KYIV -- Russia launched hundreds of drones and more than two dozen missiles in a massive attack on Ukraine overnight, killing at least two people, including one in the capital, Kyiv, which came under fire a day after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy proposed holding a fresh round of peace talks.
Over the weekend, Zelenskyy offered to hold new peace talks with Moscow this week, as international partners prepared to send more weapons to Ukraine through NATO, following an agreement with US President Donald Trump
The Ukrainian Air Force said Russia fired 426 Shahed-type drones, five Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, and 19 cruise missiles at various locations around Kyiv and other parts of the country. Just under half of the drones and all but one of the missiles were destroyed or jammed, it added.
"Rescue and emergency efforts are underway in our cities and communities," Zelenskyy said.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko confirmed that one person was killed in the Ukrainian capital, and two were wounded in the overnight attack.
"In the Darnytskiy district, one person was hospitalized. [...] In the Shevchenkivskiy district, where fire gutted two floors of a residential high-rise apartment building, one person required medical assistance at the site, " Klitschko said.
The attack also destroyed the entrance of the Lukyanivska subway station in Kyiv, which has been used as a shelter during air attacks. The station had to be closed.
A Kyiv Subway Station Was Just Damaged By Russian Strikes -- For The Sixth Time
In the western city of Ivano-Frankivsk, Mayor Ruslan Martsinkiv called the attack the largest on the city since the beginning of Russia's the full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Despite mounting evidence to the contrary, Russia claims it is not targeting civilian infrastructure with its air strikes.
Ukrainian authorities and international agencies, such as the United Nations and the European Union, have accused Russia of intentionally targeting civilians, in what they say amounts to war crimes.
Two rounds of direct peace talks between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul in May and early June secured large-scale prisoner swaps and deals to return the bodies of slain soldiers.
But they made no breakthrough in achieving a cease-fire to potentially end the military conflict that began with Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor in February 2022.
US President Donald Trump, voicing frustration over the lack of progress, gave Moscow a 50-day deadline last week to agree to a cease-fire or face tougher sanctions.
Zelenskyy said Rustem Umerov, the newly appointed head of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, had sent Moscow the offer to hold the meeting in the coming week, but did not provide further details.
The Kremlin said it welcomes new talks, but that the "most important thing for us is to achieve our goals. Our goals are clear, obvious, they have not changed."
It also has insisted that any peace agreement sees Ukraine cede control and withdraw from four regions that Russia illegally annexed in September 2022, but never fully captured.
Kyiv must also renounce its bid to join NATO and accept strict limits on its armed forces -- demands Ukraine and its Western allies have flatly rejected.
