Ukraine war live: Kremlin echoes Trump attack on Zelensky after huge strike on Kyiv

Speaking in a press conference alongside South African president Cyril Ramaphosa, Volodymyr Zelensky has said talks in London yesterday were “not easy”.

The Ukrainian president did not attend the talks. US secretary of state Marco Rubio also pulled out of the talks.

Mr Zelensky did add that the London talks were “constructive”.

Russian troops have taken control of the village of Bohdanivka in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, the Russian Defence Ministry said on Thursday according to state news agency Tass.

The Independent could not verify the battlefield report, but authoritative Ukrainian battlefield map DeepState appears to show it under Russian control.

The Kremlin has echoed Donald Trump’s comments after he criticised Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky for refusing to cede territory to Russia.

“Crimea was lost years ago… and is not even a point of discussion,” Mr Trump said on Truth Social on Wednesday.

These comments fully correspond with the Kremlin’s understanding, spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday.

Moscow is continuing to work with the United States towards achieving peace in Ukraine, it said, adding that it will ensure Moscow’s interests are heard in any settlement.

Mr Peskov said Russia will continue its military operation and strike military and military-adjacent targets in Ukraine.

The missile which killed at least nine and injured dozens others in a huge attack on Kyiv was a North Korean KN-23 (KN-23A) ballistic missile, a Ukrainian military source said on Thursday.

A residential building in the Sviatoshynskyi district west of Kyiv’s centre was struck by a missile during the attack. Around 10 people were still missing, with some potentially buried under debris, Ukraine’s interior minister said at the site.

A large-scale Russian missile and drone attack hit Kyiv overnight, killing nine people and injuring another 63, including six children, Ukrainian authorities said Thursday.

The Kyiv City Military Administration said on its Telegram channel that Russia struck Kyiv with drones and ballistic missiles. At least 42 people were hospitalized, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said. Rescue operations were still underway early morning Thursday to find bodies under the rubble.

Take a look at the Associated Press’ photo gallery showing the devastating strikes:

After Volodymyr Zelensky refused to cede Crimean territory to Russia, Donald Trump has once again accused him of not being serious about peace.

But why is the peninsula, illegally seized by Russia in 2014 so strategically important?

Russia’s Black Sea base in Sevastopol, which was leased from Ukraine, gives Moscow access to the Mediterranean.

Russia has frequently used Crimea as a launchpad for missile and drone attacks on Ukraine since sending tens of thousands of troops into the country on February 24, 2022 in what Putin calls a “special military operation”. Ukrainian forces have also fired missiles at Crimea since Russia’s 2022 invasion.

After its full-scale invasion in 2022, Russia enforced a de facto blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports which severely restricted grain exports that had been vital to Kyiv’s pre-war economy.

This resulted in a rise in world food prices and the threat of famine in lower-income countries. A deal known as the Black Sea Grain Initiative was reached in July 2022 to allow safe passage from certain ports but it later collapsed.

Mobile phones are being heard ringing beneath the rubble as rescue efforts in Kyiv continue following Russia’s mass drone and missile attack.

Climbing specialists and sniffer dogs are in action as rescuers operate across 13 sites in the Ukrainian capital. Forty fires also broke out following the attack, which has killed at least nine people and injured more than 70.

“Mobile telephones are heard ringing beneath rubble. The search will continue until it become clear that they have got everyone,” Kyiv’s emergency services said.

Fires broke out in garages and administrative buildings, with falling metal fragments striking vehicles below.

An air raid alert has been in effect in the capital over the past six hours.

“There was the air raid siren, we did not even have time to dress to go out of the apartment. One blast came after the other, all windows were blown out, doors, walls, my husband and son were thrown to the other side,” Kyiv resident Viktoria Bakal said.