Condemnation after Kyiv bears brunt of massive Russian attack wave; warning over military drones too close to Ukrainian nuclear plants. What we know on day 1,542
Russia’s heavy bombardment of Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, showed Moscow was “banking on escalation rather than negotiation”, Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor, said on Thursday. Peter Beaumont writes that Kyiv bore the brunt of the day’s almost continuous heavy attacks on Ukraine. Emergency services said at least 16 people, including two children, were killed in the capital. The mayor, Vitali Klitschko, declared Friday a day of mourning.
Russia had launched 1,567 drones since the start of Wednesday, said the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. At least 22 civilians were killed over Wednesday and Thursday, officials said. It comes after Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, said on Saturday that the war was “coming to an end”. Zelenskyy said on Thursday: “These are definitely not the actions of those who believe the war is coming to an end.”
“Kyiv and its partners are ready for negotiations aimed at a just peace,” said Merz, the German chancellor. “Russia, for its part, is continuing the war.” While Ukraine and Europe “want to help end this terrible war as quickly as possible”, the Russian attacks “speak a different language” to that of Putin’s suggestions the war could be nearing an end. In what sounded like a very pointed rejection of Vladimir Putin’s suggestion that a former German chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, could act as a mediator between Russia and Europe, Merz said: “We Europeans decide for ourselves who speaks for us. No one else.”
