Russian drone strike on Ukraine apartments kills several before Trump-Zelenskyy meet
LONDON -- At least seven people, including two children, were killed by a Russian drone strike in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on Sunday night, according to local officials.
Serhiy Bolvinov, the head of Kharkiv National Police's investigations unit, said in a post to Facebook that five Shahed strike drones hit an apartment building at dawn.
"An entire family died in an apartment on the fifth floor," Bolvinov said.
Ukraine's air force said Russia launched 140 drones and four missiles in the country overnight into Monday morning, of which 88 drones were shot down or suppressed.
Missile and drone impacts were reported across 25 locations in Donetsk, Kharkiv, Sumy, Dnipropetrovsk, Odesa and Kyiv regions, the air force said.
Zaporizhzhia Gov. Ivan Fedorov said in a post to Telegram that at least three people were killed and at least 23 people injured by missile strikes in the southern region.
The latest attacks come as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy prepares to meet President Donald Trump and a host of European leaders at the White House on Monday, where Trump has said he hopes his Ukrainian counterpart will agree to a deal to end Russia's war.
"This was an absolutely demonstrative and cynical Russian strike," Zelenskyy wrote in a post to Telegram. "They know that today in Washington there is a meeting to end the war."
Russian President Vladimir Putin, Zelenskyy added, "will kill demonstratively to keep pressuring Ukraine, Europe and to humiliate diplomatic efforts. That is why we are so eagerly awaiting help to stop the killings. That is why reliable security guarantees are needed. That is why Russia must not receive any reward for this war. The war must be ended. And it is Moscow that must hear the word 'stop'."
Andriy Yermak, Zelenskyy's influential chief of staff, wrote on Telegram of the latest round of strikes, "Russia continues to deliberately kill civilians."
"That's why Putin doesn't want to stop the fire -- he likes to shell peaceful cities and talk about wanting to end the war," Yermak wrote. "We don't see this desire yet."
Both sides have continued their long-range strike campaigns throughout Trump's efforts to craft a ceasefire and peace deal to end the conflict, which began with Russia's full-scale invasion of its neighbor in February 2022.
Through July, Russia launched a record 6,443 drones and missiles into Ukraine, according to data published by the Ukrainian air force, with a daily average of 201 drones and six missiles.
July's monthly total was the highest of the war to date, and around 13% more than were recorded in June.
At least 286 people were killed and 1,388 injured in Ukraine in July, making last month the deadliest for Ukrainian civilians since May 2022, according to data published by the United Nations' Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine.
So far in August, the scale of Russian strikes has diminished. As of Monday, Ukraine's air force had recorded 1,344 drone and 27 missile launches by Russia in August -- an average of around 74 drones and more than one missile per day so far this month.
Russia's Defense Ministry, meanwhile, has claimed to have shot down 1,740 Ukrainian drones so far in August, at a daily average of around 96 per day.
The Defense Ministry in Moscow said its forces downed at least 24 Ukrainian drones overnight into Monday.
