Volodymyr Zelensky arrived at the G7 in Canada on Tuesday seeking more backing for the war against Russia – hours after a night-time missile and drone bombardment killed at least 15 people in Kyiv and Odesa and injured 131 others while they slept in their homes.
Ukraine’s president met Canadian PM Mark Carney, who pledged US$3.15bn in new military assistance and loans as well as new financial sanctions, before holding talks with Sir Keir Starmer.
“We need support from allies and I’m here,” Zelensky said, adding that “our families had a very difficult night, one of the biggest attacks from the very beginning of this war.”
Sir Keir denied that Trump’s refusal to back new sanctions on Russia or provide US security guarantees for Ukraine makes it all but impossible to compel the Kremlin to accept a ceasefire.
Britain announced new sanctions on Russia’s defense industry and its oil-carrying “shadow fleet” of about 500 ships of uncertain ownership that allowed Moscow to dodge sanctions.
He said he had hoped to talk to Donald Trump about acquiring more weapons, but the US president headed back to Washington on Monday night due to the latest unfolding crisis in the Middle East.
In Kyiv, the Russian bombardment demolished a nine-storey residential building, destroying dozens of apartments.
The capital’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said 114 people were injured and announced an official day of mourning in the city on Wednesday.
A US citizen died in the attack after suffering shrapnel wounds, interior minister Ihor Klymenko told reporters.
“We have 27 locations that were attacked by the enemy. We currently have over 2,000 people working there, rescuers, police, municipal services and doctors,” he told reporters at the scene of one of the attacks.
Olena Lapyshniak, 49, was shaken from the strike that nearly levelled her apartment building. She heard a whistling sound and then two explosions that blew out her windows and doors.
“It’s horrible, it’s scary, in one moment there is no life,” she said. “There’s no military infrastructure here, nothing here, nothing. It’s horrible when people just die at night.”
People were wounded in the city’s Sviatoshynskyi and Solomianskyi districts. Fires broke out in two other city districts as a result of falling debris from drones shot down by Ukrainian air defences.
Russian drones also struck the port city of Odesa, killing one person and injuring 17 others.
Putin “is doing this simply because he can afford to continue the war,” Zelensky said. “He wants the war to go on. It is troubling when the powerful of this world turn a blind eye to it.”
The Kremlin said it was unclear when the next direct negotiations with Kyiv would occur.
Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Russia had fulfilled all its obligations agreed to in previous talks held in Istanbul on June 2. Russia would assess in the coming days the possible timeframe for continuing negotiations, he said.
Uncertainty about US policy on the war has fueled doubts about how much help Kyiv can count on. On Monday, Trump repeated his previous complaint that Russia was ever expelled from the G8.
Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report
