Russian drone and artillery attacks on Ukraine killed nine civilians and injured more than 25 others on Thursday, as Kyiv accused Slovakia’s prime minister and the popular leader of Romania’s far right of being mouthpieces for Kremlin propaganda.
Officials said nine people were killed, including three elderly married couples, and 13 people hurt when a Russian attack drone hit an apartment block in the northern Ukrainian city of Sumy. Later on Thursday, Russian shelling of the city of Kramatorsk in the eastern Donetsk region injured at least 13 people.
“This is a horrific tragedy, a heinous Russian crime. It is crucial that the world does not pause in putting pressure on Russia for this terror,” Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said of the strike on Sumy.
Mr Zelenskiy wants allies to increase weapons supplies to Ukraine to allow it to negotiate a peace with Russia from a position of strength, if new US president Donald Trump makes good on his pledge to end Europe’s biggest war since 1945.
Swedish defence minister Pal Jonson unveiled about €1.2 billion in new military aid for Kyiv, which he called “a signal to our other allies that we need to prepare for Europe to take more responsibility for supporting Ukraine.”
Kyiv says it is ready to negotiate a just peace if it receives security guarantees from the US and other major powers and ideally becomes a member of Nato – something the Kremlin says it will never accept.
The Moscow Times cited five unnamed Ukrainian and European military and government sources as saying Ukraine had lost the eastern town of Chasiv Yar, a strategic point that could help Russia attack the nearby cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk. Kyiv says intense fighting continues in the ruins of the hilltop town.
Kyiv complained to Slovakia’s ambassador about hostile comments from his country’s populist prime minister, Robert Fico, since Ukraine ended the transit of Russia gas to Slovakia and other European Union states this month.
The foreign ministry expressed its “deep disappointment” with Mr Fico – whose increasingly pro-Russian position has sparked big street protests in Slovakia – and accused him of acting as a “Kremlin’s mouthpiece”.
The ministry also denounced claims from Romanian far-right leader Calin Georgescu that Ukraine was a “fictional state” that would inevitably collapse, allowing neighbours Russia, Poland, Hungary and Romania to swallow parts of its territory.
“Georgescu’s attempts to position himself as an ‘independent’ politician look absurd: his statements parrot Russian propaganda, which indicates complete dependence on his masters in Moscow,” said Heorhii Tykhyi, a spokesman for the ministry.
Mr Georgescu won the first round of presidential elections last November, but the results were annulled due to alleged Russian meddling via TikTok. Romania’s government and current president strongly support Ukraine.
