The strikes come as U.S. President Donald Trump is ramping up pressure on Russian leader Vladimir Putin as he seeks to forge a peace deal to end the war.
Ukraine has made Western-backed security guarantees a central demand in any settlement to prevent further Russian attacks. After the country’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and some of his key European backers gathered in the White House on Aug. 18, Trump’s administration signaled it would support a European-led force helping guarantee Ukrainian security, providing intelligence assets and battlefield oversight and taking part in an air defense shield.
But while Trump said afterward that he would soon convene a trilateral meeting with Putin and Zelenskyy, and that the Russian had agreed to the idea, Kremlin-watchers have cast doubt on Putin’s intentions.
The Russian president has prevaricated, dragging his heels on any direct meeting with Zelenskyy and on peace negotiations.
Moscow has doubled down on its asks, including demanding that Kyiv cede the entire Donbas region, among them key strategic strongholds that Russia does not control. Zelenskyy has ruled that out, saying doing so would provide Putin a springboard for a future invasion. Russia on Wednesday also rejected the idea of European peacekeeping troops serving in Ukraine — contradicting Trump’s claim that Putin would accept them under a peace deal.
Thursday’s attack on Kyiv comes on the same day as the EU’s defense ministers are due to arrive in Copenhagen to discuss how to put more pressure on Russia via both sanctions and support for Ukraine.