Ukrainian leaders haggle with allies as Russia attacks hometown

President Vladimir Zelensky worked on Thursday to add political momentum to Ukraine’s recent military victory over Russia, while a missile strike that caused flooding near his hometown showed Moscow’s determination to regain battlefield dominance.

Zelensky met EU President Ursula von der Leyen during his third wartime visit to Kyiv, a week after a Ukrainian counteroffensive led to the withdrawal of Russian troops from the northeast.

Ms. von der Leyen publicly expressed her wholehearted support for the 27-nation bloc and wore Ukrainian national colors.

“It is absolutely vital and necessary to provide Ukraine with the military equipment it needs to defend itself. They have shown that if they are well equipped, they can do it,” she said.

Air raid sirens in Kyiv sounded twice during Ms von der Leyen’s meeting with Mr Zelensky, a reminder that Russia has long-range weapons that can reach anywhere in Ukraine, even though the capital has not been attacked in recent weeks.

Russian missiles hit Zelensky’s birthplace and a reservoir dam near central Ukraine’s largest city, Krivery, late Wednesday, flooding more than 100 homes, Ukrainian officials said.

Russian military bloggers have accused the attack of being aimed at flooding downstream areas where Ukrainian troops entered as part of a counteroffensive.

The head of the local government on Thursday reported new attacks on the dam and said emergency workers were working to prevent more water from overflowing.

The first attack so close to his roots angered Mr Zelensky, who said the attack had no military value.

“The fact that hitting hundreds of thousands of ordinary civilians is another reason for Russia’s failure,” he said.

The UN General Assembly said it would vote on whether to create a procedural exception to allow Mr Zelensky to deliver a pre-recorded speech at next week’s meeting of world leaders.

The proposed document, which will be voted on on Friday, would allow the 193-member body to express concern that the leader of the “peace-loving sovereign nation” was “not able to participate in person due to reasons beyond their control, such as ongoing foreign invasion, aggression, military hostilities, etc.” required to allow safe departure and return to their country, or to perform their defence and security duties and functions”.

On Thursday, the 35-nation governing board of the United Nations Atomic Energy Agency passed a resolution calling on Moscow to immediately end its occupation of Ukraine’s Zaporozhye nuclear power plant.

Fears of a possible radiation catastrophe hang over Europe’s largest nuclear power plant as Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of shelling the plant and nearby areas over the past few weeks.

The document, which took a markedly harsher tone than previous statements by IAEA officials, was approved by 26 votes. Russia and Beijing voted against, and seven Asian and African countries abstained.

The resolution calls on Russia to return control of the plant to Ukraine and to “immediately cease all actions against the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant and any other Ukrainian nuclear facility”.

Russian President Vladimir Putin had a one-on-one meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at a regional security summit in Uzbekistan, as Mr Zelensky wooed allies with optimism over last week’s events.

Xi’s government said its friendship with Moscow was “unlimited” before the February 24 invasion of Ukraine, but declined to criticize Russia’s military actions.

As the talks began on Thursday, Putin thanked Xi and said he was ready to discuss China’s unspecified “concerns” about Ukraine.

“We highly appreciate the balanced stance of our Chinese friends in the Ukraine crisis,” Putin said across a long table from Xi.

The formal meeting between Putin and Xi on the sidelines of the eight-nation Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a security alliance set up to counter U.S. influence, was compared to Zelensky’s meeting with the president of the European Commission.

The European Parliament on Thursday completed the lengthy process of approving a €5bn (£4.4bn) concessional loan to Ukraine, a key part of a €9bn (£7.8bn) aid package to offset the cost of the war.

Zelensky insisted that his allies needed to provide more weapons and said the only way to keep Ukrainians safe was to “close the skies” with Western air defenses provided by Western allies.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Berbock is pressuring Chancellor Olaf Schultz to decide whether to supply Ukraine with advanced tanks as soon as possible, while Ukraine’s counteroffensive is gaining traction.

“At the decisive stage Ukraine is currently in, I also don’t think this is a decision that can be delayed for a long time,” Ms Berbok said.