Russian Drones Slam Into Kharkiv Apartment Block, Killing 7 Ukrainians

Why Is It so Hard for Putin To End the War in Ukraine?

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A Russian drone attack on an apartment block in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv early on Monday killed at least seven people and wounded nearly two dozen others, Ukrainian

The attack, which took place just before dawn, reduced part of the building to rubble and sparked fires on at least three floors, the region's governor Oleh Syniehubov said on Telegram. Russia launched four drones at the building, he added.

Ukraine's state emergency service posted videos showing rescuers sifting through the rubble to reach a trapped person.

Kharkiv, located near the Russian border, was hit hours earlier

Russian forces also struck the southern Odesa region with drones early on Monday, sparking a fire at a fuel facility, regional governor Oleh Kiper said.

The attacks came hours before Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his European allies were expected to travel to Washington for talks with U.S. President Donald Trump on ending the war.

Zelensky denounced the Russian strikes on social media, accusing Moscow of trying to pressure Ukraine and Europe, as well as "humiliate diplomatic efforts" to end the war.

"This was a demonstrative and cynical Russian strike. They are aware that a meeting is taking place today in Washington that will address the end of the war," he wrote in a post on X.

Earlier, Trump said Ukraine would not be able to reclaim the annexed Crimean peninsula or enter NATO as part of a peace deal. Zelensky has repeatedly pushed back against pressure to cede Crimea, the southern peninsula annexed

Russia, which has been advancing for months on the battlefield, has proposed that Ukraine withdraw from the Donbas region in exchange for freezing the front line in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, where the capital cities are still under Kyiv's control.

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