Both sides vow to escalate fighting after Russia’s deadly Kyiv barrage
Russia’s missile attack on Kyiv killed at least 27 people, and Ukrainian President Zelenskyy has promised retaliation. The Kremlin vows to increase pressure, while the West calls for more air defense.
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.
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. A US official said in Washington after the Kyiv barrage that Donald Trump “wants this war settled so the senseless killing ends”. 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.
A Ukrainian publishing house said it had lost around 800,000 books when a warehouse was destroyed in Russia’s strike on Kyiv. Russian attacks on Thursday killed three people in different regions of eastern Ukraine, including a seven-year-old child. Separately, a suspect has been identified in the investigation into a parcel bombing that seriously wounded a Ukraine-born multimillionaire in Monaco, with an arrest warrant and Interpol red notice issued.
