Russia launches massive aerial assaults on Ukraine, defying Trump's peace calls
Russia attacked with a total of 367 drones and missiles—one of the largest single-night raids of the war, according to the Ukrainian Air Force—in a second consecutive day of pounding strikes that sent civilians running for shelters in the middle of the night. Officials said that children were among those killed by the strikes and that a further 60 were injured and more than 80 residential buildings damaged across the country, even as more than 300 of the missiles and drones were shot down.
President Volodymyr Zelensky called for more economic sanctions against Russia to force it to stop its invasion, which Russian President Vladimir Putin has refused to do despite Trump's entreaties.
'Russia is dragging out this war and is continuing to kill on a daily basis," he said on social media. 'It can't be ignored. The silence of America, the silence of others in the world, only encourages Putin."
The Russian Defense Ministry said its strikes had targeted Ukrainian military-production facilities. The ministry said it had downed 110 Ukrainian attack drones in regions across the west of Russia, including Moscow. Ukrainian officials said that their large-scale drone attacks on Russian targets in recent days have damaged several Russian military-industrial facilities, including a factory that makes parts for ballistic missiles.
The increased ferocity of Russia's assaults comes days after Trump demurred on threats to sanction Russia further if it didn't sign an immediate, 30-day cease-fire. In a two-hour call with Trump last week, Putin refused a truce that Kyiv consented to in March. Trump has publicly insisted that Putin wants peace, but in a call with European leaders this week, conceded that Putin isn't ready for peace, The Wall Street Journal reported, because he believes he is winning.
Zelensky said only pressure on the Kremlin would yield results.
'Resolve is important right now—the resolve of the United States, the resolve of European countries, of all those in the world that want peace," Zelensky said Sunday. 'The world knows all the weak points of the Russian economy. It is possible to stop the war, but only thanks to the necessary pressure on Russia."
Ukraine countered the aerial assault with a combination of missile defense, Western-provided F-16 jet fighters and small drones used to intercept Russian strike drones, an Air Force spokesman said.
Trump last week said that Ukraine and Russia should continue negotiations over a peace deal among themselves—talks that have so far yielded only one tangible result: a three-day exchange of around 1,000 prisoners from each side that concluded Sunday.
Russia has confounded Trump's efforts to end the war, which it launched in February 2022, insisting that its original war goals of a neutered Ukraine under firm Russian influence be met even as its army struggles to advance in its neighbor's east.
Write to James Marson at james.marson@wsj.com
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