‘Vile and brutal’: Zelenskyy condemns Russia’s 12-hour Ukraine bombardment, urges stronger global pressure

Kyiv experienced one of its heaviest attacks since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began, with at least four people killed in what President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called a “vile and brutal” assault.

Ukraine’s president said Russia launched around 500 drones and more than 40 missiles in a bombardment lasting over 12 hours from Saturday night into Sunday morning. The strikes targeted the capital as well as the Zaporizhzhia, Khmelnytskyi, Sumy, Mykolaiv, Chernihiv and Odesa regions.

Zelenskyy described the attack as the “virtual culmination” of last week’s UN General Assembly, where US President Donald Trump expressed support for Ukraine, urged allies to halt Russian oil imports and promised Ukraine would “strike back.”

“This is how Russia is making its real position known. Moscow wants to continue to fight and kill and deserves only the harshest pressure in the world,” Zelenskyy said on Telegram. He added that “the Kremlin benefits from continuing this war and terror as long as there are energy funds and a shadow navy.”

Neighbouring Poland scrambled jets to secure its airspace in the wake of the barrage, after NATO accused Moscow of being behind a series of violations of the defence alliance’s airspace.

Diplomatic efforts to stop the war have faltered, while Russia has vowed to press on with its offensive in the three-and-a-half-year-long conflict.

“Moscow wants to continue fighting and killing and deserves only the harshest pressure from the world,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said following the strikes, which lasted for 12 hours.

“The Kremlin benefits from continuing this war and terror as long as there are profits from energy sales,” he added, urging stronger measures against Russia from Kyiv’s allies.

Meanwhile, the Kremlin on Sunday dismissed threats by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that Kremlin officials should know where the bomb shelters were, saying that Ukraine was losing the war and that its negotiating position was worsening.

Zelenskyy suggested to Axios that the centres of Russian power, like the Kremlin, were potential targets, saying that Kremlin officials ”have to know where the bomb shelters are.”

”Zelenskyy is trying to demonstrate to the Europeans, who now act as the breadwinners, that he is such a brave soldier,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told state television.

”Meanwhile, the state of affairs at the front indicates the opposite. With every passing day, the situation for Ukraine is inexorably deteriorating. And every day Ukraine’s negotiating positions are inexorably deteriorating.”

Russia controls 114,918 square km (44,370 square miles), or about 19% of Ukraine, and has taken 4,729 square km of Ukrainian territory in the past year, according to the pro-Ukrainian DeepState map project.

When asked directly by state television’s Kremlin correspondent Pavel Zarubin how the Kremlin would perceive an attack on the centre of Russian power, Peskov said that ”it’s better not to even talk about it.”

In May 2023, Russia accused Ukraine of trying to attack the Kremlin with drones. President Vladimir Putin was not in the Kremlin at the time of the attack.

With inputs from agencies