As Trump heads to Europe, Russian drones hit Kyiv and Zelenskyy urges sanctions
LONDON -- Russia continued its nightly strikes on Ukraine -- including the capital Kyiv -- as U.S. President Donald Trump prepared to depart for his state visit to the U.K. on Tuesday, with the White House’s efforts to broker peace between the combatants still stalled.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 113 drones into the country overnight into Tuesday morning, of which 89 were shot down or suppressed. Twenty-two drones impacted across six locations, with falling debris falling in two locations.
Air defenses were active in the sky over Kyiv, local officials there said. Drone attacks caused fires at a shopping center and an industrial facility on the outskirts of the capital, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service reported on Telegram.
"During the fire extinguishing, the aggressor struck the site again, damaging two fire-rescue vehicles," the service said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Russian attacks were reported in Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Zaoprizhzhia Sumy, Kharkiv, Donetsk and Kherson regions. "Now is the time to implement a joint defense of our European sky with a multilayer air defense system," he wrote on Telegram.
At least six people were killed and 55 injured in Russian attacks across Ukraine, according to Ukrainian officials. The attacks included a rocket artillery strike on the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, officials said.
Russia’s Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said its forces downed at least 87 Ukrainian drones overnight into Tuesday.
Russia’s ongoing full-scale invasion -- which began in February 2022 -- is expected to be a topic of discussion when Trump meets with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer during his U.K. visit.
Britain is a leading member of the so-called "Coalition of the Willing" -- a group of mostly-European allied nations that have committed to expanding military support for Ukraine and possibly deploying troops to the country as part of a post-war peacekeeping force.
Trump has ruled out deploying U.S. troops inside Ukraine, though hinted at the possible involvement of U.S. air assets in any future peacekeeping mission. Moscow has repeatedly said it will not accept the presence of any foreign troops on Ukrainian soil.
One month after his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska, Trump's proposed in-person meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy has yet to come to fruition.
Meanwhile, Russia has intensified its long-range strikes on Ukraine. During one such strike last week, around two dozen Russian drones entered Poland -- by far the largest-ever of Russian drones into NATO airspace. At least three of the drones were shot down by responding Polish and Dutch fighters.
NATO has responded by launching Operation Eastern Sentry, which it says will enhance its air defense posture all along the bloc’s eastern edge. Some allies are pushing for more action. Polish Foreign Minister Radoslav Sikorski, for example, has suggested that NATO should shoot down Russian drones operating over western Ukraine.
Trump raised concerns along NATO's eastern frontier when he said Russia's drone incursions into Poland "could have been a mistake" -- a suggestion quickly contested by Warsaw.
"We would also wish that the drone attack on Poland was a mistake. But it wasn’t. And we know it," Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk wrote on social media.
Ukrainian officials, meanwhile, are still pushing for the expanded sanctions and tariffs that Trump has repeatedly threatened to impose on Russia in response to Moscow’s refusal to accept a ceasefire or peace deal.
On Monday, Zelenskyy previewed "an active week of our diplomacy" in a post to Telegram.
"Now -- one week before the [United Nations] General Assembly -- President Trump will be in Europe," Zelenskyy wrote. "We continue our very active work with European leaders to ensure that we are all coordinated and actually reach decisions to put pressure on Russia."
"And if the world does not deliver a truly tangible response to Russia’s prolonging of the war, if sanctions and tariffs are postponed, if the Russian army can already launch drones with impunity even against Poland -- Putin will continue to see it as permission to wage war," Zelenskyy said.
ABC News' Oleksiy Pshemyskyi contributed to this report.
