Russia unleashed a missile strike on Volodymyr Zelensky’s home town after Ukraine targeted Moscow with a massive drone attack.
The attack on the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih killed a 47-year-old woman and wounded at least nine other people, Dnipropetrovsk regional governor Serhiy Lysak said on Wednesday.
The air strike also damaged an infrastructure facility, high-rise apartment buildings, administrative buildings, a shop and an educational facility, he added.
Kryvyi Rih, President Zelensky’s home town, has been a frequent target since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine three years ago.
The overnight attack followed the mass drone attack on Moscow and US-Ukraine talks in Saudi Arabia where Kyiv said it was ready to support Washington’s proposal for a 30-day ceasefire with Russia.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US would now take the offer to Russia, and the ball is in Moscow’s court.
Britain urged Vladimir Putin to accept the ceasefire immediately.
But Russian sources reacted warily to the ceasefire proposal.
A senior Russian source said Putin would find it difficult to agree to the ceasefire idea without hashing out terms and getting some sort of guarantees.
Another senior Russian source said that the ceasefire proposal looked from Moscow’s perspective to be a trap because Putin would find it hard to halt the war without some concrete guarantees or pledges.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia used three missiles to attack Kryvyi Rih and the Black Sea port of Odesa, in addition to sending 133 drones to attack the country overnight.
In Odesa, the missile strike on port infrastructure killed four Syrians and wounded a Ukrainian and a Syrian citizen, Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba.
The attack damaged the Barbados-flagged “MJ PINA” vessel that was loading wheat for export to Algeria, according to Mr Kuleba, as well as another vessel and grain storage facilities.
An overnight attack on the city of Dnipro also wounded one person and damaged infrastructure, enterprises and around 10 private homes, causing fires which have mostly been put out.
Meanwhile, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski confirmed that supplies of arms from the United States to Ukraine through Poland have resumed and Starlink satellite internet services were working, to again help Kyiv’s war effort.
Donald Trump had cut off intelligence sharing and military aid as he piled pressure on Kyiv to agree to a peace plan.
