Volodymyr Zelensky has launched a furious attack on Russia after overnight drone strikes killed seven people in Kharkiv, including a toddler and a teenage boy, accusing Moscow of deliberately timing the deadly assault to coincide with crucial White House peace talks.
The Ukrainian president branded the pre-dawn attack on residential buildings as “demonstrative and cynical”, claiming Russia purposely targeted civilians and children just hours before his high-stakes meeting with Donald Trump and European leaders in Washington. The strikes, which hit a five-storey apartment building with multiple Geran-2 drones, wiped out an entire family and left rescuers desperately searching through rubble for more victims.
This was a demonstrative and cynical Russian strike. They are aware that a meeting is taking place today in Washington that will address the end of the war,” Zelensky said in a statement on Telegram. “Russians are deliberately killing people, particularly children.
Family Wiped Out in Kharkiv Horror
The scale of the tragedy became clear as emergency workers pulled bodies from the collapsed sections of the apartment building in Kharkiv’s Industrialnyi district. Among the dead were a two-year-old girl and a 16-year-old boy, with their parents also killed in what neighbours described as a devastating direct hit on their flat.
“Our neighbours on the sixth floor are dead, the entire family,” one distraught resident told local media. “The blast wave threw the husband out of the sixth floor, and then rescuers found his wife, their two-year-old daughter and 16-year-old son.”
Kharkiv regional governor Oleh Syniehubov confirmed that four Russian Geran-2 drones struck the five-storey building in the early hours of Sunday morning. The attack caused floors to collapse and fires to break out in different parts of the structure, with 20 people wounded in total, including multiple children.
The city had already been hit hours earlier by a ballistic missile that wounded at least 11 people, including a 13-year-old child, according to Mayor Igor Terekhov. The missile struck near residential apartment buildings, damaging over 10 structures and five parked cars.
Critical Infrastructure Targeted Across Ukraine
The Kharkiv attacks were part of a wider assault on Ukrainian cities, with Russia launching 140 drones and four missiles overnight into Monday morning. Ukraine’s air force said it shot down or suppressed 88 of the drones, but significant damage was still inflicted across multiple regions.
In Zaporizhzhia, 17 people were injured when Russian missiles struck critical infrastructure in the southeastern city. Governor Ivan Fedorov said at least two explosions followed warnings about the attack, with Russian forces “deliberately trying to hit the city’s critical infrastructure. Six people were hospitalised, with two in serious condition.
Meanwhile, in the Black Sea port of Odesa, a massive fire erupted at a fuel and energy infrastructure facility after drone strikes. The blaze was so intense that over 100 emergency workers, National Guard fighters and volunteers were deployed to fight it, with a special fire train from Ukrainian railway company Ukrzaliznytsia brought in to help extinguish the flames.
Local reports suggested the strikes had targeted SOCAR terminals owned by the Azerbaijani state oil company, with claims that all 17 fuel tanks at the facility were damaged. The attack on the energy infrastructure came as Ukraine faces mounting pressure on its power grid ahead of winter.
‘Everyone Seeks Dignified Peace’
Zelensky’s accusations of deliberate timing came as he prepared for what many see as the most crucial diplomatic engagement since Russia’s full-scale invasion began. The Ukrainian leader is set to meet Trump at the White House on Monday evening, before being joined by a cohort of European leaders including representatives from Britain, France and Germany.
Everyone seeks dignified peace and true security and at this very moment, the Russians are attacking Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, the Sumy region and Odesa, destroying residential buildings and our civilian infrastructure,” Zelensky said, highlighting the stark contrast between diplomatic efforts and battlefield reality.
The meeting follows Trump’s failed summit with Vladimir Putin in Alaska just two days ago, where the US president had hoped to secure a breakthrough ceasefire. The Alaska summit, which saw Trump roll out red carpets and fly a B-2 bomber in a show of diplomatic theatre, ended without any agreement on ending the war.
Ukraine’s Diplomatic Offensive
Ahead of the Washington summit, Trump suggested that Zelensky could “end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wants to, or he can continue to fight. However, he also indicated that Ukraine would not regain Crimea, something Kyiv has signalled it might accept in exchange for lasting peace and security guarantees.
The key issue on the negotiating table appears to be future security arrangements for Ukraine. US special envoy Steve Witkoff claimed Russia had agreed to “robust security guarantees” for Ukraine during the Alaska summit, describing this as “game-changing” and “the first time we had ever heard the Russians agree to that.
America has reportedly confirmed that Ukraine will be offered NATO-style protection, with guarantees to step in if Putin strikes again in future under an Article 5-type arrangement. This would state that an attack on Ukraine would be considered an attack requiring allies to come to its defence.
However, Kyiv is also expected to abandon its formal bid to join NATO, a longstanding Russian red line. Swathes of eastern Ukraine remain on the negotiating table as leaders discuss how to stop Russian aggression once and for all.
Pattern of Terror Continues
The timing of Sunday’s attacks fits a pattern of Russian strikes coinciding with diplomatic initiatives. The assaults came even as reports emerged that both sides had participated in prisoner exchanges agreed during talks in Istanbul earlier this month.
The attacks on civilian areas have intensified throughout 2025, with the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission recording that Russia killed 286 and injured 1,388 civilians in July alone – the highest monthly toll since May 2022.
In Kharkiv specifically, Russia launched 103 air attacks on the city in July, killing one person and injuring 164, including 20 children. The city, which sits just 30 kilometres from the Russian border, has borne the brunt of Moscow’s aerial campaign throughout the war.
‘No Remorse’ from Moscow
Despite the mounting civilian toll, Russia has shown no signs of scaling back its attacks. Ukrainian officials note that Moscow appears to be deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure ahead of winter, attempting to break Ukrainian morale through what amounts to collective punishment.
The use of Iranian-made Geran-2 drones, along with ballistic missiles and glide bombs, has become a regular feature of Russian tactics. The pre-dawn timing of many attacks appears calculated to cause maximum casualties when families are asleep in their homes.
For the families in Kharkiv pulling their loved ones from the rubble on Sunday morning, diplomatic discussions in Washington must have seemed a world away. As one emergency worker at the scene noted: “How can there be peace talks when they’re still killing our children?”
The contrast between the horror on the ground in Ukraine and the diplomatic manoeuvring in world capitals could not be starker. As Zelensky heads into crucial negotiations that could determine his country’s future, the bodies of a two-year-old girl and a 16-year-old boy serve as a grim reminder of what’s at stake.
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Image Credit (Shortened):
President Zelenskyy addresses the nation following the Bucha Massacre (3 Apr 2022) – by The Presidential Office of Ukraine, licensed under CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
