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Russian air strikes targeting Kyiv overnight killed at least nine people and injured more than 70 others, in the deadliest and largest bombardment of the Ukrainian capital in months, authorities have said.
Ukraine’s state emergency service said 42 people were hospitalised, including six children, after ballistic missiles and drones struck apartment buildings in Kyiv, home to nearly 4mn residents.
Strikes also hit several other cities across seven regions in the country.
Ukrainian foreign minister Andriy Sybiha said on Thursday morning that the Russian attack, along with Moscow’s maximalist demands for Ukraine to withdraw forces from its own regions, “show that Russia, not Ukraine, is the obstacle to peace”.
“Moscow, not Kyiv, is where pressure should be applied,” Sybiha said in a post on X.
Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv city military administration, wrote on his Telegram channel on Thursday that the Russian missiles and drones had caused massive destruction and sparked fires in several residential buildings.
The attacks came a day after President Donald Trump admonished Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for refusing to make concessions to secure peace and go along with a proposal for the US to recognise Russia’s occupation of Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula that Moscow annexed in 2014.
“He can have Peace, or, he can fight for another three years before losing the whole Country,” Trump said of Zelenskyy in a post on Truth Social on Wednesday. “We are very close to a Deal, but the man with ‘no cards to play’ should now, finally, GET IT DONE,” he added, describing the situation for Ukraine as “dire”.
Later on Wednesday Trump again aired his frustration with Zelenskyy, telling reporters in the Oval Office in Washington that he “thought it might be easier to deal” with him than with Russian President Vladimir Putin but “so far, it’s been harder”.
Russia’s attack began after midnight in Kyiv while Trump was speaking.
Trump’s comments came shortly after vice-president JD Vance cautioned that the White House might abandon its own peace negotiations if talks with Kyiv and Moscow failed to move forward.
Zelenskyy said afterwards in a statement that emotions had “run high” on Wednesday, but he was hopeful that work with the US and other partners “will lead to lasting peace”.
He added that Ukraine would “always act in accordance with its Constitution”, a reference to Crimea’s place as part of Ukraine being enshrined in the country’s laws.
Zelenskyy included in his statement a screen grab of the Trump administration’s 2018 “Crimea declaration”, made by then secretary of state Mike Pompeo, calling the Black Sea peninsula a “territory seized by force in contravention of international law”.
The declaration included the clause: “The United States rejects Russia’s attempted annexation of Crimea and pledges to maintain this policy until Ukraine’s territorial integrity is restored.”
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