Russian weapons slammed four Ukrainian cities overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday, and injured at least 15 people in the attack, officials said, targeting energy infrastructure.
Before the September 2 deadline set by U.S. President Donald Trump for the Kremlin, the latest Russian bombing of aerospace in civilian areas is the deadline for reaching a peace deal in the Three Years’ War, under threat of serious sanctions that Washington may not have.
The third round of direct peace negotiations between the delegations of Russia and Ukraine has not yet been publicly determined. Except for prisoner swaps, no progress was made in the first two rounds.
The Ukrainian Air Force said Russia fired 400 Shahed and bait drones and a ballistic missile at night. The strikes targeted the northeast of Kharkif, Ukraine’s second largest city, Kryvyi Rih in central Ukraine, Vinnytsia in the west and Odesa in the south.
“Russia will not change its strategy,” Zelensky said. “To effectively deal with this terror, we need to systematically strengthen our defenses: more air defenses, more interceptors and more determination so that Russia can feel our reaction.”
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Trump pledged on Monday to provide Ukraine with more weapons, including important Patriot air defense systems, and threatened additional sanctions against Russia. Trump’s toughest stance on Russian President Vladimir Putin since returning to the White House six months ago.
But some U.S. lawmakers and European government officials handed Putin a chance to occupy more Ukrainian territory before ending the battle.
Putin’s other last messages in recent months have been entirely convincing Russian leaders to stop him from invading neighboring Ukraine. Thousands of soldiers have been killed in the war, many of whom have been killed along the front lines of more than 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) and attacks in Russian cities have killed more than 12,000 Ukrainian civilians.
“Putin has a victory theory that Russia can achieve its war goals by making huge gains indefinitely on the battlefield and surpasses Western support for the West’s ability to defend Ukraine and Ukraine,” the War Institute of Washington’s think tank said on Tuesday.
Trump said the United States is providing other weapons to Ukraine, but European countries are paying for it. Despite months of hesitation, Ukrainian and European officials were relieved of the U.S. commitment, but some hoped that Washington would cover some of the costs.
“We welcome President Trump’s announcement of sending more weapons to Ukraine, although we want to see the burden on the United States,” said Kaja Kallas, head of foreign policy at the EU, on Tuesday. “If we pay for these weapons, that’s our support.”
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