At least 10 civilians were killed and dozens injured in attacks on Ukraine on Monday, in what Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy called a Russian attempt to “humiliate diplomatic efforts” before his talks with US and European leaders at the White House.
Seven people were killed and more than 20 hurt when explosive-laden drones hit an apartment block in the eastern city of Kharkiv, and at least three people died and 24 were wounded in a ballistic missile strike on the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia.
A couple, their 16-year-old son and 18-month-old daughter were killed when Geran drones – the Russian-made version of Iranian Shahed drones that Tehran supplies to Moscow by the thousand – struck their flat in Kharkiv. Two women were also pulled dead from the rubble, one of whom is believed to have been the children’s grandmother.
“Five [Gerans] struck this residential building from different sides at dawn ... An entire family died in an apartment on the fifth floor,” said Serhiy Bolvinov, head of the investigative department of the Kharkiv police.
RM Block
“Unfortunately, we have become accustomed to war, accustomed to treacherous enemy attacks,” he added. “But after attacks like today’s, words fail us. They deliberately destroy ordinary residential high-rise buildings ... where people simply had no chance of survival.”
Alina Tymoshevska, a neighbour of the family that was killed, told Ukraine’s NV news outlet: “I knew this child, I knew the whole family. The child always walked under my windows – she had only just started to walk. This is terrible ... There was nothing connected to the military here.”
Kharkiv is about 35km from the Russia border, and Zaporizhzhia, 300km to the south, is a similar distance from the front line. Both are now regarded as fortress cities, home to long-term residents and Ukrainians displaced from occupied territory, and they have repelled all Russian attempts to overrun them during 3½ years of full-scale war.
“Three people have been killed, many of the injured are in a serious condition. Right now, doctors are fighting for their lives – these are the results of the enemy attack on Zaporizhzhia,” said regional governor Ivan Fedorov.
The attacks took place as Mr Zelenskiy prepared to meet Donald Trump to discuss the US president’s recent summit with Russian president Vladimir Putin. Several European leaders were also travelling to the White House for talks with Mr Zelenskiy and Mr Trump.
“This was a demonstrative and cynical Russian strike. They are aware that a meeting is taking place today in Washington that will address the end of the war,” Mr Zelenskiy said of Monday’s attacks by Moscow’s military.
“Putin will commit demonstrative killings to maintain pressure on Ukraine and Europe, as well as to humiliate diplomatic efforts. That is precisely why we are seeking assistance to put an end to the killings,” he added.
“That is why reliable security guarantees are required. That is why Russia should not be rewarded for its participation in this war. The war must be ended. And it is Moscow that must hear the word: ‘Stop.’”
Mr Putin reportedly told Mr Trump that he would agree to freeze the front line in the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions if Ukraine withdrew all its troops from the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. However, the 30 per cent or so of the Donetsk region that Kyiv still holds includes cities that are vital for the defence of the wider area.
Ukrainian officials and military analysts say a recent breakthrough by small groups of Russian troops near the mining town of Dobropillia in the Donetsk region has been halted, and Kyiv’s forces claim to have retaken several villages in the area.
