NATO leaders are set to announce tens of billions of dollars in defence deals in Ankara on Tuesday ahead of a summit with US President Donald Trump, as European allies seek to boost military spending amid concerns over Russia. Ukrainian strikes killed one person in Russia’s Belgorod region after Moscow launched attacks that killed dozens in Ukraine. Follow our liveblog for the latest updates.
Ukrainian strikes kill one in Russia’s Belgorod region
Ukrainian strikes killed one person in Russia’s Belgorod region, officials said on Tuesday, after Moscow launched attacks that killed dozens in Ukraine on the eve of a major NATO summit.
Acting Belgorod regional governor Aleksandr Shuvaev said several Ukrainian missile strikes had targeted Belgorod city and the surrounding district.
“In the village of Belovskoye, Belgorod district, a civilian resident was, sadly, killed as a result of the first missile strike,” Shuvaev said on the state-backed MAX platform.
He added that the attacks sparked a fire at an infrastructure facility in Belgorod city and that emergency services were working at the scene.
NATO allies to unveil billions in defence deals ahead of summit
NATO leaders plan to unveil arms deals worth tens of billions of dollars in Ankara on Tuesday, aiming to show they are heeding US calls to spend more on defending Europe before joining President Donald Trump for a summit.
European governments will announce the deals at a NATO defence industry forum before Trump flies in to meet Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and join fellow leaders of the military alliance for the summit, which begins with a dinner on Tuesday evening.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said on Monday that Europeans had made “staggering” increases in defence spending, partly due to fears of Russia, which have surged since Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, but also because Trump had been “extremely forceful” in encouraging them to do so.
Welcome to the France 24 liveblog covering events in Ukraine. Catch up on yesterday’s developments here.
• NATO partners and allies must continue to “ensure Ukraine gets what it needs” to defend its sovereignty, the military alliance’s Secretary-General Mark Rutte said.
• Russian drone and missile strikes killed at least 24 people in and around Kyiv, with air force data showing that Ukraine’s air defences had failed to shoot down a single ballistic missile.
• President Volodymyr Zelensky called for Ukraine to be granted US licences to manufacture Patriot missile systems that would allow Ukraine to defend itself against Russian ballistic missiles and said it was “absurd” that production could not meet demand.
