Russia launched overnight Thursday one of the most devastating bombardments on Ukraine’s major cities since the war began, killing at least nine people, hours after President Donald Trump said he believed he had struck deals with both sides to end the war.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced he was cutting short a trip to South Africa and returning home immediately to deal with the “destruction” in his country.
“Russia continues to kill people and avoid tough pressure and accountability for this,” he said Thursday. “Unfortunately, there is a lot of destruction. Rescue operations are ongoing, the rubble of buildings is being cleared.”
The capital Kyiv was pummeled with 140 drones and 70 missiles, 64 and 48 of which were shot down, Ukraine’s Air Force said. It was “a particularly horrible and loud night,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said in a statement.
According to Ukrainian officials, 70 people were injured in addition to those killed.
Bombs also fell in the county’s second city of Kharkiv, where Mayor Ihor Terekhov urged residents to “be careful!”
Emergency workers sift through the rubble after the overnight Russian attack.
The attacks follow the latest conflicting and often contradictory statements in the U.S.-brokered peace talks.
On Wednesday, Trump said in the Oval Office that “I think we have a deal with both” sides — before suggesting that an agreement with Ukraine was still pending.
“I thought it might be easier to deal with Zelenskyy,” he said. “So far, it’s been harder.”
Earlier in the day, Trump launched his latest criticism of Zelenskyy on Truth Social, accusing his Ukrainian counterpart of making “inflammatory statements” — a reference to a Wall Street Journal interview in which Zelenskyy pushed back on Washington’s peace plan — and said of a deal he needed to “GET IT DONE.”
The White House is trying to push Ukraine into a accepting a deal with Russia despite setting terms that Kyiv deems deeply unfavorable. High-level talks in the United Kingdom disintegrated earlier this week after Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff pulled out, leaving lower-level ministers to meet instead.
Witkoff is set to travel to Moscow this week to speak with Putin about the talks, the White House said Tuesday. Plane spotters using the website FlightRadar24 said they had tracked a plane matching one previously used by the envoy flying from Paris to Moscow overnight.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov did not mention Thursday’s attacks in his morning briefing with journalists. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova meanwhile said that “Kiev’s inability to negotiate is becoming increasingly obvious.”
The Russian Ministry of Defense said it shot down 87 Ukrainian drones overnight.
An injured woman sits near her house following a Russian airstrike in Kyiv on Thursday.
Gauging Russian support for the war is difficult given the brutality with which Putin’s regime silences dissent and political opposition. Even so, a running survey by Moscow’s Levada Center pollster shows the overwhelming majority — 80% as of February — support the invasion in some capacity.
Canvassing opinion on the streets of Moscow showed some differences of opinion.
“No deals. Let them get what they deserve,” said Evgeniy, 66, a retiree. While Tatyana, 50, said she was in “favor of ceasefire because so many people are suffering.” Both declined to give their last names amid Russia’s repressive atmosphere.
For Ukrainians and their supporters abroad, Thursday’s attacks symbolized the hypocrisy of Russia’s position. President Vladimir Putin continues to make extreme demands — his conditions for a deal essentially resemble a Ukrainian surrender — while continuing to prosecute the invasion he launched three years ago.
Zelenskyy and members of his government say they will never accept Russian control over Crimea, a key demand of the Kremlin’s.
“Yesterday’s Russian maximalist demands for Ukraine to withdraw from its regions, combined with these brutal strikes, show that Russia, not Ukraine, is the obstacle to peace,” Sybiha, the Ukrainian foreign minister said in his statement. “Moscow, not Kyiv, is where pressure should be applied.”
Alexander Smith reported from London and Daryna Mayer reported from Kyiv.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com