Russia killed at least nine people during a wave of attacks on dozens of Ukrainian cities and towns hours before a high-stakes summit at the White House featuring President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders.
Moscow’s drones and missiles rained down on Kharkiv, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Odesa late Sunday and early Monday, targeting apartment buildings and other civilian infrastructure, according to local officials. In Kharkiv, five people were killed, including two children, with at least 17 others injured, the region’s governor wrote on Telegram.
Ukraine’s state emergency service posted images and footage of the assault in Kharkiv on social media showing an apartment building in flames, with emergency workers picking their way through the rubble.
At least three people were killed in Russian strikes in Donetsk, the region’s governor said. Large parts of the territory on Russia’s border have been occupied by Moscow’s troops, but Ukraine maintains critical defensive fortifications in the region. Russian President Vladimir Putin last week demanded Ukraine cede full control of the region as part of a peace deal, according to reports.
In Zaporizhzhia, local authorities said a child was killed and several people injured in a Russian assault, while in Odesa, an overnight bombardment set fire to an energy facility.
The barrage comes just two days after Putin met with American President Donald Trump in Alaska to discuss ending the war, in the Russian leader’s first face-to-face summit with a U.S. president since Moscow’s full-scale invasion began in February 2022.
“We have always considered and continue to consider the Ukrainian people our brothers and sisters,” Putin said at the summit, calling the all-out war, which he launched three-and-a-half years ago and which has killed tens of thousands of Ukrainians, a “tragedy.”
Zelenskyy is in Washington on Monday for his own confab with Trump and will be accompanied by a squad of European leaders, including European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Trump pressured Zelenskyy to accept a negotiated end to the conflict in a post on Truth Social late Sunday, including ceding Crimea and ruling out joining NATO, without mentioning Putin.
“President Zelenskyy of Ukraine can end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wants to, or he can continue to fight,” Trump wrote.
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