Deaths in Ukraine, Zelenskyy in Türkiye, Russian ship off Scotland

At least 19 were killed in a heavy overnight Russian missile and drone attack that struck an apartment building in the western Ukrainian city of Ternopil, Ukrainian officials said on Wednesday.

Another 66 people were wounded in the overnight strikes on Ukraine that targeted energy and transport infrastructure, forcing emergency power cuts in a number of regions in frigid temperatures.

The upper floors of the residential building in Ternopil were torn away in the attack. Black smoke poured upwards, while an orange glow burned through the haze from a fire in the tower block.

Russia launched more than 470 drones and 48 missiles in the overnight attack, officials said. Poland, a NATO member state bordering western Ukraine, temporarily closed Rzeszow and Lublin airports in the southeast of the country and scrambled Polish and allied aircraft as a precaution to safeguard its airspace.

Energy officials said energy infrastructure had been struck in seven Ukrainian regions. The were reports of explosions in the western city of Lviv, and Kyiv residents took cover in metro stations on Wednesday morning.

The full extent of the damage was not immediately clear but restrictions were placed on power usage for consumers across the country.

Zelenskyy in Türkiye on new peace drive 

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who was due to hold talks in Türkiye in efforts to revive peace negotiations with Russia, confirmed multi-story residential buildings had been hit in Ternopil, and said others may be trapped under the rubble.

He urged allies to increase pressure on Russia to end its nearly four-year-old conflict in Ukraine, including by providing Kyiv with more air-defence missiles.

"Every brazen attack against ordinary life shows that the pressure on Russia is insufficient. Effective sanctions and assistance to Ukraine can change this," he said on X.

Zelenskyy will hold talks in Türkiye on Wednesday and meet US Army officials in Kyiv on Thursday in a new drive to revive peace negotiations with Russia. No face-to-face talks have taken place between Kyiv and Moscow since a meeting in Istanbul in July.

Efforts to revive peace negotiations appear to be gaining momentum, although Moscow has played down a media report that the United States was working on a 28-point peace plan.

Zelenskyy said he was preparing to "reinvigorate negotiations" and would discuss with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan how to bring a "just peace" to Ukraine.

"Doing everything possible to bring the end of the war closer is Ukraine's top priority," he said.

Türkiye, a NATO member that has remained close to both sides, hosted an initial round of peace talks in the early weeks of the conflict in 2022, the only such talks until this year.

The Kremlin said Russian representatives would not be involved in the talks but that President Vladimir Putin was open to conversations with the United States and Türkiye about the results of the discussions.

Asked about reports that Washington has been secretly working on a roadmap to end the conflict in consultation with Russia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said "So far there are no innovations on this that can be reported to you."

Putin set out his core conditions in June 2024, demanding Kyiv renounce plans to join the US-led NATO military alliance and withdraw troops from four provinces Moscow says are part of Russia. Moscow has given no indication that it has dropped any of those demands and Ukraine says it will not accept them.

Trump's efforts to broker an end to the conflict have so far been unsuccessful and he last month abruptly canceled a planned summit with Putin in Budapest.

Poland to close Russian consulate, urges EU action

Poland said on Wednesday it would close the last Russian consulate in its territory and urged EU allies to restrict Russian diplomats in the bloc's Schengen free-travel area in response to a railway explosion it blames on Moscow.

Poland says two Ukrainians collaborating with Moscow perpetrated the weekend blast on the Warsaw-Lublin line – which connects Warsaw to the Ukrainian border – and that the pair fled to Belarus.

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said the first response would be to close Russia's last operating consulate in the northern city of Gdansk. Warsaw has previously closed Russian consulates in Krakow and Poznan over sabotage acts.

Moscow denies responsibility for sabotage, citing "Russophobia" in Poland, and said it would likewise limit Poland's diplomatic and consular presence in Russia.

Sikorski also told reporters he would ask other EU nations to limit Russian diplomats' travel in the 25-nation Schengen area, warning "this is not the end" of Poland's response.

"We encourage our allies in the European Union to prevent Russians from enjoying the benefits of the Schengen countries, which they are trying to destroy, among other things, by pushing migrants across the border," Sikorski said.

The EU's top diplomat Kaja Kallas said the blast highlights an unprecedented risk to European transport infrastructure and a need for better protection, adding that the capacity for European militaries to move fast is essential for the region's defenses.

UK says 'military options ready' as Russian ship uses lasers against RAF pilots 

British defense minister John Healey said on Wednesday that "military options" are ready should the Russian spy ship Yantar become a threat, after the vessel directed lasers at British pilots sent to monitor it.

Britain's Royal Navy and Royal Air Force (RAF) routinely shadow potential threats to national security. Healey said directing lasers at RAF pilots was "deeply dangerous" and Britain was poised to react depending on the Yantar's next move.

"We have military options ready should the Yantar change course," Healey said.

The Yantar, designed for intelligence gathering and mapping undersea cables, is currently on the edge of British waters, north of Scotland, he said.

"This is the first time we've had this action from Yantar directed against the British RAF. We take it extremely seriously," Healey said.

"I have changed the navy's rules of engagement so that we can follow more closely, monitor more closely, the activities of the Yantar when it's in our wider waters."

Moscow has not commented.