At least 2 killed in Russian strikes on Ukraine despite Zelensky’s peace talks offer

At least two people were killed and 15 were injured as Russia launched an overnight missile and drone attack on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, authorities said on Monday, despite Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s proposal for a third round of peace negotiations to go ahead this week.

Aside from Kyiv, Russia targeted the western city of Ivano-Frankivsk with missiles and drones in what Mayor Ruslan Martsinkiv said was the “largest attack of the full-scale invasion”, causing a fire to break out in a residential building and injuring four people, including a child.

Writing on X on Monday morning, Zelensky said the attacks represented an “assault on humanity”, targeting civilian infrastructure in Kyiv, including a kindergarten. Zelensky called for “real pressure on Russia” as well as increased air defences to protect civilians against them.

The entrance to Kyiv’s Lukyanivska metro station, which functions as an air raid shelter during Russian attacks, was also damaged in the strikes, the State Emergency Service of Ukraine said.

The Ukrainian Air Force (UAF) said Russia had launched a total of 426 drones and 24 missiles overnight, with 200 drones intercepted by air defences and 200 more not reaching their targets.

Ukraine also launched a drone attack on Russia overnight, with Moscow and the surrounding Moscow region the primary targets, Russia’s Defence Ministry reported. It said air defences had intercepted 74 Ukrainian drones through the night, including 15 “headed for Moscow”.

Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said debris from a downed drone had fallen in the settlement of Kievsky to the southwest of the capital, with footage shared by Moscow news outlets appearing to show a fire on the roof of a 16-storey apartment block.

Flights were temporarily halted overnight at all four of Moscow’s airports due to the drone threat, Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency said.

The attacks came just a day after Zelensky proposed a fresh round of peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv to be held as early as this week, with the Turkish-language edition of The Independent reporting that delegations from Russia and Ukraine could meet in Istanbul on Wednesday or Thursday.