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Zelenskyy calls for truce after Russia launches ‘massive ballistic missile and drone’ attack on Ukraine energy targets
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called for a truce with Russia after Moscow’s forces launched a “massive missile and drone” strike on Ukrainian energy facilities
The Ukrainian president said his country was “ready for peace” after Russia targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in a large-scale bombardment overnight, including with Iskander ballistic missiles.
Mr Zelenskyy said: “is Ukraine that wants peace from the very first second of this war.
“The task is to force Russia to stop the war”. Mr Zelenskyy is due to meet US officials for peace talks next week.
Russia was accused of “trying to hurt ordinary citizens” by Ukraine’s energy minister, as at least 10 people, including a child, were wounded.
Mr Zelenskyy added: “Ukraine is alive, it is still fighting and developing thanks to the strength and courage of our people, always supporting our partners.
“Thank you, Ukrainians and Ukrainians, every skin and every skin, for those who protect and protect your country!”
Russia hit Odesa in the south and Kharkiv in the east. In Kharkiv, eight people were wounded and infrastructure and a residential building were hit. Seven people, including two girls aged three and four, were wounded in Slovyansk by Russian ‘glide bombs’.
Around 30 buildings were damaged or destroyed. One child was injured in Kramatorsk, and two people, including a child, were injured near Myrhorod. In Odesa, energy infrastructure and residential buildings were damaged. The attack lasted almost all through the night, according to local reports.
Ukrainian energy minister German Galushchenko posted online: ““The energy and gas infrastructure in various regions of Ukraine is under massive missile and drone shelling again.
“Russia is trying to hurt ordinary Ukrainians by shelling energy and gas production facilities, without abandoning its goal of leaving us without power and heating, and causing the greatest harm to ordinary citizens.”
The latest attack comes just hours after Mr Zelenskyy said his country would hold talks with the US next week about ending the war against Russia.
Mr Zelenskyy said he would travel to Saudi Arabia on Monday and his team would stay there to hold talks with US officials.
“I am scheduled to visit Saudi Arabia to meet with the crown prince,” said Mr Zelenskyy, referring to Mohammed bin Salman, the heir to the throne of the oil-rich kingdom. “After that, my team will stay in Saudi Arabia to work with American partners. Ukraine is most interested in peace.”
He added: “As we told President Trump, Ukraine is working and will work exclusively constructively for a quick and reliable peace.”
In an exchange with reporters on Thursday, US President Donald Trump said he believed his administration had made “a lot of progress” in recent days with both Ukraine and Russia, but did not specify how.
“I think what’s going to happen is Ukraine wants to make a deal, because I don’t think they have a choice,” Mr Trump said.
“I also think that Russia wants to make a deal because in a certain different way – a different way that only I know, only I know – they have no choice either.
Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff confirmed that senior administration officials are arranging to hold talks with top Ukrainian officials in Saudi Arabia.
Mr Witkoff noted that Mr Zelenskyy has been apologetic in recent days about the White House blow-up and expressed gratitude.
Zelensky – Thankful and grateful we are not alone
He was circumspect about whether a minerals deal would be signed during the meeting in Saudi Arabia.
“We’ll see if he follows through,” Mr Witkoff said.
The announcement came as European Union leaders held emergency talks about ways to quickly increase their military budgets after the Trump administration signalled that Europe must take care of its own security and also suspended assistance to Ukraine.
In just over a month, Mr Trump has overturned old certainties about US reliability as a security partner, as he embraces Russia and withdraws American support for Ukraine.
On Monday, Mr Trump ordered a pause to US military supplies to Ukraine as he sought to press Mr Zelensky to engage in negotiations to end the war with Russia. The US has also paused intelligence sharing with Kyiv.
Earlier French defence minister Sebastien Lecornu said France is providing military intelligence to Ukraine.
American intelligence is vital for Ukraine to track Russian troop movements and select targets.
Speaking to France Inter radio on Thursday, Mr Lecornu said France is continuing its intelligence sharing.
“Our intelligence is sovereign,” Mr Lecornu said. “We have intelligence that we allow Ukraine to benefit from.”
Mr Lecornu added that following the US decision to suspend all military aid to Ukraine, French President Emmanuel Macron asked him to “accelerate the various French aid packages” to make up for the lack of American assistance.
Mr Lecornu said that in the wake of the US decision, shipments of Ukraine-bound aid departing from Poland had been suspended, adding, however, that “Ukrainians, unfortunately, have learned to fight this war for three years now and know how to stockpile”.
In Ukraine, a Russian ballistic missile killed four people staying at a hotel in President Zelensky’s home town during the night.
Mr Zelenskyy, who was attending the EU summit on defence in Brussels, said a humanitarian organisation’s volunteers had moved into the hotel in Kryvyi Rih, in central Ukraine, just before the strike, including Ukrainian, American and British nationals. He did not say whether those people were among the 31 injured.
Russia fired 112 Shahed and decoy drones, as well as two ballistic Iskander missiles, at Ukraine overnight, the Ukrainian air force said.
Later on Thursday Russia’s Foreign Ministry rejected a peace proposal from France and Britain, describing it as an attempt by Kyiv’s European allies to offer a break to the embattled Ukrainian army.
The ministry’s spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, said the proposed break in air and naval attacks is an attempt to “secure a pause for the agonising Kyiv regime, the Ukrainian armed forces and prevent the front from collapsing”.
She said Ukraine would use any pause in fighting to strengthen its military, which would lead to prolonged conflict.
And Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov harshly criticised Mr Macron’s claim that Russia threatens Europe.
“This is a threat to Russia,” Mr Lavrov said at a briefing in Moscow, noting Mr Macron’s plan to convene a meeting of top European military officers to discuss purported aggressive plans by Moscow.
Mr Lavrov dismissed the allegations that Russia was hatching plans to attack European nations as “stupid” and “delirious nonsense”.
“For any more or less sane person it is completely clear that Russia does not need this,” he said.
LBC