Zelensky: More pressure on Russia needed

KYIV, June 20 ------ Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said, a Russian missile strike on a nine-story apartment building in Kyiv was a sign that more pressure must be applied on Moscow to agree to a ceasefire, as Russia intensifies its attacks in the three-year war. The drone and missile attack on the Ukrainian capital on Tuesday morning — the deadliest assault on the city this year — killed at least 28 people and injured 142 more, Kyiv Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said.

Zelensky, along with Andrii Yermak, head of the presidential office, and Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko, visited the attack site 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 the residential building down. "This attack is a reminder to the world that Russia rejects a ceasefire and chooses killing," Zelensky wrote on Telegram, and thanked Ukraine's partners who he said were ready to pressure Russia to "feel the real cost of the war."

Tuesday's attack was part of a sweeping barrage as Russia once again sought to overwhelm Ukrainian air defenses. Moscow fired more than 440 drones and 32 missiles in what Zelenskyy called one of the biggest bombardments of the war, now in its fourth year.

As Russia proceeds with a summer offensive on parts of the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line, United States-led peace efforts have failed to gain traction. Russian President Vladimir Putin has effectively rejected an offer from his American counterpart Donald Trump for an immediate 30-day ceasefire, making it conditional on a halt on Ukraine's mobilization effort and a freeze on Western arms supplies.

Meanwhile, Middle East tensions and Trump's trade tariffs have drawn world attention away from Ukraine's pleas for more diplomatic and economic pressure to be placed on Moscow. Russia has, in recent weeks, intensified long-range attacks that have struck urban residential areas. Yet on Wednesday, Putin denied that his military had struck such targets, saying those attacks were "against military industries, not residential quarters."

Speaking to senior news leaders of international news agencies in the northwestern city of St. Petersburg, Putin said he was open to talks with Zelensky, but repeated his claim that the Ukrainian leader had lost his legitimacy after his term expired last year — allegations rejected by Kyiv and its allies. "We are ready for substantive talks on the principles of a settlement," Putin said, noting that a previous round of talks in the northwestern Turkish city of Istanbul had led to an exchange of prisoners and the bodies of fallen soldiers.

Putin also praised Trump's push for peace in Ukraine, but Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha wrote on X that it was his country that had "unconditionally accepted" the US proposal for a ceasefire, calling Russian claims of willingness to end the war "manipulations." "It has been exactly 100 days since Ukraine unconditionally accepted the US peace proposal to completely cease fire, put an end to the killing and move forward with a genuine peace process... 100 days of Russia escalating terror against Ukraine rather than ending it," Sybiha wrote. "Ukraine remains committed to peace. Unfortunately, Russia continues to choose war, disregarding US efforts to end the killing," he added.

Source: manilatimes.net