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Russia overnight launched its largest aerial assault on Ukraine’s capital since the start of the war just hours after President Donald Trump signalled dimming prospects for a ceasefire following a telephone call with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
While the attacks primarily targeted Kyiv, across Ukraine at least 23 people were injured in the strikes, which involved about 540 drones and 11 missiles, according to the country’s military.
“Russia is showing it has no intention of ending the war,” Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday morning on X.
It was a “brutal, sleepless night” for residents in Kyiv, he added.
Out of the 23 people injured, 14 had been hospitalized, Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram after several buildings were partially damaged and set ablaze. Damage was recorded in six of Kyiv’s 10 districts and raining debris ignited a fire at a medical facility, he said.
Meanwhile, Russia intercepted 48 Ukrainian drones launched over its territory, the Russian defense ministry said on Telegram. Two people were injured after four fell in Moscow, the region’s governor Andrey Vorobyov said on Telegram.
Despite international calls for a ceasefire to help end the war, which began when Putin launched a large-scale invasion of its smaller neighbor in 2022, Moscow has plowed ahead with its attacks.
This growing intensity has frustrated Trump, who repeatedly pledged on his presidential campaign to end the war within 24 hours of becoming president — or even before.
On Thursday, Trump told reporters that he “didn’t make any progress” with Putin “at all” in their call. He added that he would call Zelenskyy on Friday morning.
“I’m not happy about that, I’m not happy,” Trump said, noting that he doesn’t believe Putin is ready to end the war. “I’m very disappointed.”
Kyiv, which relies heavily on U.S. military aid and has been calling for more help is facing an adversary that is slowly making battlefield gains while sticking to its central demands for Ukraine to cede territory, despite claims to be willing to seek a negotiated end to the war.
Russia already occupies around one-fifth of Ukraine’s territory, including areas it has illegally annexed.
The Kremlin said Trump had raised “the issue of an immediate ceasefire” in the call, their sixth known call since Trump returned to the White House in January, but the Russian leader said he “will not back down.”
“Vladimir Putin stated that Russia continues to seek a political resolution to the conflict through negotiations,” Kremlin’s foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said in a briefing Thursday.
But the Kremlin has so far not offered concessions on its central demands that Ukraine should cede territory and give up on joining NATO.
While Kyiv or the White House did not say what the call would involve, Zelenskyy is widely expected to renew his calls for more military aid and U.S. sanctions against Russia. Ukraine is still reeling from Trump’s decision this week to halt some U.S. military equipment deliveries, which include the vital air defense systems.
“Without truly large-scale pressure, Russia will not change its dumb, destructive behavior,” Zelenskyy said, stressing that it “primarily” depends on the U.S. to “change the situation for the better.”
Michael Bociurkiw, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council think tank, said Trump’s inaction, and his outright blaming of Ukraine at times, is likely seen by Putin as an invitation to press forward on the battlefield.
“Putin sees this as almost an invitation to bomb, bomb the heck out of Ukrainian cities and to grab more territory,” said Bociurkiw said in a telephone interview from the southwestern Ukrainian city of Odessa.
Mithil Aggarwal is a Hong Kong-based reporter/producer for NBC News.
Peter Guo is a fellow on NBC’s Asia Desk, based in Hong Kong.
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Russia launches largest aerial attack on Ukraine's capital as pessimism grows over a Trump ceasefire – NBC News
