Russia launched a massive drone strike across Ukraine on Sunday night, targeting several regions, after US President Donald Trump expressed doubts about Russian President Vladimir Putin's intentions to end the conflict.
Airstrikes in Konstantinovka in Donetsk region killed three people and wounded four. In Pavlohrad, Dnipropetrovsk region, another person was killed and a 14-year-old girl was wounded in attacks that took place there for the third night in a row, according to local authorities.
The attacks came just hours after Russia said it had regained control of the remaining parts of the Kursk region that Ukrainian forces seized in a surprise invasion last August. Ukrainian officials said fighting was continuing in Kursk.
Trump said Saturday he had doubts about Putin's desire to end the more than three-year war in Ukraine, expressing new skepticism about the possibility of a peace deal being reached soon.
The day before, the US President claimed that Ukraine and Russia were “very close to an agreement.”
Returning to the US after Pope Francis' funeral in Rome, where he briefly met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump posted on social media: “There was no justification whatsoever for Putin to fire missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns in recent days.” He also hinted at the possibility of additional sanctions against Russia.
Trump and Zelensky's meeting at the funeral was their first face-to-face meeting since a tense conversation in the White House Oval Office in late February.
In the latest wave of attacks, Russia launched 149 explosive drones and decoys, the Ukrainian air force said, adding that 57 of them were intercepted and another 67 were jammed.
One person was injured in drone strikes in the Odessa region, another was hurt in Zhitomir. An airstrike in Kherson on Sunday morning left four injured, according to local authorities.
Russia's Defense Ministry said on Sunday that its air defense forces shot down five Ukrainian drones in the border area of Bryansk and three drones over Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014.
Five people were injured in shelling by Ukrainian troops in the city of Gorlovka in the partially occupied Donetsk region, the city's Russian-appointed mayor Ivan Prikhodko said.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Sunday that the coming week would be “critical” and that the US must “p
Sourse: breakingnews.ie
