Ukraine updates: Italy's Meloni underlines support for Kyiv

Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has underscored her country's support for Kyiv after meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of a business conference in the northern Italian city of Cernobbio.

"The choice of supporting Ukraine has been first and foremost a choice of national interest, and it's a choice that won't change," Meloni told the conference.

Meloni also said that the current stalemate in the Ukraine conflict, brought about partly by the decison by the Western world to support Kyiv, was a pre-condition for peace talks.

She also called for further solidarity with Ukraine amid mediation attempts by countries like China and India.

"I believe China and India have a role to play to resolve the conflict. The only thing that cannot happen is to think that the conflict can be solved by abandoning Ukraine," she said.

Zelenskyy said his talks with Meloni had focused on reconstruction, particularly of Ukraine's energy infrastructure, which Russia has often targeted in its attacks.

Italy has strongly supported Ukraine as it fights against the Russian invasion. Rome has delivered weapons to Ukraine, but insisted that these must not be used to attack targets within Russia itself.

US CIA Director Bill Burns and UK MI6 chief Richard Moore warned on Saturday that ongoing Western support for Kyiv in its fight against the Russian invasion was essential amid growing threats to the world order.

"Staying the course (in Ukraine) is more vital than ever. [Russian President Vladimir] Putin will not succeed in extinguishing Ukraine's sovereignty and independence," they said in an op-ed in the British daily Financial Times.

They said their agencies would continue their efforts to counter a "reckless campaign of sabotage across Europe by Russian intelligence," saying that Russia was making "cynical use of technology" to spread disinformation "to drive wedges between us."

Russia has denied Western allegations that it is carrying out sabotage and disinformation campaigns aimed at destabilizing the US and other  countries.

Authorities in the southwestern Russian border region of Voronezh have declared an emergency after a Ukrainian drone attack caused explosions in the Ostrogozhsk district.

Voronezh governor Aleksandr Gusev reported on the messaging app Telegram that several settlements in the district had been evacuated after explosions, without giving details on the cause.

Gusev said there were no casualties.

Voronezh shares a border with Ukraine's Luhansk region.

Its fuel depots and ammunition storage sites have come under frequent attacks from Ukrainian drones since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.  

The Ukrainian Air Force says Russia launched 67 drones at targets in Ukraine overnight to Saturday, prompting air alerts in 11 regions including in the capital, Kyiv.

It said 58 of the drones were shot down and three more destroyed by electronic weapons systems.

Debris from one drone was photographed on the street outside Ukraine's parliament, the Verkhovna Rada. Ukraine's parliamentary press service said there were no casualties and no damage to the parliament building.

The aerial attacks are the latest in a weekslong series of major drone and missile assaults by Russian forces, including one on Tuesday on a military academy and hospital in the city of Poltava in which 55 people died and 328 more were wounded.

Another attack on Wednesday on the western city of Lviv, far from the front lines, killed seven people,
including a mother and her three daughters.