2 weeks after Trump talks, Russia bombards Kyiv, killing at least 18

By Maria Varenikova

An hourslong barrage of Russian missiles and drones killed at least 18 people in Ukraine’s capital, including four children, early Thursday, officials said.

The assault, less than two weeks after President Donald Trump’s summit in Alaska with President Vladimir Putin of Russia, showed how the recent U.S. diplomatic flurry has done little to change the Kremlin’s determination to continue fighting in Ukraine.

Since Trump pulled Putin out of Western diplomatic isolation by inviting him to Anchorage, Alaska, Russia has made no significant concessions on any of the major sticking points between it and Ukraine, leaving the two sides no closer to peace. The attack Thursday was Russia’s largest on Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, since the Alaska meeting.

Ukrainian authorities said at least 45 people were injured. A five-story apartment building was destroyed, and other homes were damaged. A missile also hit a shopping mall in central Kyiv, authorities said, and buildings belonging to the European Union mission and the British Council suffered damage. European officials denounced the Russian strikes.

In all, officials said, Russia launched 598 drones and 31 missiles in the overnight assault on Kyiv and other cities. Ukraine’s defenses shot down 563 drones and 26 missiles, according to Ukrainian authorities.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine said the Russian bombardment was the Kremlin’s answer to the recent diplomatic efforts.

“Russia chooses ballistics instead of the negotiating table,” Zelenskyy wrote on social media. “It chooses to continue killing instead of ending the war. And this means that Russia still does not fear the consequences.”

Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesperson, addressed the assault on Kyiv on Thursday, saying that “the special military operation is continuing,” using Russia’s official term for the war, and noting that Ukrainian forces were continuing to strike Russian infrastructure. Peskov also said, “Russia maintains its interest in continuing the negotiation process.”

The Russian attack on the Ukrainian capital came 13 days after Trump and Putin met in Anchorage, Alaska, for a one-day summit to discuss a settlement for the war.

Before the meeting, Trump had said he agreed with Ukrainian and European demands that a ceasefire must precede any substantive peace talks. Russia has insisted that such talks, which could cover difficult questions of Russian territorial gains and Ukrainian security guarantees, must come before a ceasefire. That would allow Russia to continue to press its advantage on the battlefield while negotiations drag on.

After the Alaska summit, Trump reversed his demand for a preliminary ceasefire, at Putin’s urging. The fighting has since continued along the front lines, as have missile and drone bombardments on Ukrainian cities.

While Trump has at times voiced frustration with Putin’s continued barrages against Ukraine, he has not followed through on threats to impose new economic penalties against the Kremlin.

“Every conversation I have with him is a good conversation,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday. “And then, unfortunately, a bomb is loaded up into Kyiv or someplace, and then I get very angry about it.”

Trump said he still believed that “we’re going to get the war done,” but acknowledged that “it’s tough.”

With the White House continuing its diplomatic efforts, Zelenskyy said Wednesday that his chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, and the head of the country’s security council, Rustem Umerov, would meet with Trump’s team on Friday in New York. They will discuss security guarantees to be included in any future peace agreement, according to Zelenskyy.

On Thursday, fires and falling debris were reported in at least 23 locations around Kyiv overnight, and missiles and drones could still be heard flying overhead at dawn. An official with the city’s emergency service said people had been rescued from the rubble of the destroyed apartment building.

Referring to the damage to the EU mission, Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, said Russia had targeted diplomats in violation of the Vienna Convention.

The EU ambassador to Ukraine, Katarina Mathernova, said on the social platform X: “Russia’s ‘peace’ last night: a massive strike on Kyiv with drones and ballistic missiles. This is Moscow’s true answer to peace efforts.”

Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, said on social media that the EU delegation was safe. She said she had separate calls Thursday with Zelenskyy and Trump.

Britain’s prime minister, Keir Starmer, said the Kyiv building housing the British Council, an international cultural and educational institution sponsored by his government, had also been damaged.

“My thoughts are with all those affected by the senseless Russian strikes on Kyiv,” he wrote on X. Britain said it had summoned the Russian ambassador to protest the attack.

In the hours after the strikes, residents of the destroyed apartment building stood around on the grass outside it, wrapped in blankets. Six black plastic body bags lay among poplar trees beside the blasted-out entrance to the building.

Svitlana Lytvynenko, 21, a sales manager, said she had jumped out of bed with her boyfriend after hearing an explosion nearby about 3 a.m. and had run to the building’s basement. Another strike, this one directly on her building, followed, raising a cloud of dust.

“It started burning and the water pipe broke and the water started pouring on us,” she said. “We ran toward the exit when another explosion hit the building and then rubble fell and people started screaming that we are stuck.”

They managed to climb out, though her boyfriend’s leg was injured, she said, and the couple made it to another bomb shelter. She said she could not speak there because of her panic and the dusty air.

Her neighbor, Denys Otstavkin, 27, did not make it to the shelter in time and was running out of a doorway when a blast came. He and Lytvynenko both said they saw many cars burning and big clouds of smoke.

At least 500 emergency workers were deployed to help people around Kyiv, according to Svitlana Vodolaha, a spokesperson for the city’s emergency service. When emergency workers arrived at the five-story apartment building, she said, people were screaming for help from under the rubble. Three of them were rescued, she added.

Earlier, on Wednesday evening, air-raid warnings and reports from social media sites that track Russian attacks had prompted some residents to head to subway stations to spend the night. Others only came after hearing explosions.

Tetyana Ivashchuk, 64, went to a subway station in central Kyiv at 3 a.m. and spent hours sitting on a bench. “I always come when it’s scary,” she said.

At first, only about a dozen people came to the station, but others arrived as the attacks continued. By 6 a.m., more than 100 people were sleeping or resting on the floor there, even as the first trains began taking others to work.

People stared at their phones, reading updates about the victims. “I see someone died,” said a woman sitting across from Ivashchuk. They both nodded sadly and returned to their screens.