KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he would meet US counterpart Donald Trump on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly next week as Russia intensified strikes across his country.
Russia carried out one of its largest aerial attacks overnight, firing 40 missiles and some 580 drones at Ukraine in a barrage that killed at least three people and wounded dozens, Zelenskyy said on Saturday (Sep 20).
A Ukrainian strike, meanwhile, killed four people in Russia’s southwestern Samara region, a local governor said, in one of the deadliest Ukrainian retaliatory strikes on Russia since Moscow launched its invasion in 2022.
Zelenskyy said he would hold “a meeting with the President of the United States”, adding he would discuss security guarantees for Ukraine and sanctions on Russia during the talks with Trump.
Ukraine has insisted on Western-backed security guarantees to prevent future Russian attacks. Russian President Vladimir Putin has however warned that any Western troops in Ukraine would be unacceptable and legitimate targets.
A US-led push for a quick end to the war has stalled and Russia effectively ruled out a meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy – something that Kyiv says is the only way towards peace.
“We expect sanctions if there is no meeting between the leaders or, for example, no ceasefire,” Zelenskyy said in comments released by the Ukrainian presidency on Saturday.
“We are ready for a meeting with Putin. I have spoken about this. Both bilateral and trilateral. He is not ready,” Zelenskyy added.
In Russia’s latest aerial assault of Ukraine, “a missile with cluster munitions directly struck an apartment building” in the central city of Dnipro, Zelenskyy said earlier on social media.
He posted pictures of cars and a building on fire and rescuers carrying a person to safety amid rubble scattered nearby.
In the Dnipropetrovsk region, the strikes killed one person and wounded at least 30, with one man in a serious condition, regional governor Sergiy Lysak said.
