A WAVE of Russian drone attacks struck Ukraine overnight just hours after a phone call between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin ended with “no progress at all”.
Explosions rocked Kyiv in the early hours of Friday as air defense units battled drones across both banks of the Dnipro River.
An explosion of a drone lights up the sky over the city during a Russian drone and missile strike, amid Russia’s attack on Kyiv[/caption]
Fires broke out in at least 13 locations across five districts[/caption]
Explosions rocked the Ukrainian capital in the early hours of Friday[/caption]
Fires broke out in at least 13 locations across five districts, according to Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv’s military administration.
The Svyatoshynskyi and Solomanskyi districts were among the hardest hit, with blazes on rooftops and in courtyards, and injuries feared.
The barrage came hot on the heels of Trump’s phone conversation with Putin, in which the Russian tyrant reportedly once again refused to back down from his war aims.
“I didn’t make any progress with him at all,” the US President told reporters outside a Washington air base on Thursday.
The nearly hour-long call, which also touched on the Middle East and cultural diplomacy, appeared to achieve little beyond hardened positions.
While Trump emphasized the need to end military hostilities, Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov said Putin was firm, stating: “Russia will continue to pursue its goals.”
He added that Moscow “will not back down” and is focused on addressing what it calls the “root causes” of the war — a thinly veiled reference to NATO expansion and Western military support for Ukraine.
The call took place amid a growing outcry over the US decision to halt some critical arms shipments to Ukraine, including Patriot missiles and precision-guided munitions.
Trump defended the pause, blaming his predecessor Joe Biden.
He said: “Biden emptied out our whole country giving them weapons, and we have to make sure that we have enough for ourselves.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he hoped to speak with Trump about the weapons pause, warning that the delay could embolden Moscow.
Speaking from Denmark on Thursday, he said: “In Russia, only Putin makes decisions, which is why we need a meeting at the leadership level if we want to have peace.”
But peace seemed more distant than ever as the death toll mounted.
In Poltava on Thursday, two people were killed and 47 injured in a Russian airstrike that also ignited a fire at a military draft office — part of what Ukraine called a targeted effort to disrupt its mobilisation efforts.
Another drone attack earlier in the week struck near a recruitment centre in Kryvyi Rih.
Meanwhile, Russia claimed to have captured the border village of Milove in Kharkiv region, opening a new front in the northeast. Ukraine has not confirmed the report.
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Trump’s phone conversation with Putin ended with ‘no progress at all’[/caption]
