Russia launched a record number of air attacks on Ukraine overnight and through the morning on July 9 prompting a renewed call from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for "biting" sanctions against Russian oil and other measures to try and bring Moscow to the negotiating table for peace talks.
"It was the highest number of aerial targets in a single day," Zelenskyy said in a post on X , adding that 728 drones and 13 hypersonic Kinzhal and ballistic Iskander-K missiles were involved in the attack.
According to Zelenskyy, more than 300 of the drones launched on Ukraine overnight were Iranian-made Shahed drones.
Ukraine's military said the Russian attacks mainly targeted the western city of Lutsk. City Mayor Ihor Polishchuk said the overnight attacks were the largest even seen by the city.
Damage was also reported in 10 other Ukrainian regions, including Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Dnipropetrovsk.
"This is a telling attack -- and it comes precisely at a time when so many efforts have been made to achieve peace," Zelenskyy said, adding the attack was further proof of the need to ramp up "biting secondary sanctions on those who buy this [Russian] oil and thereby sponsor killings."
As first Russian drones entered the Ukrainian air space late on July 8, US President Donald Trump expressed growing frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Speaking at the White House, Trump said he is considering imposing new sanctions on Moscow and that the United States will be providing more defensive weapons to Ukraine "because Putin is not treating human beings right.”
At least 20 people across Ukraine were injured and 10 others killed in the Russian attack hours after Trump spoke.
Kirill Martynov, editor in chief of the exiled Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta Europa, told RFE/RL's Current Time that he believes the Kremlin still hopes to "play a game" with Trump in order to achieve military and political success.
However, Martynov added that Trump's latest criticism of his Russian counterpart may make both of those goals "unattainable."
Zelenskyy said he had a "substantive" conversation with US envoy Keith Kellogg in Rome.
"We discussed weapons supplies and strengthening air defense. Given the increase in Russian attacks, this remains one of our top priorities," Zelenskyy said on X on July 9.
"We also covered the purchase of American weapons, joint defense manufacturing, and localization efforts in Ukraine," he added.
In Kupyansk, a city in the Kharkiv region, a 68-year-old man was killed and two elderly women were injured in the attacks, while four more people were killed in the Donetsk and Khmelnitskiy regions.
"Russian troops shelled 16 localities. A total of 59 civilian targets were damaged, including 43 residential buildings," Donetsk region police said in a report.
In a separate attack on the southern Kherson region, partly occupied by the Russian troops, a one-year-old boy was killed and a 64-year-old woman carrying him was injured. According to local officials, a 73-year-old man has also sustained shrapnel wounds to his face, abdomen, legs, and arms.
"It is quite telling that Russia carried out this attack just as the United States publicly announced that it would supply us with weapons," Andriy Yermak, the Ukrainian president's chief of staff, wrote on his Telegram page.
Moscow said the attack was focused on Ukrainian military air fields. Russian officials said Ukraine launched a drone attack that killed three people and injured six others in the Kursk region.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin claimed that another drone was shot down while approaching the Russian capital, which prompted the temporary suspension of flights at city's major airport, Sheremetyevo.
