Zelensky calls for more pressure on Russia after deadly Kyiv missile strike

Arab News

5 hours ago

'This attack is a reminder to the world that Russia rejects a ceasefire and chooses killing,' Zelensky wrote on TelegramHe thanked Ukraine's partners who he said are ready to pressure Russia to 'feel the real cost of the war'KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday said a Russian missile strike on a nine-story Kyiv apartment building was a sign that more pressure must be applied on Moscow to agree to a ceasefire, as Moscow intensifies attacks in the three-year war.The drone and missile attack on Kyiv early on Tuesday, the deadliest assault on the capital this year, killed 28 people across the city and injured 142 more, Kyiv Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said on Thursday.Zelensky, along with the head of the presidential office Andrii Yermak and Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko, visited the site of the apartment building in Kyiv's Solomianskyi district Thursday morning, laying flowers and paying tribute to the 23 people who died there after a direct hit by a missile collapsed the structure.'This attack is a reminder to the world that Russia rejects a ceasefire and chooses killing,' Zelensky wrote on Telegram, and thanked Ukraine's partners who he said are ready to pressure Russia to 'feel the real cost of the war.'Intensifying attacksTuesday's attack on Kyiv was part of a sweeping barrage as Russia once again sought to overwhelm Ukrainian air defenses. Russia fired more than 440 drones and 32 missiles in what Zelensky called one of the biggest bombardments of the war, now in its fourth year.As Russia proceeds with a summer offensive on parts of the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line, US-led peace efforts have failed to gain traction. Russian President Vladimir Putin has effectively rejected an offer from US President Donald Trump for an immediate 30-day ceasefire, making it conditional on a halt on Ukraine's mobilization effort and a freeze on Western arms supplies.Meanwhile, Middle East tensions and US trade tariffs have drawn world attention away from Ukraine's pleas for more diplomatic and economic pressure to be placed on Moscow.Russia in recent weeks has intensified long-range attacks that have struck urban residential areas. Yet on Wednesday, Putin denied that his military had struck such targets, saying that attacks were 'against military industries, not residential quarters.'Speaking to senior news leaders of international news agencies in St. Petersburg, Putin said he was open to talks with Zelensky, but repeated his claim that the Ukrainian leader had lost his legitimacy after his term expired last year — allegations rejected by Kyiv and its allies.'We are ready for substantive talks on the principles of a settlement,' Putin said, noting that a previous round of talks in Istanbul had led to an exchange of prisoners and the bodies of fallen soldiers.