Ukrainian emergency workers pulled more bodies from the rubble of destroyed Kyiv apartment buildings hit by Russian missile and drone strikes, as the death toll in the Ukrainian capital rose to 27 people, according to Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko.
Workers with search dogs and heavy construction equipment picked through debris on June 18 looking for more survivors of the attack one day earlier -- one of the largest on Kyiv in years.
More than 150 people in Kyiv and elsewhere were wounded in the June 17 barrage, emergency services said, which also hit Odesa, killing at least two people in the Black Sea port.
Ukrainian officials declared a day of mourning for victims of the attack, which President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called “pure terrorism” and blamed Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
“The whole world, the United States, and Europe must finally respond as a civilized society responds to terrorists," he said. "Putin does this solely because he can afford to continue the war."
Zelenskyy traveled to Canada to join a meeting of the Group of Seven summit, and scheduled talks on the sideline with US President Donald Trump.
The meeting, however, was overshadowed by Trump’s early departure, and leaders failed to produce a strong agreement on the Ukraine conflict. A unnamed Canadian official told reporters that US resistance was to blame.
Trump cited the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran as the reason for his early departure.
Zelenskyy did meet with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and afterward, the UK government announced that in the coming weeks there would be another meeting of the “coalition of the willing” -- a group of countries that have committed to providing military support to Ukraine outside the formal structures of NATO.
Starmer, who has discussed the idea of sending international peacekeepers to Ukraine after a cease-fire is reached, announced a new set of sanctions on Russia, as did Canada.
In Kyiv, an entire nine-story section of an apartment building was razed to the ground by a missile strike during the Russian onslaught, which occurred early in the morning as many residents were sleeping. Windows in adjacent buildings were blown out and hunks of debris littered the street.
Shock In Ukraine As Russian Strikes Collapse Apartments, Hit Multiple Cities
"It's a disaster," one survivor in Kyiv told Current Time, his face and chest flecked with blood.
"There was a first strike.... It threw me into the hallway," he said. "I went to get my mother. She must have been in shock and tried to shut the window. Then there was a second strike. I don’t remember much. I came around and pulled my mother out of the room, thank God, because there was so much smoke and she could have suffocated.”
Russia launched another barrage of drones at Ukrainian targets early June 18, though it was much smaller and less deadly than the previous day’s attack, which also included cruise and ballistic missiles.
Russia has kept up its attacks on Ukraine despite efforts by the United States to broker a peace deal. No visible progress has emerged from two rounds of negotiations in Istanbul in the past month beyond exchanges of prisoners and the remains of the war dead, and a third round has not been scheduled.
Moscow has rejected calls by Kyiv and the West for an unconditional cease-fire, while Ukraine has dismissed Russia's demands as "ultimatums."
The meeting with Trump would have been a chance for Zelenskyy to press the United States to impose new sanctions on Russia. Trump has not committed to hit Moscow with additional punishments and has said he could take action targeting both sides if they can't reach a deal.
Russia claims it does not target civilians, despite ample evidence that it does, and many of the growing number of civilian casualties have been caused by Russian long-range missile and drone attacks.
The confirmed civilian death toll since the start of the full-scale invasion is over 13,000, according to the UN, but officials say the real number is likely higher.
