A Russian attack on the Ukrainian city of Sumy, in which at least three people were killed and many others injured, has been described by President Volodymyr Zelensky as “brutal”, as aerial attacks and ground fighting from both sides flared once again after peace talks failed to make significant progress.
According to authorities, a barrage of multiple rockets struck apartment buildings and a medical facility in the centre of the northeastern city a day after direct peace talks made no progress on ending the three-year war.
Zelensky said one of the rockets fired at Sumy pierced the wall of an apartment building but failed to detonate.
“That’s all you need to know about Russia’s ‘desire’ to end this war,” Zelenskyy wrote in a post on Telegram.
“It is clear that without global pressure, without decisive action from the United States, Europe, and everyone in the world who holds power, (Russian President Vladimir) Putin will not agree even to a ceasefire.”
At talks in Istanbul on Monday, delegations from the warring countries agreed to swap dead and wounded troops. But their terms for ending the war remained far apart.
Earlier, Russia's overnight attacks killed one person in Ukraine's northeastern region of Kharkiv and injured several more in the northern city of Chernihiv, regional Ukrainian officials say, while Ukrainian attacks triggered power cuts over swathes of Russian-controlled territory in the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions in Ukraine's south.
Russia has struck Sumy, killing at least three people. - AP
A private enterprise was hit in the small town of Balakliia in the Kharkiv region that borders Russia, killing one employee and injuring several others, Vitali Karabanov, the head of the town's military administration, said on the Telegram messaging app.
"A massive UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) attack on the town," Karabanov said, without providing details of the scale.
The earlier attacks came hours after Russian and Ukrainian delegations met in Turkey for peace talks where Moscow said it would only agree to end the war if Kyiv gives up big new chunks of territory and accepts limits on the size of its army.
Ukraine has repeatedly rejected the Russian conditions as tantamount to surrender.
Falling drones on streets and residential buildings in the northern city of Chernihiv sparked several fires, including at residential houses, Dmytro Bryzhynskyi, the head of the city's military administration, said on Telegram.
Buildings were left burning following a Russian attack in Odesa, Ukraine. - State Emergency Service of Ukraine via Reuters
Four people were hospitalised, Bryzhynskyi said. Ukraine's State Emergency Service said another 20 people, including eight children, received medical assistance at the site.
The service posted photos on its Telegram account showing firefighters battling blazes in the dark and medics attending to a group of children.In the southern port city of Odesa, Russian overnight air attacks damaged residential buildings and civilian infrastructure, but there were no injuries, Mayor Hennadiy Trukhanov wrote on Telegram.
The full scale of the overnight Russian attack on Ukraine was not immediately known. There was no immediate comment from Moscow and the Ukrainian reports could not be independently verified.
Both sides deny targeting civilians in the war that Russia launched in February 2022. But thousands of civilians have died in the conflict, the vast majority of them Ukrainian.
Though Russia has a bigger army and more economic resources than Ukraine, a spectacular Ukrainian drone attack that Ukrainian officials said damaged or destroyed more than 40 warplanes at air bases deep inside Russia was a serious blow to the Kremlin’s strategic arsenal and its military prestige.
Both Zelensky and Putin have been eager to show US President Donald Trump that they share his ambition to end the fighting, thereby aiming to avoid possible punitive measures from Washington. Ukraine has accepted a US-proposed ceasefire, but the Kremlin effectively rejected it. Putin has made it clear that any peace settlement has to be on his terms.
A senior Ukrainian delegation led by First Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko has travelled to Washington for talks about defense, sanctions and post-war recovery, Andrii Yermak, the head of Ukraine's presidential office, said Tuesday.
"We will actively promote issues that are important for Ukraine. Our agenda is rather comprehensive," Yermak said on the Telegram app.
"We plan to talk about defence support and the situation on the battlefield, strengthening sanctions against Russia..."
Zelensky has been repeatedly urging the United States and President Donald Trump to impose tougher sanctions on Russia if Moscow stalls the peace talks.
Dmitry Medvedev, a former Russian president who now serves as deputy head of the country’s Security Council chaired by Putin, indicated Tuesday there would be no let-up in Russia’s invasion of its neighbor.
“The Istanbul talks are not for striking a compromise peace on someone else’s delusional terms but for ensuring our swift victory and the complete destruction of (Ukraine’s government),” he said.
In an apparent comment on the latest Ukrainian strikes, he declared that “retribution is inevitable.”
“Our army is pushing forward and will continue to advance,” Medvedev said, adding that “everything that needs to be blown up will be blown up, and those who must be eliminated will be.”
Meanwhile, in Ukraine's south, Ukrainian attacks triggered power cuts over swathes of Russian-controlled territory in the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, leaving hundreds of thousands of people without electricity, Russia-installed officials say.
Officials said there was no effect on operations at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station - Europe's largest nuclear facility which was seized by Russia in the weeks after Moscow's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Ukraine emergency services attend to residents, battle blazes after overnight Russian attacks. - State Emergency Service of Ukraine via Reuters
Russian officials running the plant said radiation levels were normal at the facility, which operates in shutdown mode and produces no power at the moment.
Russia-installed governors in the two regions - which are among the key areas that Moscow demands that Ukraine give up in order for the war to end - said the Ukrainian attacks prompted authorities to introduce emergency measures to preserve power sources.
As of Tuesday morning, more than 600,000 people in nearly 500 settlements in Zaporizhzhia were without electricity, after shelling by Ukraine's forces damaged high-voltage infrastructure, Russia-installed Governor Yevgeny Belitsky wrote on Telegram.
"As a result of shelling by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, high-voltage equipment was damaged in the northwestern part of the Zaporizhzhia region," Belitsky wrote.
The Energy Ministry of Zaporizhzhia region has been instructed to conserve sources of power and healthcare sites have been transferred to reserve power sources.
In the adjacent Kherson region, farther west, Russia-appointed Governor Vladimir Saldo said debris from fallen drones had damaged two substations, knocking out power to more than 100,000 residents of 150 towns and villages in Russian-held areas. Emergency crews working to restore power quickly, he said.
Both sides deny targeting civilians in their attacks. But thousands of civilians have died in the conflict, the vast majority of them Ukrainian.
For many long months in the winter, it was Ukrainian towns and villages that endured repeated electricity cuts as Russian attacks focused strikes on generating capacity.
Each side has repeatedly accused the other of launching attacks on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant and running the risk of a nuclear accident.
The UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, said last week in response to a Ukrainian complaint that it saw no sign that Russia was preparing to restart the Zaporizhzhia plant and connect it to the Russian grid.
The IAEA has stationed monitors permanently at Zaporizhzhia and Ukraine's other nuclear power stations.