Russia Bombards Kyiv Hours After Trump Voices Hope for Ukraine Deal

Russia and Ukraine exchanged fire early Tuesday with heavy air raids on Kyiv and assaults on southern Russian areas, just hours after President Donald Trump struck a positive tone on prospects for a ceasefire deal.

Ukraine’s air defenses worked to shield the capital from combined missile and drone attacks and loud explosions were heard, with authorities instructing residents to stay in shelters. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said a residential apartment building had been severely damaged in the attacks and fire fighters were trying to extinguish blazes in several stores. 

Klitschko said some power and water supply cuts were being imposed in city districts as emergency workers responded to the attack, according to a statement on Telegram.

Meantime, the Krasnodar region on Russia’s Black Sea coast suffered sustained suspected drone attacks overnight, injuring six people and damaging at least 20 residential buildings across five municipalities, Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said. The key port of Novorossiysk was among the hardest hit, he said. 

In neighboring Rostov region one person was killed and three others injured in an air attack on Taganrog, which also damaged residential buildings, two industrial enterprises and a kindergarten, Mayor Svetlana Kambulova said.

Trump had suggested in a social media post that “big progress” was being made on a deal for Ukraine. His comment implied that Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Ukrainian officials who met Sunday in Geneva made advances in defusing the vehement opposition from Kyiv and its European allies to a 28-point peace proposal the White House team floated last week.

In the days since White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and his Russian counterpart Kirill Dmitriev hammered out the plan, Ukrainian and European officials scrambled to draft a counter-offer that would provide far less favorable terms to Russia. The result is a winnowed-down, 19-point plan, according to people familiar with the matter.

Russian officials have called the revised plan a non-starter. 

Back in Ukraine, the Energy Ministry said Russian forces are also undertaking a “massive combined attack” on energy infrastructure in the country. “Energy workers will begin assessing the consequences and carrying out restoration work as soon as the security situation allows,” the ministry said on Telegram.

The bombardment followed President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s announcement in his regular evening address to the nation that progress had been made in negotiations over peace proposals, which Kyiv is conducting with its US and European partners. 

“Now the list of necessary steps to end the war can become doable,” Zelenskiy said. “Many right elements have been taken into account in this framework.” However, much remains to be done, Zelenskiy said, adding that the process should be conducted “with dignity.”

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