Russia has carried out a massive drone attack on Kyiv, and killed four people in a strike on a hospital in Zaporizhzhia, hours after Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election.
Five aerial bombs destroyed an apartment block in the southern Ukrainian city and damaged a cancer hospital. Rescuers clambered over debris to search for survivors. Eighteen people were hurt, including three children, two of them babies, officials said.
Speaking after the latest attack on civilians, Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged allies to give Ukraine more air defence systems and to lift restrictions on hitting targets inside Russia using long-range western weapons.
“Each such Russian strike not only kills people and destroys lives, but also destroys the meaning of any words about the lack of conversations with Russia, phone calls to the Kremlin,” Ukraine’s president said.
Earlier the moped-like whine of Iranian shahed drones could be heard at 6am local time on Wednesday above the capital. There was machine gunfire and explosions in the centre of Kyiv as air defence tried to shoot down the missiles. The attack lasted eight hours.
Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said five districts were hit. About 30 drones were intercepted. Falling debris set fire to a high-rise building and blew out windows. One person was injured. There were further air attacks in Odesa, Kherson and Sumy provinces, with two people killed.
The raids came as Russia’s security council secretary, Sergei Shoigu, said the west should accept Russia was winning the war in Ukraine and negotiate an end to fighting.
Ukrainian commentators said the raids – a near nightly occurrence in recent weeks – suggested Moscow was not interested in peace. “Ending the war, huh? That’s what everyone here wants – except Putin has other plans,” Maria Avdeeva posted on X.
Ending the war, huh? That’s what everyone here wants—except Putin has other plans. For nine hours straight, Russia is terrorizing Kyiv with massive Shahed drone attacks pic.twitter.com/89V7VVnD8J
— Maria Avdeeva (@maria_avdv) https://twitter.com/maria_avdv/status/1854431010743562320?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Speaking at a summit of European leaders in Hungary, Zelenskyy on Thursday rejected offering Moscow any concessions in Ukraine, saying such moves would be detrimental to his country and Europe more broadly.
“There has been much talk about the need to yield to Putin, to back down, to make some concessions. It’s unacceptable for Ukraine and suicidal for all Europe,” he said.
The Russian president has demanded Ukraine cede swathes more territory in its east and south as a precondition to peace talks, while Kyiv has repeatedly ruled out ceding any land to Moscow in exchange for peace.
In a speech later on Thursday at Valdai, a Kremlin-affiliated research institute in Sochi, Putin recycled some of his go-to grievances with the west as he made his first comments since the US election, claiming Nato’s actions “forced Russia” to respond by invading Ukraine. He also described Nato as a “blatant anachronism” which was seeking to defeat Russia in Ukraine.
“The calls of the west to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia, a country with the largest arsenal of nuclear weapons, demonstrates the exorbitant adventurism of Western politicians,” said Putin, adding that a struggle was underway to shape a new world order as the Western-dominated post-cold war era crumbled.
He said Russia “will always achieve its goals” but that Moscow was ready to “negotiate” with the west.
The future of western support for Ukraine and the possibility of talks with Russia has been thrown into relief by the election of Trump as US president, who once said he could end the war in 24 hours. The outgoing US president, Joe Biden, had said Ukraine should decide when and how to negotiate.
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Ukrainian officials have expressed cautious optimism about continued support from a Trump White House. Most observers, however, believe the president-elect is likely to end or cut US military assistance to Ukraine, further weakening its already precarious position on the battlefield.
In a post on social media, Zelenskyy said he had had a great phone conversation with Trump on Wednesday night and had congratulated him on his “historic and decisive victory”. The result was made possible by Trump’s impressive campaign, he added.
Zelenskyy wrote: “We agreed to maintain close dialogue and strengthen our cooperation. Strong and unwavering US leadership is essential for the world and for a just peace.”
I had an excellent call with President @realDonaldTrump and congratulated him on his historic landslide victory—his tremendous campaign made this result possible. I praised his family and team for their great work.
We agreed to maintain close dialogue and advance our…
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Volodymyr Zelensky (@ZelenskyyUa) https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1854289413246705695?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Shoigu, who served as defence minister from 2012 to 2024, claimed on Thursday the US and other nations had tried to use Ukraine to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia, but the plan had failed.
“Now, when the situation in the theatre of military operations is not in the favour of the Kyiv regime, the west is faced with a choice – to continue financing it and destroying the Ukrainian population or to recognise the current realities and start negotiating,” Shoigu said.
He added that Moscow viewed Ukraine’s leadership as “terrorists”, controlled by outside powers. His comments suggest the Kremlin may demand the removal of Zelenskyy as part of any “peace deal” – something it attempted in spring 2022, when Russian troops tried and failed to occupy Kyiv.
In 2022 Putin “annexed” four Ukrainian oblasts: Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. Russia only fully controls Luhansk. The Kremlin is likely to call for the handover of further territory, as well as “reparations”, a buffer zone and guarantees of Ukraine’s non-Nato “neutrality”.
