Russia launches drone barrage into Ukraine after Trump-Zelenskyy meeting
LONDON -- Ukraine reported 149 Russian drones launched into the country overnight into the early hours of Sunday, the barrage coming hours after President Donald Trump met with Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy at Pope Francis' funeral in Vatican City.
Ukraine's air force said in a Telegram post that 57 of the drones were shot down and 67 were lost in flight. Six regions of the country -- Zhytomyr, Dnipropetrovsk, Odessa, Donetsk, Sumy and Cherkasy -- recorded damage from drone attacks, the air force said.
The air force said in another post to Telegram that over the previous week, Russia attacked Ukraine with 48 missiles of various types and 442 attack drones.
Russia's Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said its forces downed eight Ukrainian drones overnight into Sunday morning.
The latest exchange of drones came shortly after Trump and Zelenskyy met in the Vatican City, as the White House continued its efforts to broker a ceasefire and peace deal to end Moscow's 3-year-old invasion of its neighbor -- the ongoing operation the latest chapter in more than a decade of Russian cross-border aggression.
White House Communications Director Steven Cheung told the press pool traveling with Trump that the two men had a "very productive session."
Zelenskyy described the meeting as "good" in a post to X. "We discussed a lot one on one," he wrote. "Hoping for results on everything we covered. Protecting lives of our people. Full and unconditional ceasefire. Reliable and lasting peace that will prevent another war from breaking out. Very symbolic meeting that has potential to become historic, if we achieve joint results."
After their meeting, Trump hit out at Russian President Vladimir Putin over Moscow's continued bombardments of Ukrainian cities, which late last week included a deadly ballistic missile strike on Kyiv.
There was "no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days," Trump wrote.
"It makes me think that maybe he doesn't want to stop the war, he's just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently, through 'Banking' or 'Secondary Sanctions?' Too many people are dying!!!" he added.
The Vatican meeting followed special envoy Steve Witkoff's meeting with Putin in Moscow on Friday, before which Trump posted that it was "a good day in talks and meetings with Russia and Ukraine" and he suggested it was time for the combatants to meet at "very high levels."
"They are very close to a deal, and the two sides should now meet, at very high levels, to "finish it off," Trump wrote on his social media site.
"Most of the major points are agreed to. Stop the bloodshed, NOW. We will be wherever is necessary to help facilitate the END to this cruel and senseless war!" Trump added in the post, but provided no additional information about the apparent progress.
ABC News' Molly Nagle, Alex Ederson and Hannah Demissie contributed to this report.
