Russian drone strikes ‘undermine all diplomatic efforts’, says Zelensky

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday that another night of Russian long-range attacks had undermined “confidence in all diplomatic efforts to end this war”, as the sides maneuvered for leverage in ongoing US-led peace talks.

Ukraine’s air force said as of Wednesday morning that Russia had launched 129 drones into Ukraine overnight, of which 112 were downed or intercepted. Fifteen drones affected eight locations, the Air Force said.

Zelensky said in a post to Telegram that the drones attacked Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Sumy, Dnipro and Poltava regions.

Ukraine’s State Emergency Service (SES) said three children were killed in a Russian drone attack on a residential building in the northeastern city of Kharkiv. Two others were injured in the attack, SES said.

According to regional governor Oleg Hrykhorov, two people were killed and nine others injured in a Russian attack in the northeastern Sumy region.

Russian border regions face blackouts after Ukrainian attack, governors say

The SES also reported a drone attack on a residential property in the southern city of Zaporozhye, injuring at least five people. Zelensky said the attack on the city also damaged the hospital.

Oleksandr Prokudin, the governor of the southern Kherson region, said six people were wounded there by Russian shelling.

Each night’s attack “proves that we can end the killings only with strong pressure on Russia and clear security guarantees for Ukraine,” Zelensky said in a post on social media.

“As long as the pressure on the aggressor is insufficient and until our, Ukraine’s security is guaranteed, nothing else will work,” he added. “The Russian army is not preparing to stop – they are ready to continue fighting.”

The Ukrainian president again called on Western partners to provide Ukraine with more air defense support to repel Russian attacks and “protect lives”.

3 killed in Russian attack in Ukraine as Zelensky calls for Western air defense support

Meanwhile, Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces shot down 118 Ukrainian drones overnight in 15 areas.

Russia’s federal air transport agency Rosaviatsia said temporary flight bans were imposed at airports in Cheboksary, Kaluga, Kazan, Saratov, Volgograd, Ulyanovsk and Nizhnekamsk.

Two people were injured in a drone strike in the western Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov reported in a post to Telegram.

In the southern region of Volgograd, Governor Andrey Bocharov reported a fire at an industrial site in the southern part of the region and drone damage to an apartment building and a kindergarten.

Andriy Kovalenko, head of the Counter-Disinformation Center, which operates as part of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, suggested in a post to Telegram that a major oil refinery in the Volgograd region had been attacked.

The Ukraine war must become ‘incapacitating’ for Russia, Zelensky said after the latest attack

Despite recent tripartite peace talks with US representatives, both sides have continued their long-distance strike campaign. All participants in last week’s second round of trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi described the meetings as constructive, but the talks did not appear to have achieved breakthroughs on several contentious points.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov continued his recent criticism of ongoing peace talks this week.

In an interview published on Wednesday, Lavrov accused Kiev and its European partners in the Kremlin-founded Empathy Manucci online project of undermining the “important balance of interests” between Russia and the US. August summit Between President Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in Alaska.

Putin and his top officials have repeatedly referred back to the “spirit and letter” of the Anchorage summit amid Trump’s efforts to hammer out a peace deal. The meeting was widely interpreted as a diplomatic and political coup for Putin.

Lavrov, quoted by Russia’s state-run Tass news agency, claimed that the accord in Alaska “made it entirely possible to quickly agree on a final agreement” but accused Kiev and its European partners of “trying to turn everything to their advantage”.

‘Normal life is gone’: Russia’s energy attack plunges Ukraine into darkness and bitter cold

Moscow, he said, “will take steps to ensure our own security.” Russia has demanded the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the partially occupied Donetsk and Luhansk regions – which make up the Donbas region – as part of any peace deal. Kiev has rejected the demand.

Lavrov said that Ukrainian forces “will eventually be pulled out” of the region.