Russian drone strikes hit peak

AFP | Kyiv

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July’s record drone attacks kill 31 in Kyiv, as international outrage mounts and new air defences promised

• EU slams Russia’s “depraved” tactics
• Zelensky urges global pressure, air defenses
• Germany to send more Patriot systems
• Trump threatens new Russia sanctions

Russia fired a record number of drones at Ukraine in July, an analysis showed yesterday, intensifying its deadly bombardment of the country despite US pressure to stop the war.

Russian attacks have killed hundreds of Ukrainian civilians since June.

A combined missile and drone attack on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv early Thursday killed 31 people, including five children, said rescuers.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has consistently rejected calls for a ceasefire, said yesterday that he wanted peace but that his demands for ending the nearly three-and-a-half year invasion were “unchanged”.

Those demands include that Ukraine withdraw from territory it already controls and drop its NATO ambitions forever.

“The main thing is to eradicate the causes that gave rise to this crisis,” Putin told reporters alongside Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

“We need a lasting and stable peace on solid foundations that would satisfy both Russia and Ukraine, and would ensure the security of both countries,” Putin said.

Flowers for the Children

In Kyiv, residents held a day of mourning for the 31 killed on Thursday, most of whom were in a nine-storey apartment block torn open by a missile.

Journalists at the scene yesterday saw rescue workers pulling bodies from the debris.

Iryna Drozd, a 28-year-old mother-of-three, was laying flowers at the site to commemorate the five children killed.

The youngest, whose lifeless body was found early yesterday, was two years old.

“These are flowers because children died. We brought flowers because we have children. Our children live across the street from here,” she said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who announced rescue operations had ended yesterday, said later that only Putin could end the war and renewed his call for a meeting between the two leaders.

“The United States has proposed this. Ukraine has supported it. What is needed is Russia’s readiness,” he wrote on X.

"This despicable attack by Russia shows that additional pressure and sanctions on Moscow are necessary. This can only be stopped together: America, Europe, and other global actors."
— Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky

‘We Can Wait’

Putin made no mention of a possible meeting with Zelensky in his comments to reporters yesterday, and suggested Kyiv was not ready for further negotiations.

“We can wait if the Ukrainian leadership believes that now is not the time,” he said.

He added that Russian troops were advancing “along the entire front line”, and that Moscow had started mass producing “Oreshnik” — a nuclear-capable, hypersonic missile first fired on Ukraine last year.

The Kremlin has consistently rejected a ceasefire in Ukraine, saying in July it saw no immediate diplomatic way out of its nearly three-and-a-half year invasion.

US President Donald Trump on Thursday condemned Russia’s actions in Ukraine, suggesting that new sanctions against Moscow were coming.