Zelenskiy pushes allies for more pressure on Russia as new air strikes hit Ukraine

By Anastasiia Malenko and Olena Harmash

KYIV (Reuters) -Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called for more pressure on Moscow on Wednesday, beginning a visit to European allies he hopes will unveil plans for security guarantees for Kyiv, even as Russian forces launched their latest massive air attack.

Russia launched more than 500 drones and dozens of missiles across Ukraine, hitting energy and transport infrastructure at 14 sites across the country and injuring four railway workers.

Separately, regional officials later said that at least nine people were killed in the eastern town of Kostiantynivka, a crucial logistics hub for Ukrainian troops defending a key swathe of the front line.

"These are clearly demonstrative Russian strikes. It is only due to the lack of sufficient pressure, primarily on Russia’s war economy, that this aggression continues," Zelenskiy said on the Telegram app shortly before arriving in Denmark for talks with Nordic and Baltic allies.

"We will be discussing the need for strong pressure measures with our partners in the coming days," he said.

Zelenskiy called on allies to provide Ukraine with air defences.

"These are now regular strikes, several times a week. And a clear signal that Russia rejects any attempt to end the war and wants to keep fighting," he said at a press conference in Denmark.

Zelenskiy will travel next to France to meet allies convening as a "coalition of the willing" to offer security guarantees to deter Russian attacks under any agreement to end the three-and-a-half-year-old war.

NATO chief Mark Rutte said he expected clarity at the Paris meeting, or soon afterward, on what the coalition can deliver in terms of guarantees for Kyiv.

U.S. President Donald Trump has indicated the United States could back up any European peacekeeping plan, but would not deploy U.S. soldiers to Ukraine. Russia has pushed back against any proposal to station Western peacekeeping troops in Ukraine.

Russia has so far shown little interest in ending the war.

President Vladimir Putin, speaking on Wednesday at a press conference in China after attending a ceremony marking the anniversary of the end of World War Two, said Russian forces were advancing in Ukraine on all fronts but that there was a chance for peace via negotiations "if common sense prevails".

Putin said he had "never ruled out the possibility" of meeting Zelenskiy, though he said such a meeting should be held in Moscow, a venue swiftly dismissed by Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybhia as unacceptable.

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Air raid alerts sounded for hours across Ukraine, with explosions heard in nine of its 24 regions, from Kyiv to Lviv and Volyn in the west, Ukrainian officials said. 

Ukraine's air force said it downed 430 of 502 drones and 21 of 24 missiles launched by Russia overnight, adding that three missiles and 69 drones struck 14 locations.

Four railway workers in Ukraine's central Kirovohrad region were in hospital after the Russian attack, the state-owned railway said on messaging app Telegram, flagging delays of up to 7 hours to scores of services following damaged facilities.

In northern Chernihiv, the attack cut power to 30,000 consumers and damaged critical civilian infrastructure, Governor Viacheslav Chaus said.

Firefighters in the Ivano-Frankivsk region were battling flames that engulfed 9,000 sq m (10,800 sq yards) of storage facilities, emergency services said.

Three women and five men were killed in the course of more than an hour of shelling in Kostiantynivka, which also injured at least six people, regional prosecutors said on Facebook. One woman was killed and another injured in a later drone attack.

Russia said it had struck Ukrainian fuel targets. Moscow says it is justified in attacking civil infrastructure to hinder Ukraine's war effort. It denies intentionally harming civilians, though it has killed thousands of them. Ukraine also strikes Russian infrastructure, though on a far smaller scale.

(Editing by Peter Graff and Gareth Jones)