Zelensky says strike, second-largest attack since February 2022, was Moscow\u2019s answer to efforts to end war
\n KYIV
\nUS President Donald Trump has said that he was \u201cnot surprised\u201d after Russia rained down missiles and drones on Kyiv, killing at least 21 people in the Ukrainian capital early on Thursday.
\nThe deadly strikes came as the US president continues to push for peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv, even as the war grinds on.
\nWhite House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump \u201cwas not happy about this news, but he was also not surprised,\u201d given that the two countries had been at war for a long time.
\nUkraine\u2019s President Volodymyr Zelensky said the strike, the second-largest attack since Russia launched a full-scale invasion in February 2022, was Moscow\u2019s answer to diplomatic efforts to end its war.
\nUS special envoy Keith Kellogg commented on X: \u201cThe targets? Not soldiers and weapons but residential areas in Kyiv \u2013 blasting civilian trains, the EU & British mission council offices, and innocent civilians.\u201d
\nThe European Union and Britain summoned Russian envoys to protest. There were no reports of casualties at either site.
\nZelensky said the strikes also damaged a Turkish enterprise and the Azerbaijan embassy.
\nLeavitt told a regular briefing that Trump would have more to say about the situation later.
\nLeavitt said the Russian attacks had been deadly and that Ukrainian attacks had done significant damage in August to Russian oil refineries.
\n\u201cPerhaps both sides of this war are not ready to end it themselves,\u201d she said.
\n\u201cThe president wants it to end but the leaders of these two countries need it to end and want it to end.\u201d
\nThe strikes took place less than two weeks after Trump hosted Russian President Vladimir Putin at a summit in Alaska, a meeting the US president hoped would advance his peace efforts.
\n\u201cRussia chooses ballistics instead of the negotiating table,\u201d Zelensky said on X, calling for new sanctions on Russia. \u201cIt chooses to continue killing instead of ending the war.\u201d
\nRussia said its attack had hit military industrial facilities and air bases, and that Ukraine had attacked Russian targets. The Kremlin said it was still interested in pursuing peace talks.
\nMoscow has regularly denied targeting civilians. Ukrainian officials say scores of civilians have died in Russian strikes on densely populated areas in recent months, and thousands since the start of the war.
\nDuring the attack on Kyiv, explosions rang out as clouds of smoke rose into the night sky. Drones whirred overhead.
\nMayor Vitali Klitschko described it as one of the biggest attacks on the city in recent months. At least 63 people were wounded in the hours-long assault, which damaged buildings in all city districts, officials said.
\nAcross the country, Ukraine\u2019s military said Russian attacks struck 13 locations. National grid operator Ukrenergo said energy facilities were hit, causing power cuts.
\nA push by Ukraine and its allies to end the invasion has yielded little, despite Trump\u2019s meetings this month with Putin, then Zelensky.
\nRussia has stepped up air strikes on Ukrainian towns and cities far behind the front lines and pushed a grinding offensive across much of the east in an effort to pressure Ukraine into giving up territory.
\n\u2018Another grim reminder\u2019
\n\u201cThis is another grim reminder of what is at stake. It shows that the Kremlin will stop at nothing to terrorise Ukraine, blindly killing civilians and even targeting the European Union,\u201d EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told reporters in Brussels.
\nShe said two missiles had struck near the EU office within 20 seconds of each other.
\nEU countries would soon come up with a 19th package of sanctions against Russia and were advancing work on how to use frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine, she added.
\n\u201cWe discussed our diplomatic efforts to stop the killings, to end this unprovoked Russian aggression, and to guarantee real security for our people,\u201d Zelensky wrote on X after talks with von der Leyen.
\nZelensky also said that he had discussed security guarantees for Ukraine with Turkey\u2019s President Tayyip Erdogan and they would be set out on paper next week.
\nBritish Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned the assault, which he said had damaged the British Council building. \u201cPutin is killing children and civilians and sabotaging hopes of peace,\u201d he wrote on X.
\nUkraine\u2019s military said air defences downed 563 of nearly 600 drones and 26 of 31 missiles launched by Russia across the country.
\nRussia\u2019s Defence Ministry said Russian air defences destroyed 102 Ukrainian drones overnight in at least seven regions.
\nUkraine\u2019s drone force said it had struck the Afipsky and Kuybyshevskyi oil refineries as part of that attack.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Zelensky says strike, second-largest attack since February 2022, was Moscow\u2019s answer to efforts to end war KYIV US President Donald Trump has said that he was \u201cnot surprised\u201d after Russia rained down missiles and drones on Kyiv, killing at least 21 people in the Ukrainian capital early on Thursday. The deadly strikes came as the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":499932,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-499905","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n