Russia pounded Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, in a deadly, hourslong assault early on Thursday, hours before a meeting between the top U.S. and Russian diplomats.
The meeting, between Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, was expected to take place on Thursday in Malaysia amid efforts by the Trump administration to broker a cease-fire in Ukraine. Moscow has resisted those efforts, prompting President Trump to repeatedly express frustration with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.
But Mr. Putin has brushed aside the comments and is pushing ahead in Ukraine with renewed intensity.
In the overnight attack, Russia launched 18 missiles and around 400 drones on Ukraine during a “massive combined strike” that lasted for nearly 10 hours, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine posted on social media on Thursday.
“This is a clear escalation of terror by Russia,” Mr. Zelensky wrote. He added that he planned to speak with allies about bolstering funding for the production of air defenses and interceptors.
Mr. Zelensky said that Kyiv had been the main target of the intense bombardment, which left smoke hanging over the city on Thursday morning.
The local authorities said that at least two people had been killed and 16 others wounded during the assault, which also sparked fires in a half-dozen neighborhoods.
Timur Tkachenko, Kyiv’s military governor, said that residential buildings, cars and warehouses were burning. An outpatient hospital in the Podil neighborhood was heavily damaged, according to the local authorities.
While Mr. Trump has often expressed skepticism of U.S. aid to Ukraine and admiration for Mr. Putin, in recent weeks, his tone has shifted.
On Monday, Mr. Trump said he was “not happy with President Putin at all” and announced that the United States would send more weapons to Ukraine to help it fend off Russia’s invasion. Those comments were a reversal after his administration paused some arms transfers to the country just a week earlier.
On Tuesday, Mr. Trump stepped up his criticism of Mr. Putin and accused him of duplicity.
“We get a lot of bullshit thrown at us by Putin, if you want to know the truth,” Mr. Trump told reporters during a cabinet meeting. “He’s very nice to us all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless.”
Andrew E. Kramer contributed reporting.
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