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The Ukrainian capital Kyiv observed an official day of mourning on Friday, a day after a Russian drone and missile attack on the city killed 31 people, including five children, and injured more than 150, officials said.
The youngest victim in Thursday’s strikes was two years old and 16 of the injured were children, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
It was the highest number of children killed and injured in a single attack on Kyiv since aerial attacks on the city began in October 2022, according to official casualty figures reported by the AP news agency.
It was also the deadliest attack on the city since July last year, when 33 were killed.
The death toll rose overnight as emergency crews continued to dig through rubble. The Russian barrage demolished a large part of a nine-story residential building in the city, while more than 100 other buildings were damaged, including homes, schools, kindergartens, medical facilities and universities, officials said.
Russia has escalated its attacks on Ukrainian cities in recent months, ignoring calls from Western leaders including US President Donald Trump to stop striking civilian areas after more than three years of war.
Russian forces are also pressing on with their grinding war of attrition along the 1,000-kilometre front line, where incremental gains over the past year have come at the cost of thousands of soldiers on both sides.
Ukraine wants more sanctions on Russia
Zelenskyy said that in July, Russia launched over 5,100 glide bombs, more than 3,800 Shahed drones, and nearly 260 missiles of various types, 128 of them ballistic, against Ukraine.
He repeated his appeal for countries to impose heavier economic sanctions on Russia to deter the Kremlin, as US-led peace efforts have failed to gain traction.
“No matter how much the Kremlin denies (sanctions’) effectiveness, they are working and must be stronger,” Zelenskyy said.
His comments on Friday appeared to be a response to Trump’s remarks the previous day, when the Republican president said the US plans to impose sanctions on Russia but added, “I don’t know that sanctions bother him,” in reference to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In April, Trump urged Putin to “STOP!” after an aerial attack on Kyiv killed 12 in what was the deadliest assault on the city since July 2024.
“Lets get the Peace Deal DONE!” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform at the time, but Russia hasn’t eased up on its barrages.
Earlier this week, Trump gave Putin until 8 August to stop the fighting, in a marked reduction of his initial 50-day deadline.
Those demands haven’t persuaded the Kremlin to change strategy. Putin said on Friday the conditions that Moscow set out last year for a long-term ceasefire agreement still stand.
Putin has previously made it clear that he will only accept a settlement on his terms and will keep fighting until they’re met.
“Any disappointments arise from excessive expectations,” Putin said of negotiations. He did not mention Trump by name.
Putin said that he regards recent direct talks in Istanbul between delegations from Russia and Ukraine as valuable, even though they made no progress beyond exchanges of prisoners of war, and made no reference to next week’s deadline imposed by Trump.
In what Ukrainians may see as an ominous note, Putin said that Russia has started production of its newest hypersonic missiles.
The Oreshnik’s multiple warheads that plunge to a target at speeds up to Mach 10 and cannot be stopped by air defences, he said.
Ukraine called for an urgent UN Security Council meeting to be convened on Friday, Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said, in an effort to push Putin into accepting “a full, immediate and unconditional ceasefire.”
Additional sources • AP
