by & nbspgavin Blackburn & nbspwith & nbspAP
It’s published
The Russian missile strike in an apartment in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, was a sign that Moscow must put more pressure on Moscow to agree to a ceasefire, Ukrainian President Voldymir Zelensky said on Thursday.
Earlier on Tuesday, a fatal attack on the capital killed 28 people and injured 142 people across the city, with drone and missile attacks on Kiev’s junta Timur Tokachenko said.
Zelensky, along with Interior Minister Andry Yelmack and Interior Minister Ihol Klimenko, visited the site of an apartment building in Kiev’s Solomiansky district on Thursday morning, paying tribute to the 23 people who died there after being attacked directly by missiles.
“This attack is a reminder to the world that Russia refuses to ceasefire and chooses to kill,” Zelenki wrote in Telegram, thanking his Ukrainian partner for saying that he was ready to pressure Russia to “feel the real cost of war.”
Enhanced attacks
Tuesday’s attack on Kiev was part of a drastic barrage as Russia once again tried to overwhelm Ukraine’s air defense.
Russia launched over 440 drones and 32 missiles, what Zelensky called one of the biggest artillery bombardments of the war.
As Russia advances its summer attacks at some of its 1,000-kilometer frontlines, US-led peace efforts have not gained traction.
Russian President Vladimir Putin effectively rejected US President Donald Trump’s offer of a 30-day ceasefire, conditioning on the halt of Ukraine’s mobilization efforts and freezing western arms supplies.
Meanwhile, tensions in the Middle East and US trade tariffs have attracted global attention from Ukraine’s pleas to put diplomatic and economic pressure on Moscow.
Over the past few weeks, Russia has stepped up long-range attacks that have hit urban residential areas. However, on Wednesday, Putin denied that the military had hit such targets, saying the attack was “on the military industry, not the residential quarter.”
Putin told the senior news leader of the international press in St. Petersburg that he was open to talks with Zelensky, but repeated his accusations that the Ukrainian leader had lost his legitimacy after his term expired last year.
“We are ready for substantial consultations on the principles of settlement,” Putin said earlier consultations in Istanbul led to the exchange of the bodies of prisoners and fallen soldiers.
The prisoner exchanged
According to the coordination headquarters for the treatment of Ukrainian prisoners (KSHPPV), a new round of such interaction took place in the Chernikv region of Ukraine on Thursday, including the repatriation of Ukrainian prisoners.
The exchange was confirmed by the Russian Ministry of Defense, which released videos of Russian military personnel in the Belarus exchange area after being released in prison swaps.
Commenting on the exchange, Zelenskyy said, “We are working to get people back. We would like to thank everyone who helped make these exchanges possible. Our goal is to free everything.”
Many of the exchanged Ukrainian prisoners had spent more than three years in 2022, when many were captured during the definition of the city of Maripol, currently under Russian occupation.
