Russia fires 21 ballistic missiles at Ukraine hours after saying it is ready for talks
Russia fired at least 21 ballistic missiles at Ukraine overnight, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday, hours after the Kremlin said it was ready to resume US-mediated peace talks. Russia said it shot down 808 Ukrainian drones, many of them heading for Moscow.
Three waves on Kyiv
Ukraine's air force told residents to stay in shelters as warnings of "ballistic missiles towards Kyiv" went out through the night. It said it had shot down 181 Russian drones, Euronews reported.
Away from the capital, officials reported a man killed in Sumy, a woman in Kharkiv, three people in Zaporizhzhia and two in Donetsk, according to Euronews. A drone also hit energy infrastructure in the Poltava region, DW said.
Three waves of ballistic missiles have been launched at Kyiv by Russian 'humanitarians' since yesterday evening.
Zelensky was mocking Witkoff, who had called Putin a "humanitarian" after Russia freed American Stephen Hubbard on Wednesday. Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha wrote: "Appeasement, servility, and flattery will not stop this war. Only strength will."
Hundreds of drones over Russia
| Russian figure | Detail | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Drones downed overall | 808 | Russian Defence Ministry, via DW |
| Drones toward Moscow region | 630, of which 163 approached the city | Sobyanin, via Euronews |
| Tula region | 70 drones destroyed | Regional governor, via Euronews |
| Lipetsk | One man injured as drones hit flats and a medical facility | Governor Igor Artamonov, via DW |
DW said at least two people were killed in the Ukrainian strikes on Russia.
Talks, with doubts
Reuters said the two sides also swapped war dead. Moscow handed over 252 bodies and Ukraine 25, according to Belarus's Belta news agency.
President Donald Trump said the sides were "maybe now the closest we've been" to ending the war. Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said the Americans had sensed "some new nuances" in Oslo, where Witkoff met Zelensky and European officials earlier in the week. "But these nuances, so to speak, do not entirely satisfy us," he said.
