Kyiv, June 21: A Russian missile strike on a nine-story Kyiv apartment building was a sign that more pressure must be applied on Moscow to agree to a ceasefire, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday, as Moscow intensifies attacks in the war.The drone and missile attack on Kyiv early Tuesday, the deadliest assault on the capital this year, killed 28 people across the city and wounded 142 others, Kyiv Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said.
Zelenskyy, along with the head of the presidential office, Andrii Yermak, and Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko, visited the site of the apartment building in Kyiv’s Solomianskyi district on Thursday morning, laying flowers and paying tribute to the 23 people who died there after a direct hit by a missile brought down the structure.
āThis attack is a reminder to the world that Russia rejects a ceasefire and chooses killing,ā Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram, and thanked Ukraine’s partners who he said are ready to pressure Russia to āfeel the real cost of the war.ā
Intensifying attacks
Tuesday’s attack on Kyiv was part of a sweeping barrage as Russia once again sought to overwhelm Ukrainian air defenses. Russia fired more than 440 drones and 32 missiles in what Zelenskyy called one of the biggest bombardments of the war, which began on Feb. 24, 2022.
As Russia proceeds with a summer offensive on parts of the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line, US-led peace efforts have failed to gain traction. Russian President Vladimir Putin has effectively rejected an offer from US President Donald Trump for an immediate 30-day ceasefire, making it conditional on a halt on Ukraine’s mobilization effort and a freeze on Western arms supplies.
Meanwhile, Middle East tensions and US trade tariffs have drawn away world attention from Ukraine’s pleas for more diplomatic and economic pressure to be placed on Moscow.
In recent weeks, Russia has intensified long-range attacks that have struck urban residential areas. Yet on Wednesday, Putin denied that his military had struck such targets, saying that attacks were āagainst military industries, not residential quarters.ā
Putin told senior news leaders of international news agencies in St. Petersburg, Russia, that he was open to talks with Zelenskyy, but repeated his accusation that the Ukrainian leader had lost his legitimacy after his term expired last year ā allegations rejected by Kyiv and its allies.