An airstrike alert was issued this evening in Kiev, shortly before the start of negotiations between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and US President Donald Trump at the White House, AFP journalists report.
The Ukrainian Air Force announced that the alert was activated throughout the country due to the take-off of a Russian Mig-31 fighter jet, equipped with Kinzhal hypersonic missiles - weapons that Moscow has often used during the war to strike targets in Ukraine.
At least 14 people were killed today by Russian airstrikes in several regions of the country, just hours before the meeting between Zelensky and Trump, which aims to push forward efforts to end the conflict that has entered its fourth year.
In the city of Kharkiv, the second largest urban center in the northeast of the country, 7 deaths have been reported, including a 1.5-year-old girl, and 23 injuries, the regional governor, Oleg Sinegubov, announced in a post on Telegram.
President Zelensky called the attack a "cynical blow" from Russia, stressing that "Moscow is aware that a peace meeting is taking place in Washington today."
In Zaporizhia, three people were killed and 30 others were injured in the shelling, according to regional governor Ivan Fedorov.
Meanwhile, at least four people were killed and seven others were injured in the Donetsk region, where fierce fighting is concentrated, the Regional Prosecutor's Office reported.
Other attacks were also recorded in the cities of Dobropilya and Kostyantynivka, as well as overnight in the Sumy (north-east), Odessa and Kherson (south) regions.
