Hours after President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine arrived in Washington for high-stakes meetings to discuss a possible path to peace with Moscow, Russian attacks on large Ukrainian cities and villages near the front killed 10 people and injured dozens, the local authorities said.
Ukrainian officials pointed to the attacks as a further sign that Russia had no intention of halting hostilities. “That’s why Putin doesn’t want to cease fire,” said Andriy Yermak, Mr. Zelensky’s chief of staff. “He enjoys shelling peaceful cities while talking about his desire to end the war.”
Videos of the aftermath of a strike in Kharkiv, in northeastern Ukraine, released by local authorities show parts of a residential building’s roof and upper floors gutted, as firefighters on a ladder spray water to try to extinguish flames. Seven people were killed in the attack, including two children, and some 20 people were also injured, the authorities said.
A partly blurred photo released by Ukraine’s emergency services showed a firefighter holding what looked like the body of a child. Other photos showed rescue workers searching through the rubble for survivors.
Three people were killed in a separate attack on the city of Zaporizhzhia, in southern Ukraine, and nearly 20 people injured, officials said. In Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, the main theater of the battlefield today, Russian shelling killed four people, according to regional prosecutors. There was no immediate public comment from Russian authorities.
Before Monday’s strikes, Russia appeared to have scaled back its air attacks on Ukraine in recent weeks, in what Ukrainian officials and analysts see as an attempt by the Kremlin to curry favor with Mr. Trump during peace talks.
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