Nine people were killed, including three children, in intensifying Russian attacks on Ukraine over the last 24 hours, according to Ukrainian officials.
Five people were killed and at least 20 were wounded when a residential building was struck in Ukraine’s second-largest city Kharkiv, causing a fire and collapsing the structure, according to Oleh Syniehubov, the head of the region’s military administration.
A 1.5-year-old girl and a 16-year-old boy were among those killed in the attack, Syniehubov said in a Telegram post. Five people remain missing.
Responding directly to the Kharkiv attack, Ukraine’s Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said: “Russians only continue to commit mass murder.”
“This war was never provoked; it goes on only because Moscow is allowed to keep going,” she said on X.
A 15-year-old boy was also killed when a bomb fell on a home in the village of Novoyakovlivka, in Zaporizhzhia, said head of the regional military administration Ivan Fedorov. The boy’s brother, sister, and parents were wounded too.
In Donetsk, three people were also killed, said Vadym Filashkin, head of the regional military administration.
Firefighters in Odesa were also dealing with a large fire at a fuel and energy facility, after a “massive” drone strike, the State Emergency Service said.
While US President Donald Trump has pivoted to focus on securing a peace deal for Ukraine, rather than a ceasefire, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has maintained that negotiations should not be held as Russia continues to bombard his country.
Ukraine’s Foreign Affairs Minister Andrii Sybiha demanded Moscow “stop the killing in order to advance diplomacy,” in a Telegram message on Monday, adding that “transatlantic unity and pressure” were needed to make that happen.