3 days ago
Russian strike kills 5 in Ukraine, including a 1-year-old, hours after Trump-Putin call
The attack came just hours after U.S. President Donald Trump
U.S.-led diplomatic efforts to stop the more than 3-year-long war have delivered no significant progress, and the grinding war of attrition has continued unabated.
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Child's mother feared drone attacks
The mother of the 1-year-old killed in Pryluky was a police officer called Daryna Shyhyda, Ukraine's National Police said.
'Today our hearts are scorched by pain,' the police force wrote on Telegram. 'This is not just a loss — it is three generations of life uprooted.'
Liudmyla Horbunova, 55, who lives across the street from where the Shahed drone hit, said Shyhyda had moved with her son last weekend to her parents' house from her home in Kyiv because she was scared of potential Russian attacks on the capital.
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'She ran away from Shaheds in Kyiv, but they found her here, in Pryluky,' Horbunova told The Associated Press.
Firefighters worked through charred debris and extinguished the remains of a fire that engulfed the home of Shyhyda's parents, leaving only a brick carcass and scattered toys, clothes and a family photo book.
This photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service shows the fire following Russia's drone attack in the Pryluky on Thursday.
Uncredited/Associated Press
Drones struck across regions
Pryluky, which had a prewar population of around 50,000 people, lies about 100 kilometers (60 miles) east of Kyiv, the capital. The city is far from the front line and does not contain any known military assets.
The last time Pryluky was struck was in November last year, when a Russian missile hit an administrative building and injured one person.
Zelenskyy said a total of 103 drones and one ballistic missile targeted multiple Ukrainian regions overnight, including Donetsk, Kharkiv, Odesa, Sumy, Chernihiv, Dnipro and Kherson.
'This is another massive strike,' Zelenskyy said. 'It is yet another reason to impose the strongest possible sanctions and apply pressure collectively.'
US peace effort remains stalled
Zelenskyy, who has accepted a U.S. ceasefire proposal and offered to meet with Putin in an attempt to break the stalemate in negotiations, wants more international sanctions on Russia to force it to accept a settlement. Putin has shown no willingness to meet with Zelenskyy, however, and has indicated no readiness to compromise.
Germany's new leader Friedrich Merz was due to meet with President Trump in Washington on Thursday as he works to keep the U.S. on board with Western diplomatic and military support for Ukraine.
Ukraine's top presidential aide, Andriy Yermak, met with senior American officials in Washington on Wednesday and called for greater U.S. pressure on Russia, accusing the Kremlin of deliberately stalling ceasefire talks and blocking progress toward peace, according to a statement on the presidential website.
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Yermak, who traveled to the U.S. as part of a Ukrainian delegation, met with senior American officials to bolster support for Ukraine's defense and humanitarian priorities. He said Ukraine urgently needs stronger air defense capabilities.
More people wounded in Kharkiv
Hours later, 19 people were injured in a Russian drone strike on the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. Those hurt included children, a pregnant woman, and a 93-year-old woman, regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov wrote on Telegram.
At around 1:05 a.m., Shahed-type drones struck two apartment buildings in the city's Slobidskyi district, causing fires and destroying several private vehicles.
'By launching attacks while people sleep in their homes, the enemy once again confirms its tactic of insidious terror,' Syniehubov wrote on Telegram.
Russian aircraft also dropped four powerful glide bombs on the southern city of Kherson, injuring at least three people, regional authorities said.
Russia reports another rail explosion
In Russia, an explosion damaged a railway line Thursday in the Voronezh region bordering Ukraine, Russia's Federal Security Service said, as cited by state news agencies.
The damage forced 26 trains to stop running, Russian rail operators said.
The incident came after Putin described recent attacks on Russian railway infrastructure as 'terrorist acts' by Ukrainian saboteurs.
Hanna Arhirova and Illia Noviko in Kyiv, Ukraine and Katie Marie Davies in Manchester, England contributed.
