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KYIV: Russian forces launched powerful glide bombs and drones against Ukraine’s second-largest city in overnight attacks, hitting a hospital and wounding seven people, an official said Tuesday, as European military aid for Kyiv dropped sharply and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky prepared to ask US President Donald Trump for Tomahawk missiles.
The Russian attack on Kharkiv in Ukraine’s northeast hit the city’s main hospital, forcing the evacuation of 50 patients, regional head Oleh Syniehubov said. The attack’s main targets were energy facilities, Zelensky said, without providing details of what was hit.
“Every day, every night, Russia strikes power plants, power lines, and our (natural) gas facilities,” Zelensky said on Telegram.
Russian long-range strikes on its neighbor’s power grid are part of a campaign since Moscow launched a full-scale invasion in February 2022 to disable Ukraine’s power supply, denying civilians heat and running water during the bitter winter.
The Ukrainian leader urged foreign countries to help blunt Russia’s long-range attacks by providing more air defense systems for the country, which is almost the size of Texas and hard to defend from the air in its entirety.
“We are counting on the actions of the US and Europe, the G7, all partners who have these systems and can provide them to protect our people,” Zelensky said. “The world must force Moscow to sit down at the table for real negotiations.”
But the latest data on foreign military aid to Ukraine showed a sharp drop-off in recent help.
Military aid in July and August plunged by 43 percent compared to the first half of the year, Germany’s Kiel Institute, which tracks support to Ukraine, said Tuesday.
That fall occurred after the creation of a fund that pools contributions from NATO members, except the United States, to purchase American weapons, munitions and equipment for Ukraine. The financial arrangement is known as the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List, or PURL.
In the first half of 2025, military aid had exceeded what was sent between 2022-2024, despite the lack of US contributions, the institute said.
Zelensky is due to meet with Trump in Washington on Friday.
The talks are expected to center on the potential US provision to Ukraine of sophisticated long-range weapons that can hit back at Russia.
Trump has warned Moscow that he may send Tomahawk cruise missiles for Ukraine to use. Such a move, previously ruled out by Washington for fear of escalating the war, would deepen tensions between the United States and Russia.
But it could provide leverage to help push Moscow into negotiations after Trump expressed frustration over Russian President Vladimir Putin’s refusal to budge on key aspects of a possible peace deal.
Tomahawk missiles would be the longest-range missiles in Kyiv’s arsenal and could allow it to strike targets deep inside Russia, including Moscow, with precision. Unlike the drones that Ukraine has used for such strikes so far, Tomahawks carry a much heavier warhead and are more difficult to intercept as they fly at low altitude to dodge air defenses.
Ukraine’s long-range attacks are already taking a toll on Russian oil production, Ukrainian officials and foreign military analysts say.
Its strikes using newly developed long-range missiles and drones are causing significant gas shortages in Russia, according to Zelensky.

LONDON: An Afghan national was jailed for five years on Tuesday after being found guilty of making a threat to kill Nigel Farage, leader of the populist Reform UK party that leads opinion polls in Britain.
Fayaz Khan was last week convicted by a jury at London’s Southwark Crown Court of a single count of making a threat to kill Farage in a TikTok video posted in October 2024, as he documented his journey from Sweden to Britain.
Prosecutors said Khan posted a video in response to one by Farage, in which Khan – who has an AK-47 assault rifle tattooed on his face – said “pop, pop, pop” while making gun gestures.

FARAGE SAYS HE HAS ‘MIXED FEELINGS’
Farage gave evidence that he was “genuinely worried” about Khan’s threat, describing the video as “chilling.” Khan had denied his video was a genuine threat.
Farage sat in the public gallery as Judge Karen Steyn sentenced Khan for making a threat to kill and a separate charge of attempting to enter Britain illegally, to which he had pleaded guilty.
Khan shouted at the judge and Farage after he was sentenced, telling Farage: “You want to be prime minister ... you … my life.”
Outside the court, Farage said he was pleased with Khan’s sentence but concerned he would be released relatively soon, though Khan is liable to automatic deportation.
Prosecutor Peter Ratliff said Khan had given a false name and date of birth on arrival in Britain on a small boat.
Steyn said she was sure Khan gave a false name because he had a six-month jail sentence pending in Sweden.
“The threat to kill Nigel Farage which you made ... quickly reached him, as you had intended,” she told Khan.
She said Farage understood that as a lawmaker and political party leader he faced public scrutiny, criticism and at times abuse.
“But your video was not mere abuse – it was a threat to kill with a firearm and it was, as Mr.Farage put it, ‘pretty chilling’,” she said.