A Russian air attack overnight on a residential area in Kharkiv killed seven people, including a toddler and a 16-year-old boy, Ukrainian authorities said on Monday, as the United States presses Kyiv to take a quick deal to end a war Moscow started.
Six children aged 6 to 17 were among 20 other people injured in the attack on Ukraine's second largest city, Oleh Synehubov, governor of the wider Kharkiv region, wrote on Telegram.
The attack came as Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky was preparing for talks with Donald Trump in Washington later on Monday amid European fears the US president could try to pressure Kyiv into accepting a peace settlement favourable to Moscow.
The air force said Russia launched 140 drones against Ukraine overnight, the largest total recorded in a single night since August 4.
Kharkiv, which lies near northeastern Ukraine's border with Russia, has been the target of Russian drone and missile attacks throughout the war.
A ballistic missile attack shattered around 1,000 windows in various buildings in the city on Sunday, Mr Synehubov said. Some residents had to be evacuated from their homes, officials said.
Reuters witnesses saw medics attending to residents on a street and rescuers inspecting damage to residential buildings.
“Russia is a murderous war machine that Ukraine is holding back. And it must be stopped through transatlantic unity and pressure,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha wrote on X after the attack.
The attacks come ahead of crunch talks between Ukraine’s president and Trump at the White House.
Also there will be the leaders of Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Finland and NATO - as they hope to shore up Mr Zelensky at a crucial diplomatic moment in the war and prevent any repetition of the bad-tempered Oval Office encounter between Trump and Ukraine’s leader in February.
Trump will meet first with Mr Zelensky at 1.15pm local time (6.15pm BST) in the Oval Office and then with all the European leaders together in the White House’s East Room at 3pm (8pm BST), the White House said.
Mr Zelensky is expecting to face calls from the US president to concede to full Russian control of Donetsk and Luhansk, two mineral-rich regions of Ukraine that are mostly occupied by Vladimir Putin’s forces.
In exchange for these demands, the Russian president would reportedly withdraw his forces from other areas of Ukraine and accept a Nato-like guarantee that Ukraine would be protected from further incursion.
Monday’s meeting comes after Trump rolled out the red carpet for Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday.
Taking to Truth Social overnight, the US President said his Ukrainian counterpart could “end the war with Russia almost immediately”.
“President Zelenskyy of Ukraine can end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wants to, or he can continue to fight,” he wrote.
“Remember how it started. No getting back Obama given Crimea (12 years ago, without a shot being fired!), and NO GOING INTO NATO BY UKRAINE. Some things never change!!!” he added.
Trump earlier said an agreement should be struck to end the 42-month-long war which has killed tens of thousands and displaced millions, as he reversed earlier demands for Russia to agree to a ceasefire.
“Russia is a very big power, and they’re not,” Trump said of Ukraine.
However, Mr Zelensky has already all but rejected the outline of Putin’s proposals at that meeting, including for Ukraine to give up the rest of its eastern Donetsk region, of which it currently controls a quarter.
He posted on X: “We all share a strong desire to end this war quickly and reliably. And peace must be lasting.
“Not like it was years ago, when Ukraine was forced to give up Crimea and part of our East—part of Donbas—and Putin simply used it as a springboard for a new attack. Or when Ukraine was given so called “security guarantees” in 1994, but they didn’t work. Of course, Crimea should not have been given up then, just as Ukrainians did not give up Kyiv, Odesa, or Kharkiv after 2022.
“Ukrainians are fighting for their land, for their independence. Now, our soldiers have successes in Donetsk and Sumy regions. I am confident that we will defend Ukraine, effectively guarantee security, and that our people will always be grateful to President Trump, everyone in America, and every partner and ally for their support and invaluable assistance. Russia must end this war, which it itself started. And I hope that our joint strength with America, with our European friends, will force Russia into a real peace.”
As part of any peace deal, Kyiv wants security guarantees sufficient to deter Russia, which took Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula in 2014 and launched a full invasion in 2022, from attacking again.
Fearing that they would be shut out of the conversation after a summit to which they were not invited, European leaders held a call with Mr Zelensky on Sunday to align on a common strategy for the meeting with Trump on Monday.
The presence of six allies to back Mr Zelensky may alleviate painful memories of his last Oval Office visit.
“It’s important for the Europeans to be there: (Trump) respects them, he behaves differently in their presence,” Oleksandr Merezhko, a Ukrainian lawmaker from Mr Zelensky’s ruling party, told Reuters.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking to CBS, dismissed the idea that the European leaders were coming to Washington to protect Mr Zelensky.
“They’re not coming here tomorrow to keep Zelensky from being bullied. They’re coming here tomorrow because we’ve been working with the Europeans,” he said. “We invited them to come.”
Relations between Kyiv and Washington, once extremely close, have been rocky since Trump took office in January.
However, Ukraine’s pressing need for US weapons and intelligence sharing, some of which have no viable alternative, has forced Mr Zelensky and his allies on the continent to appease Trump, even when his statements appear contradictory to their objectives.
On the battlefield Russia has been slowly grinding forward, pressing home its advantages in men and firepower. Putin says he is ready to continue fighting until his military objectives are achieved.
Ukraine hopes that the changing technological nature of the war and its ability to inflict massive casualties on Moscow will allow it to hold out, supported by European financial and military aid even if relations with Washington collapse.
