RUSSIA last night blitzed Ukraine with the heaviest air strikes since the beginning of the war – pounding capital Kyiv with 550 drones and 11 missiles.
The overnight strikes came just moments after Donald Trump had a phone call with Vladimir Putin.
Fires broke out in multiple locations as almost every district in the capital city was struck, according to Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv’s military administration.
Dozens of Ukrainians were injured as toxic smoke engulfed the city.
The Svyatoshynskyi and Solomanskyi districts were among the hardest hit, with blazes on rooftops and in courtyards.
Short on air defence systems, Ukraine could only down two of 11 missiles.
Another nine missiles – one Kinzhal [Dagger], two Iskander-K, and six Iskander-M – wreaked havoc in the city.
The barrage came hot on the heels of Trump’s phone conversation with Putin, which ended in “no progress at all”, according to the US president.
“I didn’t make any progress with him at all,” the US President told reporters outside a Washington air base on Thursday.
The nearly hour-long call appeared to achieve little as Moscow stood firm on its war ambitions.
While Trump emphasised the need to end military hostilities, Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov said Putin was firm, stating: “Russia will continue to pursue its goals.”
He added that Moscow “will not back down” and is focused on addressing what it calls the “root causes” of the war.
It is a thinly veiled reference to Nato expansion and Western military support for Ukraine.
The call took place amid a growing outcry over the US decision to halt some critical arms shipments to Ukraine.
This includes the MIM-104 Patriot surface-to-air missile system (SAM), which is used to stop incoming missiles, precision-guided GMLRS missiles and thousands of high-explosive Howitzer rounds.
Trump defended the pause, blaming his predecessor, Joe Biden.
He said: “Biden emptied out our whole country giving them weapons, and we have to make sure that we have enough for ourselves.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he hoped to speak with Trump about the weapons pause, warning that the delay could embolden Moscow.
Speaking from Denmark on Thursday, he said: “In Russia, only Putin makes decisions, which is why we need a meeting at the leadership level if we want to have peace.”
But peace seemed more distant than ever as the death toll mounted.
In Poltava on Thursday, two people were killed and 47 injured in a Russian airstrike that also ignited a fire at a military draft office — part of what Ukraine called a targeted effort to disrupt its mobilisation efforts.
Another drone attack earlier in the week struck near a recruitment centre in Kryvyi Rih.
Meanwhile, Russia claimed to have captured the border village of Milove in Kharkiv region, opening a new front in the northeast. Ukraine has not confirmed the report.
Kyiv has ramped up its defences as it seeks to thwart Vladimir Putin’s final killer summer offensive, which military analysts say could start as early as July.
Some 125,000 Russian soldiers are reportedly massing along the Sumy and Kharkiv frontiers, according to Ukraine’s military intelligence.
Last week, Ukraine’s fierce resistance forced Russian troops to stop in the Sumy region’s border area, Kyiv’s military Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrsky revealed.
Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/14624773/trump-putin-kyiv-russia-attack/
