At least four people were killed when Russia launched a massive drone assault and airstrikes across Ukraine, according to officials a day after Donald Trump questioned Russian President Vladimir Putin’s willingness to put an end to the conflict.
Russia dropped three glide bombs on the city on Sunday, according to a post from the Donetsk regional prosecutor’s office on Facebook. They were located about 10 kilometers (6 miles) away from the front line. Over the past year, Russian forces have gotten closer to it.
According to the post, a couple, 47 and 48, were killed, as was a 78-year-old pensioner, and 21 homes were ruined. A single-story house that had been destroyed as well as a burned-out car were captured in images taken at the scene.
A drone attack on the Dnipropetrovsk region’s Pavlohrad city, which was hit for the third night in a row, claimed the death of another person and injured a 14-year-old girl.
According to the Ukrainian air force, Russia also fired 149 exploding drones and decoys during the most recent wave of attacks, with 57 intercepted and 67 blocked.
In the city of Zhytomyr, drone attacks on the Odesa region left one person dead, and another left another injured. According to local officials, an air attack in Kherson city on Sunday morning left four people injured.
Following Putin’s claim that Russian forces had regained control of the area’s remaining areas, which Ukrainian forces had taken control of in an unexpected incursion in August, the attacks occurred just hours after. Officials in Ukraine resisted Kursk’s continued fighting.
US criticizes peace efforts
Trump expressed doubts about the potential conclusion of a peace deal on Saturday, saying that he doubts Putin wants to end the more than three-year conflict in Ukraine. Trump had previously stated that Ukraine and Russia were “very close to a deal.”
Trump frequently boasted that he could bring the world to an end in 24 hours during the campaign, but the reality has turned out to be more challenging.
As he flew back to the US after attending Pope Francis’ funeral at the Vatican, where he briefly met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday, Trump wrote in a social media post that “there was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities, and towns.” Trump also made hints about putting additional sanctions on Russia.
The leaders’ first direct encounter since their heated exchange at the White House in late February was during the Trump-Zelenskyy summit on the sidelines of the pope’s funeral.
In Saint Peter’s Basilica, the two leaders sat next to one another without any aides, and they reportedly sat there for about 15 minutes, according to Zelenskyy’s office, in addition to the photos that Kyiv and Washington released of the meeting.
Zelenskyy predicted the meeting would be historic if it brought about the peace he desired, and a White House spokesman called it “very productive.”
A peace deal needs to be reached soon, according to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Washington is weighing whether serving as a mediator is worthwhile.
If this endeavor is going to fail, Rubio said on NBC’s Meet the Press program, “We cannot continue to devote our time and resources to it.”
“The last week has really been about figuring out how close these sides really are, and how close enough that this merits a continued time spent working as a mediator,” he continued.
suspect in a car bombing attack
Russian prosecutors charged a man with killing a senior Russian military officer in a separate incident on Sunday, according to the Interfax news agency.
Yaroslav Moskalik, 59, was the latest of a number of Russian military officers and pro-war figures to have been killed since the start of the Ukrainian conflict, according to the Kremlin.
Ukraine has not made any comments on the incident.
Ignat Kuzin, who used to reside in Ukraine, admitted to killing Moskalik and claimed he was recruited and paid by Ukraine’s security services, according to Interfax, citing Russia’s Investigative Committee.
Just before Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff was scheduled to meet with Putin in Moscow, Moskalik, who was the deputy head of Russia’s General Staff’s main operations division, died on Friday in the town of Balashikha.
Source: Aljazeera
Leave a Reply