Kiev, Ukraine (AP) – Russia launched a drone attack on Sunday targeting multiple regions after President Donald Trump questioned Russian President Vladimir Putin’s willingness to end the war.
Regional Governor Serkhiy Raissak said one person has died and a 14-year-old girl was injured in the city of Pabloflofrad in the Dnipropetrovsk region, and was attacked for the third consecutive night.
The attack comes hours after Russia claimed it had regained control of the rest of the Kursk region, which Ukrainian forces seized in a surprising invasion last August. Ukrainian officials said the fight in Kursk is still ongoing.
Trump on Saturday expressed renewed skepticism that Putin would soon be able to reach a peace deal, saying he suspects he wants to end more than three years of war in Ukraine. Just a day ago, Trump said Ukraine and Russia were “very close to the deal.”
“There has been no reason Putin to fire missiles in civilian regions, cities or towns for the past few days,” Trump wrote in a social media post when he returned to the United States after attending the funeral of Pope Francis at the Vatican and then at the funeral of Volodimia Zelensky in Ukraine. Trump also suggested further sanctions against Russia.
Trump Zelensky’s conversation about the bystanders at the Pope’s funeral was the first encounter between the two leaders since discussion at an oval office meeting held at the White House in late February.
Russia fired 149 explosive drones and decoys in the latest wave of attack, the Ukrainian Air Force said, adding that 57s were intercepted and 67s were clogged.
According to local officials, one person was injured in a drone attack in the Odesa area and another person in Zhitomir city.
The Russian Ministry of Defense said on Sunday that air prevention shot down as well as five Ukrainian drones in the Bryansk border area and three drones on the Crimea that were illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.
Five people were injured when Ukrainian troops fired the city of Holivka in the partially occupied Donetsk region, said Mayor Ivan Plikodoko, born by the city’s Russians.
