Kyiv Under Attack, at Least 9 Dead, 70-Plus Injured

Russia launched a missile attack Thursday on Kyiv, killing at least nine and wounding dozens, hours after US President Donald Trump lashed out at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for refusing to accept Moscow’s occupation of Crimea as a peace deal unilateral concession to the aggressors who invaded.

The Ukrainian capital was attacked “by enemy missiles” in the early hours, with flights of drones heard across the city by AFP and Kyiv Post journalists as residents hid in bomb shelters. 

Inintially, city mayor Vitali Klitschko said two people were killed and 54 others wounded so far in the attack.

Of these, “38 of them, including six children, were hospitalized,” he said, adding that the rest of the wounded were treated at the scene. 

The latest report from officials reads that at least nine people dead and over 70 injured.

In Ukraine’s east, the city of Kharkiv was hit by seven missiles, said city mayor Igor Terekhov, who later warned that “a massive drone attack on the city continues.”

Hours earlier, Trump had said a peace deal was “very close” and effectively closed with Moscow, but accused Zelensky of being “harder” to negotiate with. 

The Ukrainian president’s refusal to accept US terms for ending the conflict, which began with Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, “will do nothing but prolong the ‘killing field’,” he said.

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“I think we have a deal with Russia. We have to get a deal with Zelensky,” Trump told reporters. “I thought it might be easier to deal with Zelensky. So far it’s been harder.”

Ahead of Trump’s broadside, Vice President JD Vance laid out the US vision for a peace deal where Russia would get to keep already occupied swaths of Ukraine, which include Crimea.

Zelensky has rejected this as a violation of Ukraine’s constitution.

That in turn prompted an outburst from Trump, in which he accused Zelensky of being “inflammatory” and taking a position “very harmful to the Peace Negotiations with Russia.”

Zelensky “can have Peace or, he can fight for another three years before losing the whole Country,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Trump said Crimea “was lost years ago” and “is not even a point of discussion,” [although his State Department in his first term swore several times that Russia would never succeed in occupying the peninsula.]

As Kyiv was bombarded with a Russian missile attack, Zelensky’s top aide took to Telegram, saying “Russia is attacking Kyiv, Kharkiv and other cities with missiles and drones right now”. 

“Putin shows only a desire to kill,” said Andriy Yermak. “The fire must stop. The attacks on civilians must stop.”