Ukraine calls for tighter sanctions as Russian attacks spark Kyiv gridlock — SkimNews
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- Zelenskyy called on allies to tighten sanctions after Russian drone strikes overnight closed the Southern Bridge, Paton Bridge, and Metro Bridge across Kyiv, causing widespread traffic gridlock in the capital.
- Russia launched more than 100 drones across Ukraine overnight, with Iranian-type Shahed kamikaze drones hitting the Southern Bridge "several times" and killing one person, according to Zelenskyy's social media post.
- Zelenskyy said Russia's ability to escalate "remains critically dependent on foreign components" routed through Europe, the US, China, and Japan, and called for "the political will of these countries" to halt those supply chains at the production line.
- EU foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas said the bloc was "working on new proposals to tighten sanctions enforcement," while Trump recently signed a sweeping Russian sanctions package into law targeting Putin, banks, financial institutions, and the energy and defence sectors.
- Russian strikes also hit a kindergarten in Kherson, a grocery store in Kharkiv, and apartment buildings in Kramatorsk and Sumy, with at least four people wounded across the Dnipro, Odesa, Kharkiv, Kyiv, Poltava, and Rivne regions.
- Ukraine's military struck a Lukoil facility in Volgograd and an oil dispatch station in Samara, with fires breaking out at both sites, and also targeted airfields, industrial sites, and Black Sea facilities, Zelenskyy said.
- The Russian Ministry of Defence claimed its drones hit a Kyiv bridge, a power station, the Izmail port, and a cargo vessel, asserting all sites were used for Ukrainian military purposes.
Why it matters: Ukraine is leveraging a fresh wave of strikes to press Western capitals for concrete sanctions enforcement, with Zelenskyy publicly naming the EU and Trump as already-moving parties. The material stakes are supply chains: cutting components from Europe, the US, China, and Japan could undermine Moscow's nightly barrages of 100-plus drones.
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