President Volodymyr Zelenskiy promised retribution against Russia yesterday after laying red roses at the rubble of a Kyiv apartment building where a Russian missile strike killed 24 people, including three children.
Aboard Air Force One on his way back from China, US President Donald Trump told reporters that the strikes on the Ukrainian capital, launched hours after a three-day US-brokered ceasefire expired, could disrupt efforts to find a diplomatic resolution to the war.
Search operations were called off at the building, struck on Thursday during Russia’s heaviest bombardment of the Ukrainian capital this year.
“Ukraine will not allow any of the aggressor’s strikes that take the lives of our people to go unpunished,” Zelenskiy said after meeting top military and intelligence officials to discuss retaliatory long-range strikes.
Zelenskiy said later in his nightly video address that retaliatory actions had already been approved.
He pointed to an overnight strike on an oil refinery that the military said triggered a large fire in the central Russian city of Ryazan.
“Last night, the enemy already saw hits, including on their oil facilities and military facilities,” Zelenskiy said. “We are continuing the operations.”
Four people were killed in the Ryazan strike that damaged high-rise apartment buildings, the governor of Russia’s Ryazan region said.
Kyiv officials declared yesterday a day of mourning, with flags at half-mast across the city of 3 million.
Entertainment events were cancelled or postponed. Residents brought flowers, stuffed animals and sweets to a makeshift memorial at the destroyed housing block.
About 20 Western diplomats came to show solidarity.
“It demonstrates again that they are definitely not interested in any kind of peace discussions right now,” said French Ambassador Gael Veyssiere.
Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said hundreds of rescuers had sifted through 3,000 cubic metres of rubble. Officials said 24 bodies had been recovered and about 30 people rescued alive.
Zelenskiy said initial analysis showed the building had been hit by a recently made Russian Kh-101 missile.
Moscow denies deliberately targeting civilians but during more than four years of war has frequently hit residential buildings and other civilian infrastructure all over Ukraine.
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