Russia strikes Kiev region, ports; Zelensky says France to accelerate air defense deliveries to Ukraine

Russia said on Saturday it struck the Kiev region and ports over the past 24 hours, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on the same day that France will accelerate air defense deliveries to Ukraine, according to their latest updates on the conflict.

The Russian Ministry of Defense reported on Saturday that in the past day, Russian forces carried out a concentrated strike on the Kiev region of Ukraine using long-range high precision weapons and drones, destroying more than 40 trucks equipped with launchers for long-range drones. In addition, Russian strikes targeted the ports of Chornomorsk and Pivdennyi, hitting military supply warehouses, fuel storage tanks, cargo vessels, and port infrastructure used by Ukrainian forces.

The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces reported on the same day that Ukrainian forces struck fuel and lubricant storage tanks at the port of Yeysk in Russia's Krasnodar Krai. Zelensky said in his battlefield update that over the past day, Ukrainian forces carried out long-range strikes on multiple targets inside Russia, including the Novokuibyshevsk oil refinery located about 1,000 kilometers from the front line, and a logistics hub in the Samara region.

Zelensky said Saturday that France has agreed to accelerate the delivery of equipment and missiles to Ukraine, and will provide licenses for the production of relevant missiles, following a phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron.

Zelensky said in a social media post that he stressed that air defense systems remain Ukraine's most pressing need. He said Macron expressed readiness to help facilitate communication between Ukraine and other partner countries that have the necessary missiles for the Patriot air defense system.

Macron said he had confirmed with Zelensky that France would step up support for Ukraine's air defense capabilities, in particular by providing interceptor missiles.

Russia strikes Kiev region, ports; Zelensky says France to accelerate air defense deliveries to Ukraine

Major U.S. AI developers like OpenAI and Google have aggressively slashed usage fees for their large language models, driven by fierce competition in the artificial intelligence sector.

On Friday, OpenAI announced that it would reduce the benchmark price of GPT-5.6 Sol, a frontier AI model for developers, by more than 20 percent, effective immediately. The discounted pricing will remain available for three months.

At the end of last month, the company also cut prices for several other models, reducing prices for its mid-tier models by 20 percent and those of its lower-cost models by 80 percent.

Meanwhile, Google, owned by Alphabet, has recently launched Gemini 3.7 Flash and lowered its price to around half that of the previous version.

Some U.S. media outlets have said that competition over the pricing of AI large models is becoming increasingly fierce, with the open-source and pricing strategies of some Chinese AI companies adding pressure on their U.S. rivals.

US AI companies cut prices as competition in large models intensifies