Russian attacks on Ukraine kill 10 ahead of Trump-Zelenskiy meeting

By Vitalii Hnidyi and Anna Voitenko

KHARKIV, Ukraine (Reuters) - Russian attacks on major Ukrainian cities killed at least 10 people on Monday, hours before President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was expected to press his case in Washington against a quick deal to end Moscow's war.

An entire family including a toddler and her 16-year-old brother were among the seven killed in an overnight drone strike on a residential neighbourhood in northeastern Kharkiv, authorities said. Twenty-three people were wounded, they said.

Three people were also killed in a ballistic missile strike on the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, the regional governor said, adding that another 23 were wounded.

In Kharkiv, rescuers carried out bloodied survivors to safety across debris and shattered glass. They shouted to others who remained stuck in the hulking wreckage of an apartment building.

A Reuters reporter witnessed medics attempting to resuscitate the toddler, whose clothing was tattered and body coated in dust.

"An ordinary apartment block ... families with small children, a children's playground, a residential compound," said resident Olena Yakusheva while fighting back tears.

"We were just living here and enjoying our little building."

Zelenskiy, who called the attacks "demonstrative and cynical", was preparing for talks with Donald Trump amid fears the U.S. president will pressure Ukraine into accepting a peace settlement favourable to Russia.

Kyiv, which is also fending off a grinding Russian offensive across much of the east, has warned that rewarding Moscow by giving away more Ukrainian territory would only embolden the Kremlin to continue its war, now in its fourth year.

"Putin will commit demonstrative killings to maintain pressure on Ukraine and Europe, as well as to humiliate diplomatic efforts," Zelenskiy wrote on X.

Russia, which did not immediately comment on Monday's attacks, says it does not target civilians but thousands have been killed in its full-scale invasion since February 2022.

Ukraine's air force said Russian forces launched 140 drones and four missiles at Ukraine overnight, adding that 88 drones had been downed. Monday's drone attack was Russia's largest on Ukraine since August 4.

The air force said it had recorded strikes at 25 locations in six different regions.

In the southern Odesa region, a drone strike damaged an oil depot belonging to Azerbaijan's state-owned SOCAR for the second time in two weeks, Ukraine's foreign minister said.

TALKS IN WASHINGTON

Trump, who hosted Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday for talks aimed at ending the war, has urged Kyiv to make a deal with Moscow, stating, "Russia is a very big power, and they're not."

Zelenskiy, who wants security guarantees from the U.S., has all but rejected the outline of Putin's proposals from the Alaska meeting, including for Ukraine to give up the rest of its eastern Donbas region.

Some Kyiv residents, speaking to Reuters on Monday, said they did not trust a deal that forces Ukraine to withdraw from more territory.

"If we give up Donbas, then tomorrow they (Russia) will ask for Zaporizhzhia and Kherson," said Dmytro Furlet, a 44-year-old engineer, referring to two other regions partly occupied by Moscow.

(Additional reporting by Anastasiia Malenko; Writing by Dan Peleschuk in Kyiv; editing by Diane Craft, Tom Balmforth and Giles Elgood)