack also caused fires at “a number of industrial businesses (without significant damage), a business centre in the central part of the city, and a residential building”, the governor added.

Four and a half years into the war, attacks have been escalating between Ukrainian and Russian forces, with Ukraine targeting Russian oil refineries and Russian forces bombarding Ukraine with relentless air strikes.

Negotiators from Ukraine, Russia and the United States are expected to meet in Abu Dhabi, UAE, in the first half of November.

Meanwhile, defence ministers of France, Germany, Italy, Poland and the United Kingdom are set to meet in Paris on Monday to discuss additional support for Ukraine, European defence and the regional conflict in the Middle East, according to French officials.

At their previous meeting in Berlin in June, the five major European powers pledged continued support for Ukraine, seeking to send a clear signal to Moscow that Europe remains firmly behind Kyiv.

In an interview aired ⁠on Sunday, Zelenskyy said for Kyiv to halt the strikes on Russian oil refineries, which US President Donald Trump has demanded, Moscow must stop hitting Ukraine’s power ‌infrastructure.

Zelenskyy said if the Russians continue to hit Ukraine’s power infrastructure, the US should be willing to allow the use of Starshield over Russia to detect missile ‌launch ‌sites, or supply Ukraine with Patriot missiles.

Ukraine said on Saturday that the Starlink satellite system and its military version, Starshield, were now fully functional after ⁠more than a week of restrictions that disrupted military operations and intensified tensions with the US.