European Union leaders are confronting one of the biggest challenges in the bloc’s history as an aggressive Russia looms to the east and American support wavers from the west.

On Thursday, they pledged to rise to the challenge.

Leaders gathered at a specially convened meeting in Brussels to discuss how to bolster both Europe’s own defenses and its support for Ukraine amid enormously high stakes. They must figure out how to accomplish those aims without further alienating their tempestuous allies in Washington.

At the same time, they are struggling to keep a united front even among their own member countries: Hungary did not sign onto a statement released Thursday affirming “unwavering support” for Ukraine.

Officials expressed a new sense of urgency as they promised to push for a strong peace deal for Ukraine and a more independent future for European defense.

“Europe faces a clear and present danger,” Ursula von der Leyen, the head of the E.U. executive arm, said as she walked into the gathering on Thursday alongside President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, calling this a “watershed moment.”

Roberta Metsola, president of the European Parliament, was even blunter.

“It is about damn time,” she said. “We are ready to put, finally, our money where our mouth is.”

Thursday’s gathering included the heads of state or government from the European Union’s 27 member countries, and was the latest in a series of quickly arranged summits focused on defense.

Leaders discussed options to finance a ramp up in European military spending, including a novel plan that would offer 150 billion euros — about $160 billion — in loans to fund investments in missile defense, anti-drone systems and other crucial defense technologies. Officials agreed that the project should be pushed along urgently. The overarching goal was to make the continent better armed to deal with Russia without as much backup from across the Atlantic.

European nations also reviewed what a peace plan for Ukraine might look like, as they contemplate how they can support it both financially and possible with troops — a proposition Russia flatly rejected once again on Thursday. The 26 countries who signed onto the statement of support for Ukraine pledged “regular and predictable” financial help at a time when the United States has taken a sharp turn toward Russia.

“We are very thankful that we are not alone,” Mr. Zelensky said on Thursday, from the meeting’s venue.

In some ways, the gathering was the start of a new chapter for the European Union. Created to foster cooperation and peace, the bloc is being forced to contemplate its role in a world rived by conflict and animosity, even among allies.

The pressing question is whether the E.U., with its consensus-focused, clunky structure, can adapt itself quickly enough to ensure that Europe doesn’t get left behind as President Trump upends the global order.

In less than two months, Mr. Trump has altered the landscape when it comes to security in Europe. He is demanding a rapid peace in Ukraine, and has prodded Mr. Zelensky toward negotiations by berating him publicly and halting aid to his nation. He opened talks with Russia without directly involving Europe, or Ukraine. And he has at the same time assailed other European countries for paying too little to protect themselves in an “unfair” system.

On Thursday, the American president suggested from the Oval Office that America might not protect NATO members that were not paying enough for their own defense, calling it “common sense.” A cornerstone of the alliance is that an attack against an ally is considered an attack against all allies.

“Mr. Trump, he is full of surprises — they are mostly bad surprises for us,” Bart De Wever, the prime minister of Belgium, told reporters on Thursday.

America’s shift has left Europe contemplating how to better back up Ukraine.

On Wednesday, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, said he would talk with European allies about the possibility of using France’s nuclear deterrent to protect the continent in the wake of threats from Russia.

Britain and France have indicated a openness to sending troops as a peacekeeping force if a deal is reached, and Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain has called for support from a “coalition of the willing.”

Britain convened a meeting on Wednesday of officials from 20 countries — many of them European — to discuss possible military and nonmilitary contributions to such a coalition, according to British officials.

Russia, though, has rebuffed the idea of European peacekeeping forces in Ukraine. Sergey V. Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, said on Thursday that there was “no space for a compromise” on the issue and that Russia would not allow it.

Speaking at a news conference in Moscow, Mr. Lavrov said Russia would see the deployment of such troops on Ukrainian territory “in the same way as we have looked at the potential presence of NATO” in the country.

“We would not just observe such actions,” he added.

Nor is it clear yet how the European Union would fit into such a coalition — an issue that was up for discussion on the sidelines of the event on Thursday.

What is clear is that not all Europeans are eager to do more for Ukraine. Viktor Orban, the Hungarian prime minister, has been especially vocal in his praise of Mr. Trump and in his disagreement with his European colleagues when it comes to Ukraine. While officials knew in advance that Hungary might not support the joint statement, they had hoped that they might be able to bring it around and maintain unanimity.

Hungary’s move was largely symbolic, but the nation’s opposition to expanding help for Ukraine could have more practical consequences before long if it complicates discussions about renewing sanctions or about extending a freeze on Russian assets held in Europe.

In spite of Hungary’s reluctance, much of Europe is united — rather than divided — by the current moment. Several countries outside the European Union, including Britain, Norway and Turkey, are expected to be briefed by top E.U. officials after the Thursday meeting, according to an E.U. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters.

That’s an unusual step, and a sign of growing cooperation.

There’s more to come from the E.U. and its partners. European Union countries are still contemplating further financial contributions to Ukraine, and they are planning to rapidly push forward measures to “rearm” Europe — including the €150 billion loan program Ms. von der Leyen has proposed.

Other initiatives include making E.U. budget rules more flexible to enable countries to invest more without breaching tough deficit limits, and expanding what the European Investment Bank’s lending rules so that it can push money into a broader array of military projects.

And the conversation about ramping up defense will continue almost immediately.

Mr. Zelensky posted on social media on Thursday that there will be an upcoming meeting on March 11 “at the level of military representatives of the countries” to discuss security guarantees. The E.U. is also set to release a detailed paper on the future of its defense later this month.

“Today, history is being written,” Ms. von der Leyen said at the conclusion of Thursday’s event. “The urgency is real.”

Ivan Nechepurenko, Emma Bubola and Marc Santora contributed reporting.

Three gunshots rang out as an honor guard fired into the air over the snow-covered cemetery. Soldiers lifted a Ukrainian flag from a coffin and handed it to family members. Then a trumpet, accompanied by a drum, bid farewell to the fallen soldier.

After playing a Ukrainian version of taps, the two musicians from the military band walked slowly away, leaving the mourners to grieve.

“Unfortunately, we cannot raise them from their graves, but we can play taps,” Maj. Oleksandr Holub said of the daily visits that members of the band he conducts make to the cemetery, where hundreds of new graves have been dug for Ukrainian soldiers.

Over the three years since Russia’s full-scale invasion began, Ukraine has experienced tremendous losses. In an interview published last month, President Volodymyr Zelensky said that at least 46,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed in the war and that more than 350,000 had been wounded, figures that are widely seen as underestimates.

For the past year, the Russian Army has been on the offensive, capturing Ukrainian territory regularly and killing Ukrainian soldiers in increasing numbers.

Then comes the work of the band of the 101st Separate Guard Brigade of the General Staff.

“We treat every funeral like it’s our most important concert, as we are saying farewell to those because of whom we are still here,” said Pvt. Lev Remenev, a song writer in civilian life who volunteered to fight in the army but instead wound up in the 101st Separate Guard band, where he plays the piano.

The mission of the band’s 21 members is to show two sides of Ukraine’s struggle three years into the war: acknowledging the unbearable toll and keeping up the spirits of those who press ahead with the fighting.

They support soldiers and civilians by playing uplifting concerts in schools and at universities and rehabilitation centers. But the tune they play most frequently is a version of taps, to honor their fallen comrades.

The musicians say it is often difficult to transition to the cheerful mood of a concert for schoolchildren or for soldiers in hospitals right after playing at a funeral.

“If you did not manage to switch, and go on being grim, kids feel it,” said Major Holub, 45, the conductor, who has been with the band for 18 years. “Kids are the easiest audience, and it is very easy to get them to have fun,” he said. “Soldiers are the hardest.”

But for the musicians, funerals are the hardest.

They played a version of taps at funerals before the war, too, but mostly for retired soldiers who died of old age, Major Holub said. It became harder in 2014, when Russia invaded the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine and soldiers were killed in battle. It has become much harder since the full-scale invasion, he said.

He recalls the funeral that affected him the most: “I will always remember a young boy called Andriy, from our brigade,” he said. “He wanted us to play at his wedding, and in summer 2023, we played at his wedding. And then a year later, in summer 2024, we played at his funeral.”

He added: “I will say honestly that when I see mothers burying their sons, I have tears coming up — it is very hard.”

Private Remenev joined the army in 2022 and was sent to the Donbas region to fight. That July, he was assigned to join the band.

He still writes songs and his comrades have asked him to write an anthem to celebrate victory, he said. “This is a very high bar,” Private Remenev said of the expectations for an anthem, adding that he had yet to produce one.

“The main thing is for the victory to actually come, and then I will write better normal songs,” he said. “People do not listen to anthems; people like normal songs.”

Since joining the army, he has played more than 200 concerts in hospitals and schools and at other events. But like the others in the band, he has played at even more funerals.

“I always feel gratitude first of all, and then the grief, and then the pain that boys and girls are dying — that our nation is dying,” he said.

He, like his colleagues, says it is hard to be in good spirits after the funerals. At concerts, they need to raise morale. “We are no different from the entire country in this,” he said. “All people who live in war have to force themselves to switch to a false good mood. This ability comes with practice.”

Sometimes, the military band members chat on the bus to the cemetery, giving one another moral support. Sometimes, they say, it is just too sad, and they drive in silence.

Pvt. Oleksiy Prykhodko, 29, has been performing in the band for five years, but he only started playing regularly at funerals after the full-scale invasion in 2022. “It is possible to adapt to everything,” he said. “But it is very hard to see the tears of relatives who lost their loved ones.”

The first funeral he played at stuck in his memory. “We went to the cemetery, but there were no relatives,” he said. “It was the very beginning of the war, and the mother of the fallen soldier had evacuated and could not make it back in time.” She had fled and was a refugee. “One woman called her,” he said. “And she was saying goodbye to her dead son over the phone.”

He added: “I have no answers as to how to cope, but somehow I go on.”

Every morning, he goes out to a parade ground at the base in Kyiv, the capital, at 9 a.m. with his trumpet and plays a version of taps for soldiers at the base. Most days, he plays the music again at a funeral, he said.

On one such day in December, there was a power cut from Russian missile attacks on power plants in the middle of a funeral, he said. The church went dark, and mourners were asked to switch on the flashlight on their phones to find the coffin inside the dark room and bid farewell to the fallen soldier.

Then Private Prykhodko played a version of taps.

“Relatives never say anything to us — they do not think about us at that moment,” he said. “When their loved one dies, we are the last thing on their minds, but we still come and play taps,” he said. “It is a ritual, and it is important.”

Yurii Shyvala contributed reporting.

President Lai Ching-te of Taiwan on Thursday sought to reassure his citizens that a plan by a Taiwanese chip giant to spend $100 billion in the United States would benefit the island, after the company’s pledge this week raised concerns at home.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the world’s largest chip manufacturer, announced on Monday that over the next four years it would expand its operations in Arizona to make chips for artificial intelligence and other high-tech applications. President Trump has pressed Taiwan to loosen its dominance in advanced semiconductors and to move production to the United States, and he has warned of hefty tariffs if his demands are not met.

But TSMC’s announcement also stirred debate and misgivings in Taiwan, a democratically governed island where many people see the chip sector as a vital economic pillar and a shield against possible aggression by China, which claims it is part of its territory. The commitment from TSMC would lift its planned spending in the United States to $165 billion, more than double its previous commitments there.

Mr. Lai, in a news conference in Taipei on Thursday with C.C. Wei, the chief executive of TSMC, asserted that the plan was good for TSMC, Taiwan and the United States.

“We have seen every time that with each initiative by TSMC, TSMC has grown even stronger and more competitive, while also providing Taiwan’s businesses with opportunities for international cooperation and contributing to Taiwan’s greater strength,” Mr. Lai told reporters at the presidential office. He said that Taiwan could now “confidently cross the Pacific Ocean and expand eastward to the American continent.”

Mr. Wei asserted that TSMC’s decision was based on business considerations — implying that the company was not bending to political pressure. “We have done a lot of analysis, and I’ve communicated with all our customers,” he said. “It turns out that TSMC’s current expansion plan in the United States is not enough to meet their demand.”

The company’s production in Taiwan would not be hurt by its growing investment in the United States, Mr. Wei said.

Not everyone in Taiwan is convinced. “When TSMC invests so much capital and takes its most advanced manufacturing processes to the United States, what has Taiwan gained in return?” Wang Hung-wei, a legislator from Taiwan’s opposition Nationalist Party, said at a news conference this week.

TSMC executives have previously insisted that the company would keep its most advanced factories in Taiwan. The company has invested billions growing deep roots and a network of highly specialized suppliers in Taiwan. While it has opened new factories in Japan and Arizona, its most cutting-edge chips are still made in Taiwan.

Mr. Lai’s government has been trying to respond to complaints from Mr. Trump that Taiwan spends too little on its own defense, has a disproportionate trade surplus with the United States, and has stolen the semiconductor business from American companies.

Any rupture with Mr. Trump would be a crisis for Taiwan, which has for decades turned to the United States as its chief political and military supporter against potential threats from China. Beijing claims the island as its territory and says it could use force to take it if its leaders see no hope for peaceful unification.

Last month, Mr. Lai promised to increase Taiwan’s military spending to over 3 percent of its economic output, from about 2.45 percent this year. Mr. Trump and officials around him have said that Taiwan should be devoting 5 percent, or even 10 percent, of its economy to its military.

Mr. Trump announced TSMC’s new commitments with Mr. Wei by his side at the White House on Monday. The investment would help TSMC avoid tariffs on chips made in Taiwan, Mr. Trump said.

The investment will expand TSMC’s footprint in Arizona from three manufacturing plants to six, add 25,000 jobs and create a research and development center to develop production processes. Apple is the facility’s largest customer. TSMC also makes chips for Nvidia, AMD, Qualcomm and Broadcom.

Despite its global importance, TSMC has shied away from media attention, and its executives rarely take questions from journalists. Mr. Wei, the chief executive, suggested that he did not relish the attention.

“Life has been a bit stressful lately,” he said, “meeting two presidents in such a short time, and to also have to meet with friends from the media, and then answer questions.”

When President Trump got on a phone call with President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico on Thursday morning, he was firm: The tariffs were inescapable.

“The tariffs stay,” Ms. Sheinbaum quoted Mr. Trump as saying, recounting the conversation at a news conference hours later.

But the Mexican president pressed her case. She sent Mr. Trump a chart showing a sharp decline in fentanyl seizures at the U.S.-Mexico border and told him that tariffs would make it harder to keep up the security collaboration that was, she said, “delivering results.”

By the end of the call, Mr. Trump relented, agreeing to suspend tariffs on Mexican goods.

On social media, Mr. Trump announced that at least until April 2, Mexico will not be required to pay tariffs on anything that falls under the main North American trade pact. He later extended the same pause to Canada, reversing the enormous 25 percent tariff he slapped on both countries’ exports earlier this week.

“We succeeded,” Ms Sheinbaum said.

The decision represented a huge victory for Mexico’s leader and a much-needed boost for the country’s sluggish economy.

Ms. Sheinbaum herself acknowledged that there were several forces that may have driven Mr. Trump to retract the measures, citing the business leaders who urged the White House to change course, the negative reaction in U.S. markets and her own country’s progress on fentanyl and migration.

But the suspension also reflected the success of Ms. Sheinbaum’s soft-touch strategy in withstanding Mr. Trump’s theatrical attacks and somehow, against significant odds, earning his public admiration.

“I did this as an accommodation, and out of respect for, President Sheinbaum,” Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social on Thursday. “Our relationship has been a very good one.”

He added: “Thank you to President Sheinbaum for your hard work and collaboration!”

Ms. Sheinbaum’s response was equally warm. “Many thanks to President Donald Trump. We had an excellent and respectful call,” she said in a post on X, promising to continue working together “particularly on migration and security issues.”

Unlike Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada, who has responded aggressively to Mr. Trump’s attacks on his country, Ms. Sheinbaum has been more reserved, opting to negotiate quietly through back channels rather than trade public insults.

While Canada and China both quickly announced retaliatory measures after American tariffs hit this week, Mexico held off, refraining from what was seen as a possible provocation while a deal was still possible.

Experts assessing the value of that more subtle approach note that Canada achieved the same results as Mexico. But they acknowledge that Ms. Sheinbaum has been deft to avoid the stinging rebukes Mr. Trump visited on Mr. Trudeau, which would have been an even bigger drag on her momentum as she enters her sixth month in office.

“Her strategy is not to fall into provocations, to be coolheaded,” said Carlos Bravo Regidor, a Mexico City-based analyst. “So far, so good.”

Mr. Bravo Regidor noted that Ms. Sheinbaum had also played well to her domestic audience, continually reminding the public that Mexico prioritized its sovereignty and would not submit to anyone. Her approval ratings have shot higher than 75 percent, polls show.

At the same time, she has seemed to find a way to connect with Mr. Trump at some level.

Ms. Sheinbaum crowed about how “respectful” Mr. Trump is toward Mexico at her Thursday news conference. Mr. Trump called her “a wonderful woman.”

On Wednesday, a day before their phone call, she seemed to have recovered from the initial shock that spread across Mexico after it became clear he was imposing the import duties. She had shifted into crisis mode, calling this a “definitive moment” for the country and drawing a comparison to the devastating Covid-19 pandemic.

She called for patience, suggesting — correctly, it turned out — that things could still change, while urging national solidarity.

Earlier in the week, Ms. Sheinbaum had called for a national protest in response to the tariffs in Mexico City on Sunday, when she had also planned to announce Mexico’s response to Mr. Trump’s move.

On Thursday, Ms. Sheinbaum said that the event would still take place, despite Mr. Trump’s latest decision. By then, she was calling it a “festival,” with musical groups.

Miguel Muñoz, the director for Mexico at Geodis, a global logistics company, said that many Mexican exporters had taken a wait-and-see approach this week, taking their cues from the president and “not lifting a finger” before Ms. Sheinbaum’s call with Mr. Trump.

On Thursday, it appeared they were right to do so.

“What the chambers of commerce are applauding,” Mr. Muñoz said, “is the way the president has handled this.”

On April 2, when the United States plans to impose reciprocal tariffs on all countries, Mexico will be included, according to Ms. Scheinbaum. But she said that “in the case of Mexico, almost everything is without tariffs,” because of the main North America trade agreement. “We don’t charge them tariffs, nor do they charge us tariffs.”

But questions about what would happen in April remained.

In Canada, the suspension failed to lift the sense of gloom and the anxious mood of the business community. The announcement came just hours after Mr. Trudeau warned Canadians that the country would be locked into a trade war with the United States “for the foreseeable future.”

“The outcome Canada needs is to not have this looming threat of tariffs,” said Dennis Darby, the president of Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters, an industry group.

Mr. Darby noted that the president had offered no assurance that he would halt the separate steel and aluminum tariffs set to be imposed next week. And it remains unclear how exactly Mr. Trump will manage the reciprocal tariffs he’s promised to impose on every country on April 2.

Dominic LeBlanc, Canada’s finance minister, said that following Mr. Trump’s pause, Canada is suspending plans to impose a second round of retaliatory tariffs.

Doug Ford, the premier of Canada’s most populous province, Ontario, dismissed the suspension. “This whole thing with President Trump is a mess,” Mr. Ford told reporters. “We went down this road before. He still threatens the tariffs on April 2.”

Paulina Villegas contributed reporting from Mexico City and Ian Austen from Windsor, Ontario.

Nearly a week after the first stage of Israel and Hamas’s cease-fire expired, both Palestinians and Israelis are in limbo, uncertain how long the truce will hold.

The Trump administration, the Arab world, Israel, Hamas and others are now wrangling over the future of the Gaza Strip in a complex series of negotiations — some of which are unfolding along different channels, adding to the confusion.

Here’s a look at the state of the cease-fire talks and who is involved.

Israel and Hamas are negotiating through mediators.

In mid-January, after 15 months of devastating war, Israel and Hamas agreed to a truce that would free hostages held in Gaza since the Hamas-led October 2023 attack on southern Israel in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.

But the agreement did not end the war. Instead, the two sides committed to a complex, multiphase plan meant to build momentum toward a comprehensive cease-fire. They were supposed to negotiate terms for the full truce during the first stage, which lasted six weeks.

Last weekend, the six weeks elapsed with little apparent success toward that goal, despite efforts by Qatar and Egypt, who have been mediating the talks. (Israel and Hamas do not negotiate directly.)

Then, Israel mostly closed the crossings into the Gaza Strip, stopping aid from entering to reach Palestinians who are still struggling to recover from a year of hunger and destruction. Qatar condemned the move as a violation of the cease-fire agreement, which stipulates that 600 trucks bearing food, fuel and other goods must enter Gaza on a daily basis.

The Trump administration has sent mixed signals on the next steps. Officials have said that they hope to reach the second, comprehensive phase of the cease-fire.

The U.S. and Israel are talking about a different path.

For Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, agreeing to pause the fighting has been the easy part. He has been far more reluctant to declare an end to Israel’s war against Hamas while the group remains firmly entrenched in Gaza.

As the first phase of the cease-fire expired, Mr. Netanyahu said that Israel had accepted a new proposal pitched by Steve Witkoff, President Trump’s Middle East envoy. That plan breaks significantly with the truce signed in mid-January.

Under the new proposal, Israel would immediately get half of the remaining hostages back in exchange for another 50 days of a “temporary cease-fire.” During that time, Israel and Hamas would continue talks over a permanent end to the war.

The remaining hostages would be released “if we reach an agreement on a permanent cease-fire,” Mr. Netanyahu said.

Mr. Witkoff’s proposal would effectively allow Israel to get more hostages back without giving Hamas any of its core demands. The Palestinian armed group has called on Israel and the United States to carry out the January deal as written, appearing to rule out the deal as a non-starter.

But at the same time, Mr. Trump has issued proposals that have rattled the region, including urging the permanent displacement of Gaza’s Palestinian residents and a U.S.-led takeover of the territory. He has also issued ultimatums to Hamas to return all of the hostages immediately, a demand that contradicts the staggered releases prescribed by the cease-fire agreement.

On Wednesday, Mr. Trump issued a “last warning” to Hamas on social media, calling on the armed group to immediately return the remaining hostages “or it is OVER for you.”

“I am sending Israel everything it needs to finish the job, not a single Hamas member will be safe if you don’t do as I say,” Mr. Trump wrote.

Hamas said that Mr. Trump’s threats were encouraging Israel to avoid negotiating an end to the war. “The language of threats does not intimidate us; it only complicates matters further,” Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas official, said in a statement posted on a Hamas-affiliated Telegram channel.

On Thursday, speaking to reporters at the White House, Mr. Witkoff said that President Trump is intent on securing the release of Edan Alexander, an American hostage who was serving in the Israeli military when he was captured. Mr. Alexander is believed to be the last living American hostage in Gaza.

“Edan Alexander is very important to us. He is injured and he is a top priority,” Mr. Witkoff said, adding that the president wants Hamas to release Mr. Alexander to show it is serious about negotiations.

The Trump administration is also talking to Hamas.

Over the past week, Mr. Trump’s administration held intensive and secret direct meetings with Hamas aimed at securing the release of American citizens seized during the October 2023 attack.

The meetings leapfrogged the seemingly moribund cease-fire talks between Israel and Hamas. They also broke with the longstanding U.S. approach toward Hamas, which sought to isolate the Palestinian armed group through a “no-contact” policy.

Critics had long argued that not engaging with Hamas over the years had produced few tangible results. In practice, the United States wound up dealing with the group anyway, typically through mediators like Qatar and Egypt.

Adam Boehler, Mr. Trump’s nominee to be a special envoy for hostage affairs, met Hamas officials in Doha, Qatar, this week, according to a diplomat familiar with the talks.

The negotiations focused on freeing Mr. Alexander and securing the release of the bodies of four other U.S.-Israeli dual citizens who were kidnapped and taken to Gaza in the October 2023 attack, officials told The New York Times.

One of those is Itay Chen, 19, an American-Israeli soldier. The Israeli military said last year that he was presumed killed during the Hamas-led attack, although his family has expressed hope that he could still be alive.

“If Israel’s government isn’t able to free Itay,” Ruby Chen, his father, said after news of the direct talks with Hamas broke, “then it’s reasonable for the United States to try and do so.”

Adam Rasgon, Ronen Bergman and Ephrat Livni contributed reporting.

A Russian missile slammed into a hotel late Wednesday in the hometown of President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, killing at least four people and injuring more than 30 others, the Ukrainian authorities said.

“Just before the attack, volunteers from a humanitarian organization — citizens of Ukraine, the United States and the United Kingdom — had checked into the hotel,” Mr. Zelensky said in a statement. “They survived because they managed to get down from their rooms in time. Unfortunately, four people were killed in this attack.”

“There must be no pause in the pressure on Russia to stop this war and terror against life,” he said.

The latest strikes occurred after an announcement from the United States that the country was suspending both military and intelligence assistance to Ukraine in an effort to force Ukraine to the negotiating table with Russia. Officials in Kyiv have warned that without American assistance Ukraine’s air-defense capabilities would be among the first elements of its security to be compromised.

The Trump administration’s special envoy to Russia and Ukraine, retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, said on Thursday that cutting off intelligence sharing with Kyiv was meant to get the attention of Mr. Zelensky, akin to “hitting a mule with a two-by-four across the nose.”

Mr. Kellogg was speaking to the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, and his remarks earned a frosty reception from the national security experts in the audience. When Mr. Kellogg, discussing the pause in intelligence sharing, said the Ukrainians “brought it on themselves,” the audience hissed in response.

Earlier Thursday, rescue workers raced to pull wounded civilians from the ruined building in Mr. Zelensky’s hometown, Kryvyi Rih, in central Ukraine, and air-defense crews across the country scrambled to defend against bombardments that have become routine during the winter.

In total, the Ukrainian Air Force reported, Russia launched two ballistic missiles and 112 drones — including some with dummy warheads designed to expose and exhaust air defenses.

Most of the deadly drones were shot down, the Air Force reported, but it did not say whether either of the missiles had been downed.

The American-made Patriot system has proved to be Ukraine’s most reliable defense against Russia’s most sophisticated ballistic missiles. The pause in American military assistance could leave Ukrainians short of the interceptor missiles that have helped provide a blanket of protection over the capital, Kyiv, and other cities.

At the same time, Ukraine’s air-raid alerts are informed, to some degree, by the early warning data provided by American satellites, which can detect aircraft and missile launches deep in Russian territory. It is not clear if the pause on intelligence sharing included information related to those systems.

The Ukrainian authorities sought to reassure the public that they were taking steps to address the fallout from the sudden moves by its primary military ally as Washington increasingly aligns itself with Moscow and applies pressure to Kyiv ahead of peace negotiations.

Even as Kyiv works to persuade Washington that it should be pressing Russia to bring the war to an end rather than taking steps that weaken Ukraine’s ability to defend itself, Ukraine is also appealing directly to the American public.

Ukrainian operators of Patriot systems have followed the lead of F-16 fighter pilots in calling directly on the American people to stand with Ukraine.

“Thanks to your support, we are still alive, and we are able to protect our cities and the civilians who live there,” said one operator in a video released by the military. “Thank you to the American people!”

Mr. Kellogg, the Trump administration envoy, made clear on Thursday the United States did not want Ukraine to win the war and simply wanted the fighting to end. America, he added, wants to have the role of “an objective interlocutor” in peace talks to bring about a cease-fire.

He also declined to say whether signing an agreement to give U.S. companies mineral rights in Ukraine would be enough to restart intelligence sharing, saying only that it would be President Trump’s decision.

Mr. Trump has maintained that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has sent “strong signals” that he is ready for peace.

However, since the two leaders spoke on Feb. 12, Russia’s unrelenting bombardment of Ukrainian infrastructure and towns and cities from the front has intensified.

More than 90 civilians have been killed since then, according to publicly available reports from Ukrainian officials compiled by The New York Times.

Most of the worst attacks are in the towns and the cities closest to the front.

Russian warplanes have been bombarding the city of Kostiantynivka — an important logistics center for Ukrainian forces fighting in the east — with increasing ferocity.

“The enemy has dropped 108 aerial bombs on the city of Kostiantynivka over the past week alone,” said Vadym Filashkin, the head of the Donetsk regional military administration. The bombs are among the most powerful in the Russian arsenal, weighing from 500 pounds to 6,000 pounds.

“The attacks have killed 16 people and injured 38,” he said.

As rescue crews in Kryvyi Rih continued to dig through the rubble of the hotel, Liudmyla Taran, the mother of two small children, said the air-raid alert came just two minutes before the missile struck.

“The explosion was massive, the windows were blown out, and the apartment started to smell strongly of smoke,” she said. “We got scared that the apartment was on fire, so we ran outside as we were, without getting dressed, and waited for help.”

Dmytro Klymenko, a 20-year-old local journalist, said that the alert indicated that the ballistic missile was launched from Crimea, and that he barely had time to get dressed and run outside before the strike.

“As I was heading to the shelter, another alert came in, saying there were only seconds left before impact,” he said. “I sped up and made it into the underground shelter just as I heard the explosion.”

“Luckily, I only got away with a scare,” he said. “But I feel so sorry for those who suffered because of Russia.”

Liubov Sholudko, Nataliia Novosolova and Julian Barnes contributed reporting.