Ukraine urges ‘action' from allies as Russian attacks mount
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called on Western allies to take 'concrete action' after Russia unleashed another barrage of drone and missile strikes.
The strikes launched early on Tuesday hit targets across the country, including Kyiv. It was the latest in a series of large-scale bombardments by Russian forces and spurred Zelenskyy to try once again to note to United States President Donald Trump that Moscow is not interested in a ceasefire.
Two people were killed and nine injured in the southern port city of Odesa, where a maternity hospital and residential buildings were struck. Four people were injured in the attack on Kyiv – one of the largest on the Ukrainian capital so far – while the Dnipro and Chernihiv regions were also targeted, Ukrainian officials said.
'Russian missile and Shahed strikes drown out the efforts of the United States and others around the world to force Russia into peace,' Zelenskyy said in a social media post.'It is vital that the response to this and other similar Russian attacks is not silence from the world, but concrete action,' he said.
'Action from America, which has the power to force Russia into peace. Action from Europe, which has no alternative but to be strong. Action from others around the world who called for diplomacy and an end to the war – and whom Russia has ignored.'
Russia used 315 drones and seven missiles, two of them North Korean-made, in the latest wave of attacks, he said. An attack the previous night was reported as the biggest overnight drone bombardment of the more than three-year war.
The increased bombardment comes after Ukraine knocked out a large number of planes in Russia's strategic bomber fleet in an audacious operation this month codenamed Spiderweb.
Russian President Vladimir Putin promised revenge shortly before the intensified wave of air strikes began.
Zelenskyy's plea for action from the US comes as Trump appears to have stepped back somewhat from his push to broker a ceasefire.
While Russia and Ukraine have met for negotiations and have continued to exchange prisoners, there has been no pullback on the battlefield.
Zelenskyy and Ukraine's European allies have been seeking to persuade the US president, who has often appeared to side with Putin in discussing the conditions surrounding a potential truce, that the Russian leader is not serious about finding a peaceful solution to the conflict, which began with Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The Ukrainian president continues to try to persuade Trump that the US must press Russia into taking ceasefire efforts seriously.
'There must be strong pressure for the sake of peace,' Zelenskyy said.
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