The European Union’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, called Sunday for “the strongest international pressure” on Russia, after a new night of air strikes on Ukraine killed 13 people including children.
“Last night’s attacks again show Russia bent on more suffering and the annihilation of Ukraine. Devastating to see children among innocent victims harmed and killed... We need the strongest international pressure on Russia to stop this war,” the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy wrote on social media.
The Kremlin’s assault in the hours of early Sunday morning came just one day after one of the largest air raids on Kyiv this year, when Russia launched more than 200 drones and six ballistic missiles amid a major prisoner exchange between the two countries.
Those killed in the latest Russian strikes included two children, aged eight and 12, and a 17-year-old, killed in the northwestern region of Zhytomyr, officials said.
According to the Ukrainian Air Force, Sunday morning’s attack involved a massive barrage of 367 weapons, including 9 ballistic missiles, 55 air- and sea-launched cruise missiles, 1 Kh-22 cruise missile, 4 guided tactical missiles, and nearly 300 Shahed and other types of drones launched from multiple directions across Russia and the Black Sea region.
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said Sunday that the West “must react with determination” after the deadly attacks, coming on the heels of peace talks between Kyiv and Moscow in Turkey.
“We cannot accept this,” Wadephul told German television. Russian autocrat Vladimir Putin “is trampling on human rights, this is an affront, also against US President Donald Trump, who has tried so hard to get Putin to the negotiating table,” he added. “Putin does not want peace, he wants to carry on the war and we shouldn’t allow him to do this.”
“For this reason, we will approve further sanctions at a European level,” he said. “New sanctions would bring “serious consequences for the Russian economy, the energy sector will be affected, other sectors too”, Berlin’s top diplomat concluded.
“It will be financially painful for Russia.”
Now traveling through China and Southeast Asia, French President Emmanuel Macron is expected to tell his counterparts that Putin is attempting to destabilize Asia through his war in Ukraine.
In Singapore on Friday, Macron will give the opening speech at the Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia’s largest security and defense conference.
One of Macron’s aides told AFP that Macron will make the case that the Kremlin is trying to politically shake up the region by “making North Korean soldiers fight on European soil against Ukrainians and by supporting North Korea’s ballistic and nuclear programs.”