Shaun
Ukraine is marking a day of mourning on Wednesday after what Volodymyr Zelensky described as one of the worst attacks on Kyiv since the war with Russia began. At least 18 people were killed in the strikes, 16 in Kyiv and two in Odesa, as Russia fired nearly 500 missiles and drones at 27 locations in the capital. Mr Zelensky told the G7 that the attack by Vladimir Putin’s forces proved once again the need for Ukraine to be provided better air defences.
He also told the G7 leaders in Canada that “diplomacy is now in a state of crisis” after US president Donald Trump left the summit a day early to address the conflict in the Middle East, skipping their meeting.
Hosts Canada then dropped plans for the group to issue a strong statement on the war in Ukraine after resistance from the United States, a Canadian official told reporters. Mr Zelensky said Western allies need to continue calling on Mr Trump “to use his real influence” to force an end to the war.
Russia flattened a section of an apartment block in Kyiv yesterday, marking its deadliest attack on the Ukrainian capital this year, as a huge barrage of hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles killed at least 18 people and wounded 151.
“I have never seen anything like this before. It is simply horrific. When they started pulling people out, and everyone was cut up, elderly people and children… I do not know how long they can continue to torment us ordinary people,” said Viktoriia Vovchenko, 57, who lives nearby.
Ukraine’s State Emergency Services said operations proceeded throughout the day, with three bodies pulled from rubble late in the evening, bringing the casualty toll in Kyiv to 16 dead and 134 injured.
Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said the dead included a 62-year-old US citizen, who died from shrapnel wounds.
Trump administration officials have shelved an inter-agency working group created to formulate strategies for pressuring Russia into speeding up peace talks with Ukraine, it has been claimed.
The group was established earlier in the spring but lost steam in May as it became increasingly clear that Donald Trump was not interested in adopting a more confrontational stance toward Moscow, three US officials told Reuters.
“It lost steam toward the end because the president wasn’t there. Instead of doing more, maybe he wanted to do less,” one official was quoted as saying.
The final blow came roughly three weeks ago, when most members of the White House National Security Council, who were coordinating the group – including the entire team dealing directly with the Ukraine war – were dismissed as part of a broad purge, they alleged.
Mr Kim and Mr Shoigu, secretary of Russia’s Security Council, discussed cooperation plans for Moscow’s rebuilding of the Kursk region, the report said, confirming earlier reports of the meeting by Russian media.
North Korea will send 5,000 military construction workers and 1,000 sappers to the region to help rebuild it after the Ukrainian incursion that North Korean troops helped Moscow repel this year, Mr Shoigu was cited as saying by the Russian state news agency TASS today.
His visit to Pyongyang and meeting with Mr Kim came nearly two weeks after his last meeting with the leader of the reclusive state on 4 June.
Plans to commemorate the “heroic feats” of North Korean soldiers in the operations in the Kursk region, a part of Russia which Ukrainian forces infiltrated last year, were also discussed during the meeting, KCNA said.
