At least two people have been killed in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, along with four others in the front-line Donetsk region, as Russia pounds the country just hours after US President Donald Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy discussed peace efforts. The rare daytime attack on Kyiv was carried out with faster and high-flying jet drones that are harder to intercept and lasted for hours from the morning into early afternoon on Wednesday, killing two and injuring more than 30 others, according to local officials. Zelenskyy said Russia had deployed many drones against the city, with a large number of them jet-powered.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said a Russian drone hit a nine-storey non-residential building in his city, as well as a business centre and warehouses. Ukrainian oil company Ukrnafta said Russia hit one of its petrol stations in the capital, the sixth such facility attacked in recent weeks. In total, two petrol stations came under attack, authorities said.
The chief executive of the Ukrainian railway operator, Oleksandr Pertsovskyi, said railway infrastructure in the capital was also attacked and that one of its workers was injured. A separate Russian aerial bomb attack killed at least four people and injured four others in a village in the front-line Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, the regional governor said on Telegram. On the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, Zelenskyy met Trump on Tuesday and discussed a potential bilateral ceasefire on energy-related targets.
He asked for increased supplies of US Patriot air defence missiles to defend the country against an expected increase in Russian attacks on energy infrastructure during winter. The Ukrainian leader added that no agreements were reached but that he was ready for “any format” of an energy ceasefire with Russia as long as it stopped its attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure. On Monday, the Financial Times newspaper reported, citing people familiar with the call, that Trump pressed Zelenskyy on Sunday to halt Kyiv’s strikes on Russian refineries over concerns that the attacks are exacerbating a global diesel shortage and pushing up prices.
Still on Wednesday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters before a meeting between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov that there were no grounds for peace talks with Ukraine. He added that President Vladimir Putin was ready to meet Trump one-on-one if the leaders felt it was necessary. Still, he reiterated that any Putin-Zelenskyy meeting would require the Ukrainian leader to go to Moscow.
Ukraine has previously said going to Moscow for any talks was unacceptable and that any talks must be held in a neutral country. The spokesperson added that it was not the right time for a peace summit either.
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