Russian missile and drone strikes have killed several civilians, including children, in one of the most intense waves of attacks on Ukraine in recent weeks. The assaults came just hours after President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Washington, where he and European leaders are due to meet United States president Donald Trump for high-stakes talks.
In the north-eastern city of Kharkiv, a Russian drone slammed into a five-storey apartment block in the early hours of Monday, killing at least three people, among them a young child. Eighteen others were wounded, police said, and rescuers warned more residents may still be trapped under the rubble.
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Kharkiv, just 30 kilometres from the Russian border, had already been struck earlier in the night by a ballistic missile that left 11 people injured, according to mayor Ihor Terekhov. “It was a terrible night for our city,” he said.
The overnight attacks were part of a wider barrage across Ukraine. Russia launched 140 drones and four missiles, Ukraine’s air force reported, with 88 drones intercepted by air defences. Regions hit included Kyiv, Donetsk, Sumy, Dnipropetrovsk and Odesa.
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In the Sumy region, near the Russian border, strikes injured two people, including a 57-year-old woman and a driver, local officials said. In Zaporizhzhia, glide bomb attacks killed one person and wounded six, among them two children.
The timing of the strikes underscored the war’s unrelenting toll as Zelensky prepares to meet Trump and key European leaders at the White House. At the centre of the talks will be Western support, and Trump’s increasingly public demands that Kyiv make concessions.
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On Sunday, the US president said Ukraine must rule out ever joining NATO and abandon efforts to reclaim Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014. Zelensky has repeatedly rejected such conditions, insisting that surrendering land would legitimise Moscow’s aggression.
On the front lines, Russian forces continue to push forward in the eastern Donbas region, advancing slowly but steadily around villages and towns in Donetsk and Luhansk. While Moscow has pressed for full control of Donbas, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, Ukrainian officials say there has been little movement on the southern fronts in recent weeks.
For Ukraine’s leaders, the latest civilian casualties are a stark reminder of what is at stake. As rubble is cleared in Kharkiv and families mourn, the negotiations in Washington may shape not only Ukraine’s war effort but also the future of its sovereignty.
