Russia unleashed a barrage of missiles, drones and bombs across Ukraine early yesterday, killing at least five people as it retaliated for a brazen attack by Kyiv on air bases days earlier. The Kremlin has accelerated its attacks on Ukraine in recent weeks, as direct negotiations have failed to broker an end to the three-year war or even a temporary truce.
Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha called for Kyiv’s western allies to punish Russia for refusing to halt its invasion.
“To put an end to Russia’s killing and destruction, more pressure on Moscow is required, as are more steps to strengthen Ukraine,” he wrote on social media.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The attacks came ahead of an expected prisoner swap agreed to in Istanbul, set to take place this weekend, which Russia yesterday accused Ukraine of postponing, an accusation Kyiv later denied.
The Ukrainian air force said Russia had fired 206 drones and nine missiles in the overnight barrage.
Ukraine’s second largest city, Kharkiv, came under “the most powerful attack since the beginning of the full-scale war,” Mayor Ihor Terekhov said.
The northeastern city was home to 1.4 million people before the war and lies about 30km from the border with Russia.
The Russian strikes pummeled homes and apartment blocks there, killing at least three people and wounding 17 more, the mayor said.
Kharkiv Oblast Governor Oleh Syniehubov said the wounded included two children.
In the southern city of Kherson, Russian shelling killed a couple and damaged two high-rise buildings, Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said.
Attacks were also recorded on the Dnipropetrovsk, Odesa and Ternopil regions.
Rescuers in the western city of Lutsk, near the Polish border, meanwhile discovered a second fatality from strikes a day earlier, describing the victim as a woman in her 20s.
The aerial bombardments come days after Ukraine launched a brazen attack well beyond the frontlines, damaging nuclear-capable military planes at Russian air bases and prompting vows of revenge from Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Ukraine has been pushing for an unconditional and immediate 30-day truce, issuing its latest proposal during peace talks in Istanbul on Monday last week. Russia, which now controls about one-fifth of Ukraine’s territory, has repeatedly rejected calls to end its three-year war.
The Kremlin on Friday said the war was “existential” for Russia.
The comments are Moscow’s latest to dampen hopes for a breakthrough amid a flurry of meetings between Russian and Ukrainian delegations, as well as telephone calls between Putin and US President Donald Trump, aimed at stopping the fighting.
“For us it is an existential issue, an issue on our national interest, safety, on our future and the future of our children, of our country,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, responding to remarks by Trump on Thursday comparing Moscow and Kyiv to brawling children.
Putin told Trump on a phone call he would retaliate for an audacious Ukrainian drone attack that damaged nuclear-capable military planes at Russian air bases on Sunday last week, including in Siberia thousands of kilometers behind the front lines.
The Kremlin chief has issued a host of sweeping demands on Ukraine if it wants to halt the fighting.
They include completely pulling troops out of four regions claimed by Russia, but which its army does not fully control, an end to Western military support and a ban on Ukraine joining NATO.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has dismissed the demands as old ultimatums, questioned the purpose of more such talks and called for a summit to be attended by him, Putin and Trump.
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