Ukraine and Russia have promised fresh assaults after Moscow launched a huge barrage on Kyiv, killing at least 27 people, tearing open apartment buildings and sending tens of thousands of people to shelters. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Thursday his forces would “definitely” retaliate for the overnight pummelling of the capital as he inspected the site of an apartment block partially destroyed in the attack. In Moscow, the Kremlin vowed to further ramp up the “pressure” on Kyiv as rescuers scoured the rubble for survivors. Mayor Vitali Klitschko described it as the “enemy’s most massive attack on the capital”.
Zelenskyy urged allies to send more air defences and asked the US for licences to manufacture Patriot air defence missiles. “Air defence supplies for Ukraine are an absolute and critical priority,” he said on Facebook. The EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, said she would propose new sanctions on Moscow over the attack, while UN chief António Guterres reiterated his call for a ceasefire.
Donald Trump “wants this war settled so the senseless killing ends”, a US official said in Washington after the Kyiv barrage. The president “remains optimistic that we’ll ultimately get a peace deal done”, the official said. US efforts to broker a ceasefire have so far failed. Zelenskyy called on Ukraine’s allies to discuss speeding up air-defence aid at the Nato summit in Ankara next week, which Trump will attend, and has said he hopes to have a meeting with the president on the summit sidelines.
