KYIV: A large-scale Russian drone and missile attack across Ukraine killed at least six people, including a woman and her two young daughters, officials said Wednesday, as US-led efforts to end the war floundered and Ukraine’s president sought more foreign military help.
Repeated waves of missiles and drones throughout the night targeted at least eight Ukrainian cities, as well as a village in the Kyiv region where a strike set fire to a house in which the mother and her 6-month and 12-year-old daughters were staying, regional head Mykola Kalashnyk said.
At least 25 people, including five children, were injured in Kyiv alone, authorities said.
Russian drones also hit a kindergarten in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, during the day Wednesday when children were in the building, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said. One person was killed and six were injured but no children were physically harmed, he said.
Even so, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said many of the children were in shock after being rescued from the building by emergency crews.
Russia fired 405 strike and decoy drones and 28 missiles at Ukraine, mainly targeting Kyiv, Ukraine’s air force said.
Peace efforts mark time
US President Donald Trump ‘s efforts to end the war that started with Russia’s all-out invasion of its neighbor more than three years ago have failed to gain traction. Trump has repeatedly expressed frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s refusal to budge from his conditions for a settlement after Ukraine offered a ceasefire and direct peace talks.
Trump said Tuesday that his plan for a swift meeting with Putin was on hold because he didn’t want it to be a “waste of time.” European leaders accused Putin of stalling. Zelensky said Wednesday that Trump’s proposal to freeze the conflict where it stands on the front line “was a good compromise” — a step that could pave the way for negotiations.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday that the planned summit requires careful preparation, suggesting that laying the groundwork could be protracted. “No one wants to waste time: neither President Trump nor President Putin,” he said. “These are the two presidents who are accustomed to working efficiently with high productivity.”
Zelensky urged the European Union, the United States, and the Group of Seven industrialized nations to heap more pressure on Russia and force it to the negotiating table.
Pressure can be applied on Moscow “only through sanctions, long-range (missile) capabilities, and coordinated diplomacy among all our partners,” he said.
Zelensky credited Trump’s remarks that he was considering supplying Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine for Putin’s willingness to meet.
Russia has not made significant progress on the battlefield where a war of attrition has taken a high toll on Russian infantry and Ukraine is short of manpower, military analysts say. Meanwhile, both sides have invested in long-range strike capabilities to hit rear areas.
Ukraine says it hit a key Russian chemical plant
Ukraine’s army general staff said the country’s forces struck a chemical plant in Russia’s Bryansk region on Tuesday night using British-made air-launched Storm Shadow missiles. The plant is an important part of the Russian military and industrial complex producing gunpowder, explosives, missile fuel and ammunition, it said.
Russian officials in the region confirmed an attack but did not mention the plant.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said its air defenses downed 33 Ukrainian drones over several regions overnight, including the area around St. Petersburg. Eight airports temporarily suspended flights overnight because of the attack.
Zelensky arrived Wednesday in Oslo, Norway, and after that flew to Stockholm, where he is expected to meet with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson at the start of what the Ukrainian leader has said will be a week of intense diplomacy.
More international economic sanctions on Russia are likely to be discussed at an EU summit in Brussels on Thursday. On Friday, a meeting of the Coalition of the Willing — a group of 35 countries who support Ukraine — is to take place in London.
Also Wednesday, Trump is expected to hold talks at the White House with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte. The military alliance has been coordinating deliveries of weapons to Ukraine, many of them purchased from the United States by Canada and European countries.
Russia’s long barrage
Moscow’s attack, which began overnight and extended into Wednesday morning, also targeted energy infrastructure and caused rolling blackouts, officials said. Russia has been trying to cripple the country’s power grid before the bitter winter sets in.
In Kyiv, residents reeled from the drone and missile bombardment.
“We heard a loud explosion and then the glass started to shatter, and then everything was caught up in a burst of fire, the embers were everywhere,” Olena Biriukova, a 58-year-old living in an apartment building told The Associated Press.
“It was very scary for kids,” she said. “I never thought that this could happen in our neighborhood.”
Zelensky said the Russian attack targeted the wider Kyiv, Odesa, Chernihiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Kirovohrad, Poltava, Vinnytsia, Zaporizhzhia, Cherkasy, and Sumy — 10 regions in all.
Two more people were found dead in the Dnipro district of the Ukrainian capital, where emergency services rescued 10 people after a fire caused by drone debris hit the sixth floor of a 16-story residential building, local authorities said.
And in Kyiv’s Darnytskyi district emergency services were responding after drone debris hit a 17-story residential building causing a fire on five floors. Fifteen people had to be rescued, including two children.
