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A huge Russian missile and drone attack on Kyiv and other cities across Ukraine on Wednesday damaged energy and railway infrastructure and killed at least seven people, as US President Donald Trump’s latest peace efforts appeared to unravel.
A young mother and her two small children were among the seven civilians killed, said Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko. One person died in a drone attack on a kindergarten in Kharkiv, where several children were injured, according to Svyrydenko. About two dozen people were injured across the 10 regions targeted.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia had launched 28 ballistic and cruise missiles and 405 drones predominantly aimed at critical infrastructure.
Russia’s missiles and swarms of drones damaged several energy sites, leaving communities without power, heating and water amid cold temperatures, said foreign minister Andriy Sybiha. Emergency power blackouts rippled across the country, according to Ukraine’s energy ministry.
The air strikes came after Trump put on hold a planned summit in Budapest with Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying he did not want it to be a “waste of time”. The two leaders had previously agreed to meet during a phone call last week.
Russia has escalated its aerial assaults on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure ahead of winter, knocking out almost 60 per cent of the gas production capabilities needed to heat the country.
Sybiha said Ukraine urgently needed additional energy resources and funds, mobile generation units, repair equipment and air defence capabilities ahead of winter in order to prevent “a humanitarian crisis in the middle of Europe”. Ukraine’s energy ministry said electricity would be restored “as soon as possible”.
The northern cities of Chernihiv and Sumy, which border Russia, have been pounded especially hard by Russian missiles and drones, and have been without water and electricity for several days.
Donald Trump urged Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to accept Russia’s terms for ending its war in a volatile White House meeting on Friday, warning that Putin had said he would “destroy” Ukraine if it did not concede.
The US president urged Zelenskyy to give up the Donetsk region for a chance at peace, but the Ukrainian leader pushed back. Trump eventually came around to saying he wanted the war to be settled at the current frontline.
Trump’s decision to call off the summit came after US secretary of state Marco Rubio and Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov spoke by phone on Monday. Lavrov rejected Trump’s call for an immediate ceasefire on Tuesday, saying it contradicted understandings reached at the summit with Putin in Alaska in August.
Zelenskyy said Wednesday’s attack proved “that Russia does not feel enough pressure for dragging out the war”. He said his air defence forces and drone interceptor crews “were working all night and into the morning”.
“Ordinary cities have been under fire, primarily our energy infrastructure, but many residential buildings have also been hit,” added Zelenskyy.
He said the Kyiv, Odesa, Chernihiv, Dnipro, Kirovohrad, Poltava, Vinnytsia, Zaporizhzhia, Cherkasy and Sumy regions had come under attack.
A drone buzzed low over Kyiv before diving into a residential area on Wednesday morning. An explosion of flames and smoke rose from the site. A grey haze filled Kyiv’s morning sky as the assault dragged on.
In Izmail, in the south, fires broke out at energy and port infrastructure sites, according to Svyrydenko. In Zaporizhzhia, residential buildings were hit overnight, leaving several people injured.
The attacks came after Ukraine’s military said it had used Franco-British Storm Shadow missiles to hit a Russian chemical plant in the Bryansk region that produces gunpowder and explosives to fuel Moscow’s war machine.
European allies on Tuesday were preparing a peace deal plan that would ensure Trump remains onside in future negotiations with Russia, after mixed signals from him and his willingness to endorse Moscow’s territorial demands.
Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte is expected to present the plan to Trump later on Wednesday at the White House, with allies scheduled to hold a “coalition of the willing” meeting in London on Friday.
After Wednesday’s attack, Zelenskyy called for more pressure from Kyiv’s western allies to be put on Moscow.
“Russian words about diplomacy mean nothing as long as the Russian leadership does not feel critical problems,” he said. “And this can be ensured only through sanctions, long-range capabilities, and co-ordinated diplomacy among all our partners.”
