Cnn
–
Russia launched a wave of fatal attacks against kyiv early Thursday, a few hours after US President Donald Trump accused his Ukrainian counterpart of harming peace talks in a new tirade against Volodymyr Zelensky.
Russia has launched 70 missiles and 145 drones to Ukraine, mainly targeting the capital, said Ukraine Air Force.
At least nine people were killed and more than 70 injured during attacks, which, depending on the emergency services, hit 13 locations in kyiv, including residential buildings and civil infrastructure.
Following attacks, Zelensky announced that he had interrupted his visit to South Africa, where he landed late Wednesday, to return to Ukraine.
“It is extremely important that everyone in the world sees and understands what is really going on,” he said, adding that Ukraine would immediately contact its international partners concerning its requests for strengthening air defenses.
“Strikes must be stopped immediately and unconditionally,” said Zelensky.
CNN producers in Kyiv heard aerial raid sirens exploding the city for about six hours in the early hours of Thursday. The images provided by the emergency services have shown buildings engulfed in flames on some of the sites struck in the attacks.
Engineers, rescuers and recovery dogs are looking for people who have been trapped under the rubble of a house destroyed by strikes from the Sviatoshyn district, said Ukraine’s interior minister Ihor Klymenko.
“There is information on two children who still cannot be found on the scene,” he said, adding that the situation was “tragic”.
The mayor of the city Vitali Klitschko urged people earlier. The military administration of the city of Kyiv has since disseminated a clear message.
At least 42 people were transported to hospital, including six children, according to Ukraine’s emergency services.
Klymenko said eight regions of the country were targeted in what he called “a massive combined Russian attack” which also struck Zhytomyr, Dnipro, Kharkiv, Poltava, Khmelnytsky, Sumy and Zaporizhzhia.
Five ballistic missiles were one of those who succeeded in the defenses of Ukraine, according to the Air Force.
The Russian attacks struck after Trump and Zelensky were involved in a new public spam, in particular above the future of Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014.
As part of its mission to conclude a peace agreement to put an end to the three -year war, the American administration proposed to recognize Russian Crimea control, said familiar officials with details.
Such a decision would overthrow a decade of American policy and could upset the consensus largely bound by the post-second world war that international borders should not be modified by force.
Zelensky said on several occasions that Ukraine would not accept this, saying that this would go against the constitution of the country.
Trump said on Wednesday that Zelensky’s position was “very harmful to peace negotiations with Russia”.
“These are inflammatory declarations like that of Zelenskyy which makes this war so difficult. He has nothing to boast! ” Trump posted on his social platform Truth.
Trump’s comments occurred a few hours after vice-president JD Vance threatened to abandon negotiations, telling journalists during a visit to India that “very explicit proposal” had been put in Russia and Ukraine and that it was “time to say” yes “, or for the United States.”
Earlier, ministerial talks between Ukraine, the United States, Great Britain, France and Germany aimed at carrying out the work to a cease-fire was demoted to take place among the senior officials, after the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio withdrew.
“Emotions are very high today,” Zelensky told X on Wednesday when the developments of the day launched a new uncertainty about diplomatic efforts to end the war.
The Middle East envoy of the Trump administration, Steve Witkoff, is expected to visit Moscow on Friday for discussions with the Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
