Kyiv, Ukraine – At least three people were killed and 24 injured after a drone struck a nine-story residential building in Kyiv’s Desnianskyi district, Ukrainian officials reported. Damage was also reported to at least three other residential buildings in the city. Seven of the injured, including two children, are receiving hospital treatment.
The attack comes as Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine continues, having begun in 2022. Russia currently controls approximately a fifth of Ukrainian territory, including the Crimean peninsula, which it annexed in 2014.
While fighting persists along the front lines with limited territorial changes, Ukraine has been targeting Russia’s military production plants and oil facilities in an effort to degrade its warfighting capabilities. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has appealed to allies for long-range weapons to support these efforts, but recently left meetings at the White House and an EU summit without securing such commitments.
U.S. President Donald Trump this week announced new sanctions targeting Russia’s largest oil companies – his first such action during his current term – as did the EU. Trump stated that talks with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin “don’t go anywhere,” and cancelled plans for a meeting between the two in Budapest due to the war in Ukraine. He indicated a future meeting is contingent on the prospect of a peace deal, despite describing his relationship with Putin as ”great” and expressing disappointment with recent developments. A previous summit in Alaska in August also failed to produce critically important progress.
Trump had previously linked further sanctions to European nations reducing their reliance on Russian energy imports, a goal the EU has pledged to achieve by 2028.
Zelensky has agreed to a U.S. proposal for a ceasefire along current front lines to facilitate peace negotiations, a concession short of Russia’s demand for a complete Ukrainian withdrawal from the eastern Donbas region.
Senior Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev, following meetings with U.S. officials in Washington, told CNN he believes Russia, Ukraine, and the U.S. are nearing a diplomatic solution. “It’s a big move by President Zelensky to already acknowledge that it’s about battle lines,” Dmitriev said, noting Zelensky’s shift from demanding a full Russian withdrawal. “Actually, I think we are reasonably close to a diplomatic solution that can be worked out.”
