President can urgently transfer arms from US reserve stocks; Ukraine again turns Moscow into no-fly zone with drone raids. What we know on day 1,234

Donald Trump may be preparing to send weapons to Ukraine using presidential drawdown authority (PDA) – a discretion that his predecessor, Joe Biden, used to urgently arm Kyiv’s forces. Sources told Reuters that Trump’s team would identify arms from US stockpiles to send to Ukraine under the PDA, with one saying the tranche could be worth about $300m . The president has $3.86bn worth of PDA for Ukraine remaining – the last drawdown was $500m by Biden on 9 January.

Trump this week said the US would send weapons to help Ukraine defend itself against intensifying Russian advances – a pointed reversal after the Pentagon under Pete Hegseth had tried to put US weapons supply to the Ukrainians on hold . Much of what Biden sent using PDA was surplus equipment in US reserve stockpiles that was due for replacement or to be scrapped – a fact that rebuts the argument that arming Ukraine leaves the US short of weaponry for its own purposes. Ukraine’s top priorities are Patriot missile interceptors and GMLRS mobile rocket artillery , which may be included in the package. The weapons could be on the frontlines within days because stocks are positioned in Europe.

Ukraine again succeeded in shutting down Moscow airports as it launched drones at the Russian capital. Three airports in the Moscow area – Domodedovo, Vnukovo and Zhukovsky – suspended operations temporarily on Thursday, Russia’s aviation authority Rosaviatsiya said. Some closures were continuing on Friday morning, reports said. The authority also said it had to temporarily halt flights at Kaluga airport, about 200km (125 miles) south-west of Moscow.

A senior Ukrainian security officer was shot dead in a residential parking lot in Kyiv on Thursday before the killer fled on foot. Police said they were working to identify and detain the shooter. The agent was a colonel in the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), an official told Reuters. The SBU, a sprawling domestic spy agency with thousands of staff, said it had opened a criminal investigation into the murder of one of its employees in Kyiv’s southern Holosiivskyi district.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Thursday that he would replace Ukraine’s ambassador to the US and was considering his defence minister, Rustem Umerov, for the post . Ukraine’s president said the main task would be to strengthen Ukraine in its defence efforts in the war against Russia and Umerov was a key figure to do that.