Seemingly unperturbed by President Donald Trump’s professed disappointment in him, Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a massive aerial assault on Ukraine early Thursday for the second time in two days.
More than 400 Russian drones and missiles rained down overnight on Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, killing two people and injuring 17 others, according to city officials.
It came after Ukraine’s air force said Russia ha fired a record 728 Shahed and decoy drones, as well as 13 cruise and ballistic missiles, overnight on Tuesday, in the latest escalation after weeks of mounting Russian aerial and ground attacks in the more than three-year war.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the overnight attack as “a clear escalation of terror by Russia” in a Telegram post Thursday.
The strikes came less than 24 hours after he held a meeting with retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine, in Rome, where the two discussed Kyiv’s supply of weapons and strengthening air defense.
In an address after their meeting, Zelenskyy said these were priorities “against the backdrop of increasing Russian attacks,” and he thanked Trump for his support after Washington resumed weapons deliveries to the war-torn country.
Elsewhere on Thursday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on the sidelines of the ASEAN foreign ministers’ meeting in Malaysia.
Rubio told reporters Russia had presented “a new and a different approach” to ending the war but said he wouldn’t characterize the proposal “as something that guarantees a peace but it’s a concept that I’ll take back to the president.”
“I don’t want to overpromise,” he added, pointing to the “acceleration” of Russian attacks on Ukraine.
Rubio added that he remained frustrated by the lack of progress in talks about a ceasefire, echoing comments from Trump who has grown increasingly irked with Putin as the war drags on.
“He’s very nice all of the time, but it turns out to be meaningless,” Trump said of Putin during a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, where he promised to boost U.S. military aid to Ukraine. On Monday, Trump, who has held several long phone calls with Putin, said he was “disappointed” with him over the lack of progress on ending the war.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Wednesday that Russia was “quite calm” about Trump’s comments. In comments Thursday, Peskov said the Trump administration had been “very contradictory in its actions and statements.”
“Moscow can afford to be relaxed about the latest Trump tantrum,” Keir Giles, a senior fellow at Chatham House, a London-based think tank, told NBC News on Thursday.
“For all the twists and turns of infighting within the Trump administration over what should or should not be sent to Ukraine as military aid, support for Kyiv is dwindling, accompanied by a resolute determination not to impose costs on Moscow,” he said.
His comments came after the European Parliament on Wednesday passed a resolution that strongly condemned Russia’s “ongoing war crimes” in Ukraine, with member states expressing strong support for an investigation by the International Criminal Court.
More than 70,000 Ukrainians are listed as officially missing as a result of the war, the group said as it expressed “deep outrage at Russia’s brutal attacks on civilians” in Ukraine.
On Tuesday, Europe’s top human rights court passed a landmark ruling that found Russia had committed major international law violations in Ukraine.
