Ukraine: 'Decisive' pressure needed after Russia pounds Kyiv – DW – 06/06/2025
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called those not pressuring Russia to end its war "complicit and responsible" for lives lost after Russian bombs hit Kyiv. The call came after Russia launched hundreds of overnight strikes.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday called for allies to increase pressure on Russia to end its war of aggression after Moscow launched more than 400 drones and 40 missiles at targets in Ukraine overnight, killing at least four people and wounding 20 more.
Three of those killed in the attack were emergency responders helping victims in the city, with the Interior Ministry saying, "they were working under fire to help people."
"If someone does not put pressure and gives the war more time to take lives, they are complicit and responsible," Zelenskyy wrote in a social media post, adding, "we need to act decisively."
Separately, the Ukrainian president said Russia's leaders are, "obsessed with war, consumed by hatred and the desire to destroy the lives of other nations." Zelenskyy said such people could only be defeated with force, "the force of diplomacy, sanctions, weapons and technology."
On Friday, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko confirmed the attack on the capital and said at least six other regions had been targeted in what was one of Russia's largest coordinated attacks in the three-year war. Klitschko cited Ukrainian air force intelligence that counted 407 drones and 4 missiles launched at the country overnight.
An air force spokesman said roughly 30 of the missiles and more than 200 of the drones had been shot down.
Russia's Defense Ministry said the attacks was in response to what it called Ukrainian "terrorist acts" against Russia.
Ukrainian drones damage more than Russian aircraft
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Trump shifts from 'I'll end it on day one' to 'let 'em fight for a while'
The United Nations estimates that more than 12,000 civilians have been killed since Russia launched its war of aggression against neighboring Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine's commissioner for human rights, said "Russia is acting like a terrorist, systematically targeting civilian infrastructure." He, too, called for a tough international response.
Ukraine has offered a 30-day unconditional ceasefire as an attempt to end the war but Russia has continuously rejected such overtures.
On Thursday, US President Donald Trump — who has repeatedly boasted that he could easily end the war but has utterly failed to do so — changed course from his calls to immediately end the conflict, instead suggesting it, "might be better to let them fight for a while" before Zelenskyy sits down with Russian President Vladimir Putin to negotiate a peace agreement.
Trump said that with children, "sometimes you're better off letting them fight for a while and then pulling them apart," adding that he relayed the analogy to Putin in a call this week.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Trump had the right to his own opinion, but that the conflict for Russia was an "existential matter."
"For us it is an existential issue, an issue on our national interest, safety, on our future and the future of our children, of our country," Peskov told reporters when asked about Trump's comments.
Edited by: Louis Oelofse
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