European leaders have reaffirmed their support for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy following US President Donald Trump's decision to ease restrictions on Russian diesel exports and his subsequent call for a leadership change in Kyiv.
Their comments came as Russia and Ukraine traded fresh drone strikes, with civilian casualties reported in Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities.
Following an October 9 call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump announced a deal to ease restrictions on Russian diesel exports, with the US Treasury authorizing certain transactions through April 7, 2027.
Trump later said on October 10 that Ukraine should "get a new leader," blaming Zelenskyy for the lack of a deal to end Russia's war against his country and demanding Kyiv "damn well stop" hitting Russian oil refineries.
On October 11, Zelenskyy said Ukraine was prepared to halt strikes on Russian oil refineries if Moscow reciprocated.
“Ukraine will be ready to stop attacks on Russian refineries if Russia stops attacking our energy infrastructure. Any de-escalation steps must be mutual and with real guarantees,” he wrote on Telegram.
Zelenskyy also said Russia had launched around 1,450 aerial bombs, 75 missiles, and more than 1,640 attack drones against Ukraine over the preceding week.
European officials, meanwhile, criticized Washington's decision to ease restrictions on Russian diesel, warning that it could provide Moscow with additional revenue to finance the war.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas condemned the diesel agreement, warning it would increase Moscow’s war revenues.
“This is not the time to ease pressure on Russia, and Europe won’t,” she wrote on X on October 10, adding that EU foreign ministers planned to approve new sanctions listings on October 12.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson noted that the upcoming EU package would target 1,600 entities within Russia’s military-industrial complex.
Germany also confirmed it would maintain its strict sanctions regime despite Washington’s shift, while Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo described Trump’s agreement with Russian President Vladimir Putin as a “terrible disappointment.”
Zelenskyy also sought to shore up European support in a series of calls on October 10 with French President Emmanuel Macron, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, discussing air defense and continued pressure on Moscow.
“The Russians must feel that they will have no capacity left to prolong the war,” Zelenskyy said after speaking with Macron.
Zelenskyy also confirmed that Finland would deliver specialized ammunition for Ukraine’s F-16 fighter jets in the coming days to assist in intercepting Russian Shahed drones.
UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham also expressed “complete solidarity” with Zelenskyy, saying on October 10 that “the past 24 hours had been difficult for Ukraine,” according to Downing Street. He also said that the UK would continue strengthening sanctions on Russia independently.
Zelenskyy had earlier characterized Washington's policy reversal as a sign of US “weakness” and a “gift” to Putin, arguing that renewed Russian energy revenues would help finance Moscow's war effort.
The US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) also warned in an assessment on October 9 that the unilateral easing of restrictions would benefit Russia's war effort without securing a comparable concession from Moscow.
In a follow-up assessment on October 10, the think tank noted that Putin utilized the call to blame Ukraine for stalled peace talks, citing alleged Ukrainian strikes on Russian election infrastructure during September's State Duma elections.
ISW said that this allegation was unsupported by evidence and that Putin's "unchanged war aims demonstrates the Kremlin’s continued unwillingness to accept any compromised peace proposals on any terms that fall short of fulfilling Russia’s maximalist demands of Ukraine’s complete capitulation."
Meanwhile, Russian attacks continue to inflict civilian casualties in Ukraine, while Kyiv has pressed ahead with strikes on targets inside Russia.
Hours after Russian strikes on the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhya killed at least 20 people, including three children, and disrupted electricity and water supplies in Kyiv, Moscow continued to launch attacks overnight into October 11, with Ukraine’s Air Force saying it had shot down 94 of 116 attack drones.
In Slovyansk, in the eastern Donetsk region, a Russian air strike on October 11 damaged two apartment buildings, destroying an entire entrance section of a five-story block. At least four people were reported injured, while rescuers worked to free residents trapped in apartments amid fears that others remain trapped under the rubble, according to RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service.
In the southeastern city of Dnipro, Russian drones damaged an apartment building and set fire to warehouses and vehicles, injuring four people, including two eight-year-old girls, according to regional authorities.
In the southern port city of Odesa, an attack late on October 10 damaged a two-story residential building, destroying three apartments and setting the roof ablaze. No casualties were reported, emergency services said.
Ukraine has meanwhile continued strikes on Russian technology infrastructure, targeting facilities operated by Yandex, the country's leading Internet search and technology company.
A drone strike on October 11 forced the complete shutdown of a Yandex data center in Russia’s Vladimir region.
Yandex said the facility had ceased operations and that some of its services were unavailable as a result. It reported no casualties. According to Russian reports, Yandex’s taxi and food delivery services were disrupted in Moscow following the drone attacks.
Often described as the Russian Google, Yandex operates widely used search, mapping, and other digital services, and is a major developer of artificial intelligence. Its data centers support both consumer services and computing infrastructure used to develop AI models, making their disruption potentially significant for Russia's technology sector.
The latest attack followed a strike on Yandex's Sasovo facility in the Ryazan region overnight on October 7-8, which reportedly disabled two of the company's three main AI-development supercomputers, and another on October 9 that knocked out part of its data center in Kaluga.
