Ukraine war briefing: Ukraine drones hit Russian oil depot; Trump floats fresh Russia sanctions | Ukraine

People in Kyiv expressed a mixture of hope and scepticism on Tuesday that Donald Trump can end the war in Ukraine, Luke Harding writes. “I think a deal is unrealistic. Trump is blah blah blah,” said Valeriia, a 23-year-old shop worker. “He promised to end the conflict in 24 hours. That won’t happen. My friends are split 50-50 between those who think he can do something, and those who don’t.” Mykola, a retired physicist who used to live in the US, said: “I watched the inauguration on TV. Trump impressed me. We need to stop the war. I think he can really do something. He’s made a ceasefire in Israel and Gaza.”

More than 200 Ukrainian civilians including elderly people, people with disabilities and their carers remain in the frontline stronghold of Chasiv Yar under heavy Russian assault, a military spokesman said on Tuesday. Dmytro Zaporozhets, spokesman for the “Lugansk” group of forces, said Russian attacks meant it was no longer possible for the Ukrainian military administration to organise shelters or distribute food to the remaining residents. Ukraine still controls a former brick factory in Chasiv Yar, after a recent attempted Russian assault failed, the spokesman said, but Moscow’s troops were “moving in the direction of the factory” using “small assault groups of three to eight people”, Zaporozhets said.

The Russian defence ministry said on Tuesday that its forces had captured the settlement of Volkove in the eastern Donetsk region, a village that had an estimated pre-war population of around two dozen people. Further north, in the town of Kupiansk, a Russian drone attack wounded three Ukrainian policemen and two elderly residents, police said. The Russian army is around 2km outside the town, according to officials and loggers. The head of the national rail service meanwhile said Russian forces attacked railway infrastructure in the south of eastern Donetsk region, wounding three staff members.