Ukraine says it has scored a successful hit on a Russian chemical plant supplying Moscow with gunpowder, explosives and rocket fuel. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy is visiting Sweden. Follow DW for the latest.
What you need to know
Ukraine says it successfully launched a large-scale missile and air strike on a chemical plant in Russia’s Bryansk region that it calls crucial to Moscow’s war industry.
Kyiv’s military said Storm Shadow missiles penetrated Russian air defenses, though the results were still being assessed.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy is visiting Sweden for talks about a defense export contract.
Here is a roundup of events from Russia’s war in Ukraine on Wednesday, October 22.
Russia says preparations for Trump-Putin summit still underway
The Kremlin says preparations for a presidential summit between Russian leader Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump are still in progress, despite the US president’s announcement that the meeting had been shelved.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov confirmed that preparations are continuing, telling the state-run TASS news agency, “We are saying that preparations for a summit are continuing.”
Trump has grown increasingly frustrated with Moscow’s refusal to agree to a ceasefire in the nearly four-year war in Ukraine, after failing to persuade Putin to scale back his demands.
The two leaders last met at a summit in Alaska in August, which produced no breakthrough. Trump announced plans last week to hold a second round of talks in Budapest but said Tuesday he did not want a “wasted” meeting.
Asked about Trump’s remarks, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters: “No one wants to waste time, neither President Trump nor President Putin.”