Kyiv
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Russia launched a large-scale air attack on Ukraine early Wednesday, causing power outages across most of the country, setting homes ablaze and killing at least six people, including a six-month-old baby, Ukrainian authorities said.
The attack, which involved drones, missiles and fighter jets, targeted vast swathes of the country, including the capital Kyiv, and came hours after US President Donald Trump said a now shelved summit with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin could be a “waste of time.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said energy infrastructure, as well as “ordinary cities” were targeted in Wednesday’s attacks. The strikes had killed six people and wounded 17 across Ukraine, he said.
“Another night proving that Russia does not feel enough pressure for dragging out the war,” Zelensky said on X.
Ukraine’s state-owned energy operator Ukrenergo said emergency power cuts have been introduced across most regions of Ukraine because of the attack.
DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy company, said there was “significant” damage at one of its facilities in the Odesa region, and that energy workers were working to restore power.
Several residential areas in Ukraine’s capital and the broader Kyiv region were struck, sparking fires in high-rises as residents scrambled to escape, according to city officials.
Two people were killed and 10 had to be rescued after debris from a drone attack hit a 16-story residential building in Kyiv’s Dniprovskiy district, igniting a fire, according to Kyiv’s mayor Vitali Klitschko and the Kyiv city office.
A woman, a 12 year old girl and a six-month-old baby were killed in Brovary district, east of Kyiv, after strikes caused their home to catch fire, according to Mykola Kalashnyk, head of Kyiv regional military administration.
An 83-year-old woman was rescued from a burning house in the same district, Kalashnyk said.
Just hours earlier, Ukraine said it had used the British-made Storm Shadow long-range missiles to target Russia’s Bryansk Chemical Plant – which produces gunpowder and other explosive materials.
Without mentioning the plant, the regional governor of Bryansk claimed on social media that Russia had “detected and destroyed 57 enemy aircraft-type UAVs” during a Ukrainian attack on Tuesday. CNN has reached out to the Russian Ministry of Defense for comment.
Russia’s latest assault on Ukraine comes as Trump’s hopes for a meeting with Putin in the coming weeks stalled, with an administration official telling CNN on Tuesday there were “no plans” for a summit between the two “in the immediate future.”
Trump said Tuesday he didn’t want the meeting to be “a waste of time.”
He may still meet with the Russian leader, he implied, but he indicated it was no longer a top priority. “We’ll be notifying you over the next two days as to what we’re doing,” the president told reporters.
Just days earlier, Trump denied Ukraine’s request for access to long-range Tomahawk missiles, for now, and insisted Ukraine make territorial concessions to Russia to end the war in a meeting with Zelensky at the White House, according to European officials briefed on the meeting.
Following Wednesday’s attack, Zelensky urged the European Union and the US to increase pressure on Russia.
“It is very important that the world does not remain silent now and that there is a united response to Russia’s vile strikes,” he said.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
