Russia intensified its bombardment of Ukraine overnight with a record drone attack targeting 10 regions, less than 24 hours after President Trump aired his frustrations with Russian President Vladimir Putin for making little progress toward peace in the more than three-year war.
The Russian military fired 728 drones, including more than 300 Shahed drones, along with 13 Iskander-K and Kinzhals missiles, according to the Ukrainian Air Force.
The city of Lutsk, located in the northwest of Ukraine, was hit the hardest by the latest airstrikes. The city is situated near the Polish and Belarusian borders and has a population of over 200,000 residents. It is also home to the Lutsk Air Base.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said air bases were the intended target and claimed it was successful in its mission.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that apart from the city of Lutsk, the Russian attack also targeted the Dnipro, Zhytomyr, Kyiv, Kirovohrad, Mykolaiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Khmelnytskyi, Cherkasy and Chernihiv regions.
“This is a telling attack — and it comes precisely at a time when so many efforts have been made to achieve peace, to establish a ceasefire, and yet only Russia continues to rebuff them all,” Zelensky wrote Wednesday morning in a post on social platform X. “This is yet another proof of the need for sanctions — biting sanctions against oil, which has been fueling Moscow’s war machine with money for over three years of the war.”
His push comes after Ukraine hawk Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Tuesday that the Senate will move “soon” on a “tough” Russia sanctions package that would impose a 500 percent tariff on imports from any country that buys Russian gas, uranium and oil. The measure has over 80 co-sponsors in the upper chamber and Trump confirmed he is also “looking at” the bill.
Trump, who has pushed to end the raging war in Eastern Europe, lashed out at Putin during a Cabinet hearing Tuesday.
“That is a war that it should have never happened,” the president said. “A lot of people are dying and it should end. We get a lot of bulls— thrown at us by Putin, if you want to know the truth. He’s very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless.”
Russian Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday that “we react quite calmly to that.”
“First of all, Trump makes quite harsh statements, judging from the phrases that he has used,” the Kremlin spokesman added.
Russia’s record attack on Wednesday also comes after the U.S. earlier this week said it would resume sending defense weapons to Ukraine, days after pausing the delivery of some air defense and munitions. Trump said the move was necessary so Kyiv can defend itself amid the onslaught.
He spoke with Putin last week via phone, later telling reporters that the two made “no progress” in brokering a potential ceasefire. The president added that he was “disappointed with the conversation,” and that he didn’t believe the Russian leader was “looking to stop, and that’s too bad.”
Trump spoke with Zelensky the next day. The Ukrainian leader said they had a “very important and fruitful” discussion.
Over the weekend, Russia’s military pounded Kyiv and other cities by launching 550 drones and missiles, injuring dozens of people and setting fire to cars and ambulances.
