Ukraine War Briefing: US House Speaker Dumps Key Ukraine Backer Mike Turner | Ukraine

Mike Johnson, the speaker of the US House of Representatives, on Wednesday removed his colleague, Republican Mike Turner, a vocal supporter of aid to Ukraine, who chairman by the powerful House Intelligence Committee. Johnson, who has closely aligned himself with Trump, said he would soon announce a new chairman because “the intelligence community and everything related to (the committee) needs a fresh start”. Turner’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Meanwhile, US President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said the new administration would seek “bold diplomacy” to end the war. “There will have to be concessions from the Russian Federation, but also from the Ukrainians,” he said.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has traveled to Ukraine to meet Volodymyr Zelenskyy for the first time since entering Downing Streetthat hails a “closer than ever” partnership days before Donald Trump returns to the White House. The two countries will sign a partnership agreement to deepen the existing defense relationship, with additional military assistance to Kyiv amid concerns that the US may begin to wind down its support. “100-year partnership” between Ukraine and Great Britain also aims to strengthen economic relations in non-military areas such as science and technology.

Russia fired missiles and drones at Ukrainian energy facilities on Wednesday, a day after Kiev said it had carried out its biggest airstrike of the war on Russian army factories and energy hubs hundreds of kilometers from the front line. Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s president, said: “Another massive Russian attack. It’s the middle of winter and the target for the Russians remains the same: our energy sector.” The Ukrainian air force said it had shot down 30 of the missiles and 47 drones, while the prime minister, Denys Shmygal, said the Russian attack was “unsuccessful”.

The mayor of the southern city of Kherson said there were power outages as a result of the barrage. The governor of Ukraine’s western Ivano-Frankivsk region said critical infrastructure facilities had been targeted. In the Lviv region, which borders EU and NATO member Poland, authorities said two such facilities had been hit in Drogobych and Stryi districts. “There were no casualties, but there was damage,” said the governor, Maksym Kozytsky. Poland said that while it scrambled fighter jets to secure its airspace, there were no violations. National grid operator Ukrenergo urged Ukrainians to limit their electricity use during the day after lifting emergency blackouts in seven regions.

After the barrage, Zelenskyy called on the West to spend around 250 billion USD of unallocated frozen Russian assets to buy Kyiv weapons. He spoke at a press conference in Warsaw with Polish President Andrzej Duda. “Ukraine will take this money, allocate a large amount to domestic production and to the import of precisely the types of weapons that Ukraine does not have,” the Ukrainian president said. Last week, the EU paid out the first €3 billion to Kiev. (US$3.1 billion) of a loan backed by the interest earned on the Russian assets.