Russia on Sunday launched its largest air strike on Ukraine since the war — defiantly demonstrating the Kremlin’s “disdain” for President Trump’s peace efforts, Ukraine’s prime minister told The Post.
The deadly, devastating assault included a first-ever strike on Ukraine’s central government headquarters in Kyiv and involved 810 drones and decoys and at least five missiles fired between Saturday night and Sunday morning, Ukrainian officials said.
Four civilians were killed, including a mother and her 2-month-old baby, PM Yulia Svyrydenko said.
“That child was not even able yet to say, ‘Mama,’ ” Svyrydenko said. “For me, it emphasizes that this is an existential war for Ukraine, because they are trying to kill our future by killing our children — and they try to kill our sovereignty, our governmental institution.”
A majority of the drones, or 747, were intercepted by Ukraine’s air forces, as were at least some of the missiles in the bombardment, which struck more than 30 locations around the country.
The strike on the government headquarters came at 6 a.m., causing a “huge” fire and blasting a massive hole into the top two floors of the building, which houses Svyrydenko’s office, she said.
“It was for the first time during the full-scale invasion, they attacked a headquarter of the government,” she said. “It required us to take three helicopters to be able to know to fight with a fire in such a way.”
The attack was a mockery of recent pushes for peace by Trump, who Svyrydenko believes has been “the only person who Russian President Vladimir Putin is afraid of.
“It’s a violation of when the European leaders and President Trump push and persuade Putin to sit and to have any negotiations,” she said. “[Russians] are showing that they are not able — they don’t want to have any negotiation, they are not aimed to end this war.
“They want to kill Ukrainians, and they want to keep fighting, and that’s all,” she said.
With the Kremlin’s seeming unwillingness to end its war, the US and Europe need to apply more pressure on Moscow, particularly by halting the purchases of Russian oil and applying secondary sanctions on nations that do, the Ukrainian prime minister said.
“It’s obvious that Russians don’t want to stop, so that’s why we need to stop them,” she said. “We are looking for a cease-fire for them to show they are ready for peace.
“No one more than Ukrainians want to stop the war, but there is another side. [Moscow] started this invasion, they started this war — so they can stop it.”
The prime minister said the international community should also sanction Russian defense production and “everything that can give them the possibility to keep killing Ukrainians.”
Russia has carried out some of its most brutal attacks of the war since Trump’s summit with Putin in Alaska last month — during which the Russian leader led the White House to believe he was ready for peace talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Among those attacks was a strike on Kyiv two weeks ago that killed 25 civilians — which the prime minister said demonstrated “Putin’s attitude toward peace negotiations.”
“He showed his disdain, his scorn for peace negotiations,” she said. “I think that it proves once again, that he tricked the US administration — and that now it’s time to act.”
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