“This was a combined, ruthless strike aimed at civilians. The enemy once again showed that its goal is fear and death,” he wrote on Telegram.
US Special Envoy to Ukraine Keith Kellogg said the attack was “a clear violation” of the 1977 Geneva Peace Protocols and called for an immediate ceasefire.
Viktor Kryvolapchuk embraces is daughter Milana, 8, alongside his wife, Iryna, after spending 22 months in Russian captivity.Credit: Getty Images
Ceasefire efforts
Ukraine and its European allies have sought to push Moscow into signing a 30-day ceasefire as a first step to negotiating an end to the three-year war.
Their efforts suffered a blow earlier this week when Trump declined to place further sanctions on Moscow.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia had launched 298 drones and 69 missiles in its latest assault, although it said it was able to down 266 drones and 45 missiles.
Women put flowers by the rubble of a destroyed house where three children were killed by a Russian strike in Korostyshiv, Zhytomyr region, on Sunday.Credit: AP
Damage extended to a string of regional centres, including Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, as well as Mykolaiv in the south and Ternopil in the west.
In Kyiv, Tymur Tkachenko, the head of the city’s military administration, said 11 people were injured in drone strikes. No deaths were reported in the capital, although four were killed in the region around the city, according to officials.
In north-eastern Ukraine, Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said drones had hit three city districts and injured three people. Blasts shattered windows in high-rise apartment blocks.
Drone strikes killed a 77-year-old man and injured five people in the southern city of Mykolaiv, the regional governor said. He published a picture of a residential apartment block with a large hole from an explosion and rubble scattered over the ground.
Russian servicemen make their way home after being released from captivity in Ukraine.Credit: Russian Defence Ministry/AP
In the western region of Khmelnytskyi, many hundreds of kilometres away from the frontlines, four people were killed and five others wounded, according to the governor.
“Without pressure, nothing will change and Russia and its allies will only build up forces for such murders in Western countries,” the Ukrainian president’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak wrote on Telegram.
“Moscow will fight as long as it has the ability to produce weapons.”
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Russia’s Defence Ministry reported that its air defence units had intercepted or destroyed 95 Ukrainian drones over a four-hour period. The Mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin, said 12 Ukrainian drones had been intercepted on their way to the capital.
Reuters
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