One person has been killed and 26 others injured after a night of intense Russian attacks in almost every neighborhood of Kiev, officials say.
According to foreign media, a cloud of acrid smoke hung over the Ukrainian capital on Friday morning, after dusk, punctuated by the roar of air defense guns, the buzz of drones and loud explosions. Ukraine said Russia shot down a record 539 drones and 11 missiles.
The attacks came hours after a phone call between US President Donald Trump and Russia's Vladimir Putin, after which Trump said he was "disappointed" that Putin was not ready to end the war against Ukraine.
Moscow says the war will continue for as long as necessary to achieve its objectives, writes A2 CNN.
Russia's overnight air strikes broke another record, Ukraine's air force said, with 72 of 539 drones penetrating air defenses, down from a previous record of 537 launched last Saturday evening.
Air raid alarms sounded for more than eight hours as several waves of strikes hit Kiev, the "main target of the attacks," the air force said on the Telegram messaging app.
Footage shared on social media by Ukraine's state emergency service showed firefighters struggling to put out fires in Kiev after Russia's overnight attack.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the attacks as one of the most "demonstratively significant and cynical" attacks of the war, describing them as a "harsh and sleepless night."
Noting that this happened immediately after Putin's phone call with Trump, Zelensky added in a post on Telegram: "Russia once again shows that it has no intention of ending the war."
He called on international allies, especially the US, to increase pressure on Moscow and impose greater sanctions.
Later on Friday, Zelensky and Trump held a phone call about the supply of American weapons, which the Ukrainian leader called a "very important and fruitful conversation." This came after Washington decided to halt some shipments of critical weapons to Ukraine, including those used for air defense.
"We talked about opportunities in air defense and agreed that we will work together to strengthen the defense of our skies," Zelensky said in a post on 'X'. (A2 Televizion)
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