A Russian overnight barrage on Ukraine killed six people in and around the capital Kyiv and triggered power cuts across the country, Ukrainian authorities said Wednesday.
The attack comes a day after efforts to settle the nearly four-year war hit another roadblock, after a planned presidential meeting between US leader Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin was cancelled.
“Another night proving that Russia does not feel enough pressure for dragging out the war,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on social media following the attack.
“As of now, 17 people are known to have been injured. Unfortunately, six people were killed, among them two children,” he added.
AFP journalists in Kyiv heard multiple explosions during the night and saw a pillar of smoke rising above the capital.
The strikes also targeted the country’s energy infrastructure, leaving thousands without heating and electricity across Ukraine in the cold season, according to the energy ministry.
“Due to a massive missile and drone attack on the energy infrastructure, emergency power outages have been introduced in most regions of Ukraine,” it said in a statement.
Russia said it had intercepted 33 Ukrainian drones overnight without reporting any substantial damage.
– Trump swings again –
Trump had said he would meet Putin for peace talks in the Hungarian capital Budapest within two weeks, following what he called a productive phone call to end Russia’s war.
But on Tuesday he shelved those plans, saying he did not want a “wasted” meeting.
The US leader had earlier pressured Zelensky to give up the eastern Donbas region at talks in the White House on Friday, a senior Ukrainian official told AFP.
Ukraine has repeatedly rejected calls to give up land.
European allies have also rallied behind Ukraine, rejecting the idea of Kyiv giving up territory and instead proposing fighting should be frozen on the current front lines.
In a statement following the overnight attack, Zelensky said “Russian words about diplomacy mean nothing as long as the Russian leadership does not feel critical problems.”
Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, describing it as a “special military operation” to demilitarise the country and prevent the expansion of NATO.
Kyiv and its European allies say the war is an illegal land grab that has resulted in tens of thousands of civilian and military casualties and widespread destruction.
Russia now occupies around a fifth of Ukrainian territory — much of it ravaged by fighting — while tens of thousands of civilians and soldiers have been killed.
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