Ukrainian presidentVolodymyr Zelenskyyhas urged international leaders to increase their pressure on Russia, after Moscow’s forcesintensified strikes on Ukraine overnight.
The Ukrainian leader said rescuers are working in over 30 Ukrainian cities and villages after nearly 300 attack drones and almost 70 missiles, including ballistic ones, were launched byRussiaovernight.
“The targets were Kyiv and the region, as well as Zhytomyr, Khmelnytskyi, Ternopil, Chernihiv, Sumy, Odesa, Poltava, Dnipro, Mykolaiv, Kharkiv and Cherkasy regions,”he wrote in a post on X, in which he said the strikes were deliberately targeting “ordinary cities”.
Zelenskyy added:
The intense air attack comes after US PresidentDonald Trumpand his Russian counterpartVladimir Putinhad atwo-hour phone callto discuss a US-proposed Ukraine ceasefire deal on Monday.
Trump said after the call that Russia andUkrainewould immediately start negotiations for a ceasefire, but the Kremlin said the process would take time and the US president indicated he was not ready to join Europe with fresh sanctions to pressure Moscow.
European leaders decided to increase pressure on Russia through sanctions after Trump briefed them on his call with the Russian leader, who appears unwilling to significantly budge from his maximalist positions.
Putin has only said that Moscow would work with Kyiv to craft a “memorandum” on a “possible future peace”. He has declined to support the US-proposed 30-day unconditional ceasefire, which Ukraine had already agreed to.
Ukrainian interior ministerIhor Klymenkoconfirmed 12 people had been killed and 60 more injured in the huge overnight Russian drone and missile attack.
Other death tolls given separately by regional authorities and rescuers had put the number of people killed at 13. We have not been able to independently verify either casualty figure.
“This was a combined, ruthless strike aimed at civilians. The enemy once again showed that its goal is fear and death,” Klymenko wrote on Telegram.
At least 11 people have been reported injured in Kyiv, with the drone attacks sparking multiple fires and damage to residential buildings, including a dormitory.
Residents were pictured taking refuge in subway stations to stay safe from the explosions.
The attack coincided with Kyiv Day, an annual city holiday usually celebrated on the last Sunday in May.
At least 12 people have been killed and dozens others injured after Russian forces launched the biggest overnight drone and missile attack acrossUkrainesince the start of Moscow’s full-scale invasion in 2022, officials said.
Three children – aged 8, 12 and 17 years old – were killed inZhytomyr, west of Kyiv, four people in theKyivregion were killed,one inMykolaivin the south, and four in theKhmelnytskyiregion, according to officials and reports.
The Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, was a particular focus of the drone strikes. The city’s mayor Vitali Klitschko said it was “under attack” but reassured people that the “air defences are operating” as they should.
Ukraine’s air force said on Sunday thatRussiaattacked the country with 298 drones and 69 missiles overnight, one of the largest aerial attacks since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. It said it downed 45 missiles and 266 drones.
It was “the most massive strike in terms of the number of air attack weapons on the territory of Ukraine since the beginning of the full-scale invasion in 2022,” Yuriy Ihnat, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s air force, told the Associated Press. The overnight strike was the largest attack of the war in terms of weapons fired, although other strikes have killed more people.
Russian air defences, meanwhile, intercepted 110 Ukrainian drones overnight, including 13 over theMoscowandTverregions, the country’s defence ministry said. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
In Moscow, restrictions were imposed on at least four airports, including the main hub Sheremetyevo, the Russian civilian aviation authority said.
A day earlier, Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 14 ballistic missiles and 250 attack drones on Kyiv, injuring 15 peoplein one of the biggest assaults on the Ukrainian capitalsince the beginning of the war more than three years ago.
Ukraine’s president,Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said the attacks indicated Moscow was “prolonging the war … Only additional sanctions against key sectors of the Russian economy will force Moscow to agree to a ceasefire.”
As my colleague Peter Beaumontnotes in this story, the air raids came as Russia and Ukraine exchanged hundreds more prisoners on Saturday in acontinuing major swapthat amounted to a rare moment of cooperation amid otherwise failed efforts to reach a ceasefire.