Russian aerial attack hits a Ukrainian hospital, days before Zelenskyy meets Trump

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian forces launched powerful glide bombs and drones against Ukraine’s second-largest city in overnight attacks, hitting a hospital and wounding seven people, an official said Tuesday, as European military aid for Kyiv dropped sharply and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy prepared to ask U.S. President Donald Trump for Tomahawk missiles.

The Russian attack on Kharkiv in Ukraine’s northeast hit the city's main hospital, forcing the evacuation of 50 patients, regional head Oleh Syniehubov said. The attack’s main targets were energy facilities, Zelenskyy said, without providing details of what was hit.

“Every day, every night, Russia strikes power plants, power lines, and our (natural) gas facilities,” Zelenskyy said on Telegram.

Russian long-range strikes on its neighbor's power grid are part of a campaign since Moscow launched a full-scale invasion in February 2022 to disable Ukraine’s power supply, denying civilians heat and running water during the bitter winter.

The Ukrainian leader urged foreign countries to help blunt Russia’s long-range attacks by providing more air defense systems for the country, which is almost the size of Texas and hard to defend from the air in its entirety.

“We are counting on the actions of the U.S. and Europe, the G7, all partners who have these systems and can provide them to protect our people,” Zelenskyy said. “The world must force Moscow to sit down at the table for real negotiations.”

But the latest data on foreign military aid to Ukraine showed a sharp drop-off in recent help.

Military aid in July and August plunged by 43% compared to the first half of the year, Germany’s Kiel Institute, which tracks support to Ukraine, said Tuesday.

That fall occurred after the creation of a fund that pools contributions from NATO members, except the United States, to purchase American weapons, munitions and equipment for Ukraine. The financial arrangement is known as the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List, or PURL.

In the first half of 2025, military aid had exceeded what was sent between 2022-2024, despite the lack of U.S. contributions, the institute said.

Zelenskyy is due to meet with Trump in Washington on Friday.

The talks are expected to center on the potential U.S. provision to Ukraine of sophisticated long-range weapons that can hit back at Russia.

Trump has warned Moscow that he may send Tomahawk cruise missiles for Ukraine to use. Such a move, previously ruled out by Washington for fear of escalating the war, would deepen tensions between the United States and Russia.

But it could provide leverage to help push Moscow into negotiations after Trump expressed frustration over Russian President Vladimir Putin’s refusal to budge on key aspects of a possible peace deal.

Tomahawk missiles would be the longest-range missiles in Kyiv’s arsenal and could allow it to strike targets deep inside Russia, including Moscow, with precision. Unlike the drones that Ukraine has used for such strikes so far, Tomahawks carry a much heavier warhead and are more difficult to intercept as they fly at low altitude to dodge air defenses.

Ukraine's long-range attacks are already taking a toll on Russian oil production, Ukrainian officials and foreign military analysts say.

Its strikes using newly developed long-range missiles and drones are causing significant gas shortages in Russia, according to Zelenskyy.

In a separate development, a U.N. convoy delivering aid in southern Ukraine’s Kherson region was attacked by Russian drones that set fire to two of the four trucks, but caused no casualties, officials said Tuesday.

The U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Ukraine, Matthias Schmale, said that the trucks were clearly marked as belonging to the United Nations. Schmale described the attack in a front-line community as “utterly unacceptable.”

“Deliberately targeting humanitarians and humanitarian assets is a gross violation of international humanitarian law and might amount to a war crime,” Schmale said in a statement.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

In this photo taken on Oct.13, 2025 and provided by Ukraine's 24th Mechanized Brigade press service, a damaged private car is seen in Kostiantynivka, a frontline town where some 5000 people still stay with no water, electricity and gas supply in the site of heaviest battles with the Russian troops in the Donetsk region, Ukraine. (Oleg Petrasiuk/Ukraine's 24th Mechanized Brigade via AP)

In this photo taken on Oct.13, 2025 and provided by Ukraine's 24th Mechanized Brigade press service, a Ukrainian soldier walks amid the ruins in Kostiantynivka, a frontline town where some 5000 people still stay with no water, electricity and gas supply in the site of heaviest battles with the Russian troops in the Donetsk region, Ukraine. (Oleg Petrasiuk/Ukraine's 24th Mechanized Brigade via AP)

In this photo taken on Oct.13, 2025 and provided by Ukraine's 24th Mechanized Brigade press service, a cat walks inside the damaged church in Kostiantynivka, a frontline town where some 5000 people still stay with no water, electricity and gas supply in the site of heaviest battles with the Russian troops in the Donetsk region, Ukraine. (Oleg Petrasiuk/Ukraine's 24th Mechanized Brigade via AP)

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks during a news conference with High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas, not pictured, Monday, Oct. 13, 2025, in Kyiv, Ukraine. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Services on Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2025, rescue workers put out a fire of a hospital damaged by a Russian strike in Kharkiv, Ukraine. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Services on Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2025, a rescue worker puts out a fire of a hospital damaged by a Russian strike in Kharkiv, Ukraine. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Services on Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2025, a rescue worker puts out a fire of a transformer damaged by a Russian strike in Kirovograd region, Ukraine. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Services on Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2025, rescue workers put out a fire of a hospital damaged by a Russian strike in Kharkiv, Ukraine. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — President Donald Trump is set to meet Thursday at the White House with Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, whose political party is widely considered to have won 2024 elections rejected by then-President Nicolás Maduro before the United States captured him in an audacious military raid this month.

Less than two weeks after U.S. forces seized Maduro and his wife at a heavily guarded compound in Caracas and brought them to New York to stand trial on drug trafficking charges, Trump will host the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Machado, having already dismissed her credibility to run Venezuela and raised doubts about his stated commitment to backing democratic rule in the country.

“She’s a very nice woman,” Trump told Reuters in an interview about Machado. “I’ve seen her on television. I think we’re just going to talk basics.”

The meeting comes as Trump and his top advisers have signaled their willingness to work with acting President Delcy Rodríguez, who was Maduro’s vice president and along with others in the deposed leader's inner circle remain in charge of day-to-day governmental operations.

Rodríguez herself has adopted a less strident position toward Trump and his “America First” policies toward the Western Hemisphere, saying she plans to continue releasing prisoners detained under Maduro — a move reportedly made at the behest of the Trump administration. Venezuela released several Americans this week.

Trump, a Republican, said Wednesday that he had a “great conversation” with Rodríguez, their first since Maduro was ousted.

“We had a call, a long call. We discussed a lot of things,” Trump told reporters. “And I think we’re getting along very well with Venezuela.”

In endorsing Rodríguez, Trump has sidelined Machado, who has long been a face of resistance in Venezuela. She had sought to cultivate relationships with Trump and key advisers like Secretary of State Marco Rubio among the American right wing in a political gamble to ally herself with the U.S. government. She also intends to have a meeting in the Senate on Thursday afternoon.

Despite her alliance with Republicans, Trump was quick to snub her following Maduro’s capture. Just hours afterward, Trump said of Machado that “it would be very tough for her to be the leader. She doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country. She’s a very nice woman, but she doesn’t have the respect.”

Machado has steered a careful course to avoid offending Trump, notably after winning last year’s Nobel Peace Prize, which Trump coveted. She has since thanked Trump and offered to share the prize with him, a move that has been rejected by the Nobel Institute.

Machado’s whereabouts have been largely unknown since she went into hiding early last year after being briefly detained in Caracas. She briefly reappeared in Oslo, Norway, in December after her daughter received the Nobel Peace Prize on her behalf.

The industrial engineer and daughter of a steel magnate began challenging the ruling party in 2004, when the nongovernmental organization she co-founded, Súmate, promoted a referendum to recall then-President Hugo Chávez. The initiative failed, and Machado and other Súmate executives were charged with conspiracy.

A year later, she drew the anger of Chávez and his allies again for traveling to Washington to meet President George W. Bush. A photo showing her shaking hands with Bush in the Oval Office lives in the collective memory. Chávez considered Bush an adversary.

Almost two decades later, she marshaled millions of Venezuelans to reject Chávez’s successor, Maduro, for another term in the 2024 election. But ruling party-loyal electoral authorities declared him the winner despite ample credible evidence to the contrary. Ensuing anti-government protests ended in a brutal crackdown by state security forces.

Janetsky reported from Mexico City. AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

FILE - U.S. President George Bush, right, meets with Maria Corina Machado, executive director of Sumate, a non-governmental organization that defends Venezuelan citizens' political rights, in the Oval Office of the White House, Washington, May 31, 2005. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)

FILE - Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado gestures to supporters during a protest against President Nicolas Maduro the day before his inauguration for a third term, in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, file)