Zelenskyy says Ukraine 'entirely justified' to strike Russian oil and arms industry after Kyiv missile kills 24, as US cancels 4,000-troop Poland rotation

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine was 'entirely justified' in retaliating against Russia's oil industry, military production and 'those directly responsible for committing war crimes' after a Russian cruise missile attack on a nine-storey apartment block in Kyiv killed at least 24 people, including three children. Ukraine's air force called the wave of more than 1,500 drones and dozens of missiles fired across three days the largest Russian barrage since the start of the full-scale invasion in February 2022. The foreign ministry described the strike on Kyiv as 'one of the deadliest attacks on Kyiv since the start of Russia's full-scale war.'

'Ukraine will not allow any of the aggressor's strikes that take the lives of our people to go unpunished,' Zelenskyy said. 'We are entirely justified in our responses against Russia's oil industry, military production, and those directly responsible for committing war crimes against Ukraine and Ukrainians.' He warned that intercepted intelligence pointed to Russian plans for new missile and drone strikes on Ukraine's 'decision-making centres', including political and military command sites, and said Moscow was working through Belarusian leader Aleksandr Lukashenko to draw Belarus 'deeper into the war' for what could become an offensive against Ukraine or 'one of the NATO countries.'

Hours earlier Ukraine launched a large-scale long-range drone attack on several Russian regions, including the Ryazan oil refinery, after three days of massive Russian strikes. Kyiv and Lviv declared Friday a day of mourning; flags flew at half-staff in the capital of three million and entertainment events were cancelled or postponed. Residents brought flowers and stuffed animals to a makeshift memorial at the destroyed block. Ukraine and Russia exchanged 205 prisoners of war each, the first stage of a planned 1,000-for-1,000 swap.

Trump, asked about the Kyiv attack, said the Ukrainians 'took a big hit.' 'It's one [war] that we'd like to see settled. Until last night, it was looking good, but they took a big hit last night. So it's gonna happen [the end of the war]. But it's a shame.'

On the same day the US Army confirmed it had cancelled a planned deployment of 4,000 rotational US troops to Poland as part of a broader reorganisation of force posture in Europe. General Christopher LaNeve, the army's acting chief of staff, told the House Armed Services Committee that there had been an instruction on force reduction and 'it made the most sense for that brigade to not do its deployment in theater', without further explanation. Thomas G. DiNanno, the US under-secretary of state for arms control and international security, told a conference in Estonia that the changes 'should not surprise anyone' and that early adjustments could be 'a little bit shocking', insisting Washington was 'not going anywhere'.

Polish prime minister Donald Tusk said he had received assurances that the decision was 'logistical in nature' and would 'not directly affect the deterrence capabilities and our security', noting that the US shift on overseas deployments had been signalled 'for years'. Defence minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz directly tied the Poland rotation to Trump's earlier order to pull 5,000 US soldiers from Germany and said the same brigade might be redirected to Poland from there or from elsewhere. 'Poland will certainly not lose out,' he said. 'I think it may gain a permanent, rather than a rotational, presence.' Senior Polish politicians, including president Karol Nawrocki, have been engaging the US on potentially increasing American troop numbers in the country. A Lithuanian-cited poll showed Poland is the only EU country where the public clearly favours a permanent US base — 51 percent in favour, 23 percent against — while Lithuanian voters were more sceptical (29 percent in favour, 43 percent against).

Finland and Latvia raised their air defences overnight after early alerts about possible drone incursions, but no incursion was eventually reported in either country. NATO Baltic air-policing fighters were scrambled in Latvia, where the government collapsed earlier this week over a previous incursion; the Latvian president, Edgars Rinkēvičs, has begun consultations on forming a new government after the resignation of prime minister Evika Siliņa, with parliamentary elections set for October. In Finland the Helsinki airport was briefly closed; prime minister Petteri Orpo said even the prospect of a stray Ukrainian drone crossing the border was 'unacceptable' and that this had been relayed to Kyiv, while president Alexander Stubb stressed there was 'no direct military threat against Finland.'