Zelenskyy calls for more pressure on Russia after strikes on Kyiv

A Russian missile strike on an apartment building in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv was a sign that more pressure must be put on Moscow to agree to a ceasefire, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Thursday, as Moscow intensifies attacks in the war.
The drone and missile attack on Kyiv early Tuesday, the deadliest assault on the capital this year, killed 28 people across the city and wounded 142 others, Kyiv Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said.
Zelenskyy, along with the head of the presidential office, Andrii Yermak, and Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko, visited the site of the apartment building in Kyiv's Solomianskyi district on Thursday morning, laying flowers and paying tribute to the 23 people who died there after a direct hit by a missile brought down the structure.
"This attack is a reminder to the world that Russia rejects a ceasefire and chooses killing," Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram, and thanked Ukraine's partners who he said are ready to pressure Russia to "feel the real cost of the war."
Tuesday's attack on Kyiv was part of a sweeping barrage as Russia once again sought to overwhelm Ukrainian air defences.
Russia fired more than 440 drones and 32 missiles in what Zelenskyy called one of the biggest bombardments of the war.
As Russia proceeds with a summer offensive on parts of the roughly 1,000-kilometre front line, US-led peace efforts have failed to gain traction.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has effectively rejected an offer from US President Donald Trump for an immediate 30-day ceasefire, making it conditional on a halt on Ukraine's mobilisation effort and a freeze on Western arms supplies.
Meanwhile, Middle East tensions and US trade tariffs have drawn away world attention from Ukraine's pleas for more diplomatic and economic pressure to be placed on Moscow.
In recent weeks, Russia has intensified long-range attacks that have struck urban residential areas. Yet on Wednesday, Putin denied that his military had struck such targets, saying that attacks were "against military industries, not residential quarters."
Putin told senior news leaders of international news agencies in St. Petersburg that he was open to talks with Zelenskyy, but repeated his accusation that the Ukrainian leader had lost his legitimacy after his term expired last year.
"We are ready for substantive talks on the principles of a settlement," Putin said, noting that a previous round of talks in Istanbul had led to an exchange of prisoners and the bodies of fallen soldiers.
A new round of such exchanges took place in Ukraine's Chernihiv region on Thursday, involving the repatriation of Ukrainian prisoners of war who, according to Ukraine's Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War (KSHPPV), were suffering from severe health issues caused by injuries and prolonged detention.
The exchange was confirmed by Russia's Defence Ministry, which released a video of Russian servicemen at an exchange area in Belarus after being released in the prisoner swap.
Commenting on the exchange, Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram: "We are working to get our people back. Thank you to everyone who helps make these exchanges possible. Our goal is to free each and every one."
Many of the exchanged Ukrainian POWs had spent over three years in captivity, with a large number captured during the defines of the now Russian-occupied city of Mariupol in 2022, according to the KSHPPV, which added that preparations for another prisoner exchange are ongoing.
Spain rejected a NATO proposal to spend 5% of gross domestic product on defence needs that's due to be announced next week, calling it "unreasonable."
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, in a letter sent on Thursday to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, said that Spain "cannot commit to a specific spending target in terms of GDP" at next week's NATO summit in The Hague.
Any agreement to adopt a new spending guideline must be made with the consensus of all 32 NATO member states.
So Sánchez's decision risks derailing next week's summit, which US President Donald Trump is due to attend and creating a last-minute shakeup that could have lingering repercussions.
Most US allies in NATO are on track to endorse Trump's demand that they invest 5% of GDP on their defence and military needs. In early June, Sweden and the Netherlands said that they aim to meet the new target.
A NATO official said on Thursday that discussions between allies were ongoing about a new defence spending plan.
"For Spain, committing to a 5% target would not only be unreasonable, but also counterproductive, as it would move Spain away from optimal spending and it would hinder the EU's ongoing efforts to strengthen its security and defence ecosystem," Sánchez wrote in the letter that was seen by The Associated Press.
Spain was the lowest spender in the trans-Atlantic alliance last year, directing less than 2% of its GDP on defence expenditure.
Sánchez said in April that the government would raise defence spending by €10.5 billion in 2025 to reach NATO's previous target of 2% of GDP.
On Thursday, Sánchez called for "a more flexible formula" in relation to a new spending target, one that either made it optional or left Spain out of its application.
Sánchez wrote that his country is "fully committed to NATO," but that meeting a 5% target "would be incompatible with our welfare state and our world vision."
He said that doing so would require cutting public services and scaling back other spending, including toward the green transition.
Instead, Spain will need to spend 2.1% of GDP to meet the Spanish military's estimated defence needs, Sánchez said.
Domestic corruption scandals that have ensnared Sánchez's inner circle and family members have put the Spanish leader under increasing pressure to call an early election, even among some of his allies.
Increased military spending is also unpopular among some of Sanchez's coalition partners. In April, when Sánchez announced that Spain would reach NATO's previous 2% spending target, the move angered some coalition members further to the left of his Socialist Party.
NATO allies agreed to spend 2% of GDP on military expenditure after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
But the alliance's plans for defending Europe and North America against a Russian attack require investments of at least 3%.
The aim now is to raise the bar to 3.5% for core defence spending on tanks, warplanes, air defence, missiles and hiring extra troops.
A further 1.5% would be spent on things like roads, bridges, ports and airfields so armies can deploy more quickly, as well as preparing societies for possible attack.
Several allies have committed to reaching the new spending goal, even though other nations will struggle to find the billions required.
Rutte had been due to table a new proposal on Friday aimed at satisfying Spain and trying to break the deadlock. European allies and Canada want to end the standoff before the leaders meet with Trump on Wednesday.
Poland and the Baltic countries — Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania — have already publicly committed to 5%, and Rutte has said that most allies were ready to endorse the goal.
But Spain isn't alone among NATO's low spenders. Belgium, Canada and Italy will also struggle to hike security spending by billions of dollars.
A big question still to be answered is what time frame countries will be given to reach an agreed-upon new spending goal.
A target date of 2032 was initially floated, but Rutte has said that Russia could be ready to launch an attack on NATO territory by 2030.

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