Kyiv, Ukraine
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Russia launched a large-scale air attack on Ukraine early Wednesday, causing power outages across most of the country, setting homes ablaze and killing at least six people, including a six-month-old baby, Ukrainian authorities said.
The attack, which involved drones, missiles and fighter jets, targeted vast swathes of the country, including the capital Kyiv, and came hours after US President Donald Trump said a now shelved summit with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin could be a “waste of time.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said energy infrastructure, as well as “ordinary cities” were targeted in Wednesday’s attacks. The strikes had killed six people and wounded 17 across Ukraine, he said.
“Another night proving that Russia does not feel enough pressure for dragging out the war,” Zelensky said on X.
Ukraine’s state-owned energy operator Ukrenergo said emergency power cuts have been introduced across most regions of Ukraine because of the attack.
DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy company, said there was “significant” damage at one of its facilities in the Odesa region, and that energy workers were working to restore power.
Several residential areas in Ukraine’s capital and the broader Kyiv region were struck, sparking fires in high-rises as residents scrambled to escape, according to city officials.
Two people were killed and 10 had to be rescued after debris from a drone attack hit a 16-story residential building in Kyiv’s Dniprovskiy district, igniting a fire, according to Kyiv’s mayor Vitali Klitschko and the Kyiv city office.
A woman, a 12 year old girl and a six-month-old baby were killed in Brovary district, east of Kyiv, after strikes caused their home to catch fire, according to Mykola Kalashnyk, head of Kyiv regional military administration.
An 83-year-old woman was rescued from a burning house in the same district, Kalashnyk said.
As of 12.40 p.m. local time, a total of 25 people had been injured in Kyiv city alone due to the overnight Russian attacks, according to Tymur Tkachenko, head of the city’s military administration. More than 10 in the city have been hospitalized, including four children, Tkachenko said.
In northeastern Kharkiv, a 40-year-old man was killed in Russian strikes, according to Oleh Synehubov, head of the region’s military administration, adding that six people had been injured.
Zelensky, who was visiting Norway and Sweden to discuss defense cooperation on Wednesday, said a Russian drone struck a kindergarten in Kharkiv, “after a night of massive attacks.”
He continued, “All children have been evacuated and are in shelters. According to preliminary information, many are experiencing acute stress reactions.”
In his daily address Wednesday, Zelensky said Trump’s call for Ukraine and Russia to stop at the current frontlines was a “good compromise,” but added he doubted Putin would support it.
Katarina Maternovak, the European Union’s ambassador to Ukraine, described a “night of horror” overnight on Tuesday into Wednesday.
“I spent that night on the floor of my hotel bathroom, turned into a shelter. Sirens wailed without pause. Explosions shook the walls,” Maternovak wrote in a social media post.
Ukraine uses Storm Shadow missiles
Just hours earlier, Ukraine said it had used the British-made Storm Shadow long-range missiles to target Russia’s Bryansk Chemical Plant – which produces gunpowder and other explosive materials.
The Storm Shadow is a powerful air-launched missile with a range of 250 kilometers (155 miles) and was first used against targets inside Russia in November last year.
Without mentioning the plant, the regional governor of Bryansk claimed on social media that Russia had “detected and destroyed 57 enemy aircraft-type UAVs” during a Ukrainian attack on Tuesday. CNN has reached out to the Russian Ministry of Defense for comment.
Russia’s latest assault on Ukraine comes as Trump’s hopes for a meeting with Putin in the coming weeks stalled, with an administration official telling CNN on Tuesday there were “no plans” for a summit between the two “in the immediate future.”
Trump said Tuesday he didn’t want the meeting to be “a waste of time.”
He may still meet with the Russian leader, he implied, but he indicated it was no longer a top priority. “We’ll be notifying you over the next two days as to what we’re doing,” the president told reporters.
Just days earlier, Trump denied Ukraine’s request for access to long-range Tomahawk missiles, for now, and insisted Ukraine make territorial concessions to Russia to end the war in a meeting with Zelensky at the White House, according to European officials briefed on the meeting.
Following Wednesday’s attack, Zelensky urged the European Union and the US to increase pressure on Russia.
“It is very important that the world does not remain silent now and that there is a united response to Russia’s vile strikes,” he said.
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