Russia attacks Kyiv as Ukraine’s Zelenskiy speaks to Trump, Europe

(Reuters)

June 18 – The Ukrainian capital came under attack ‌from Russian missiles, Kyiv authorities said on Thursday, as they urged residents to take shelter hours after President Volodymyr Zelenskiy spoke with U.S. President Donald Trump and European leaders.

A Reuters witness heard explosions in Kyiv and authorities in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Sumy said one person was killed in a drone attack. Air strike ​alerts were issued for most of Ukraine’s territory.

“The enemy is attacking the capital with ballistic missiles. Stay in safe places until ​the air raid alert is over!” Tymur Tkachenko, the head of Kyiv’s military administration, said in a Telegram ⁠post early on Thursday.

The attack on Kyiv is the second this week and came as Zelenskiy tried to increase pressure on Russia to ​negotiate an end to its four-year-long war.

He said he had spoken to Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron, plus other leaders, on the sidelines of a ​Group of Seven meeting in France. He described it as a “coordinating conversation” to try to end the war.

Earlier this week, a major attack on Kyiv by Russia killed 10 people and damaged a 1,000-year-old monastery that symbolises Ukraine’s spiritual and cultural heritage, drawing condemnation from European leaders. Russia denied striking the monastery.

Trump said on Wednesday that ​Russia was losing more soldiers than Ukraine, after he suggested that both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Zelenskiy seemed open to doing something about the ​war.

Putin had not discussed the possibility of a meeting with Zelenskiy during his latest phone call with Trump, the Kremlin said this week. Russia has said Ukraine ‌was losing.