Officials in Ukraine say Russia launched a barrage of drones in an overnight attack Friday killing at least two civilians, wounding several others and damaging commercial and residential buildings.
The interior ministry said two victims were killed by drone debris in the central Kyiv region. It said a multistory residential building and commercial buildings were among the infrastructure that sustained damage during the attack.
Meanwhile, Russia’s Defense Ministry said air defenses intercepted and destroyed some 120 drones over a dozen regions, including Moscow, overnight Friday, launched by Ukraine.
No casualties were reported.
U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday he would talk soon with Russian President Vladimir Putin to try to push the Russian leader to end his nearly three-year war on neighboring Ukraine.
“Millions of young lives are being wasted. That war is horrible,” Trump, via video link from Washington, told global business leaders meeting at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
He said that “Ukraine is ready to make a deal,” although no peace negotiations have been announced. “This is a war that never should’ve started.”
Trump, three days into his second term in the White House, said he would ask Saudi Arabia and OPEC to cut global oil prices, now about $77 a barrel, to curb Russia’s oil revenues, which it uses to fund the war.
“If the price comes down,” Trump said, “the war in Ukraine will end immediately.”
“It’s so important to get that done,” he said. “It’s time to end it.”
Trump’s new remarks on the war came a day after he described the conflict as a “ridiculous war” and told Putin in a social media message that if he didn’t move to end it, the U.S. would impose new tariffs, taxes and sanctions on Russian exports to the West.
But the Kremlin was unmoved by Trump’s threat, saying Thursday it did not see any particularly new elements in U.S. policy toward Russia.
“He likes these methods, at least he liked them during his first presidency,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Peskov said Russia remains ready for “mutually respectful dialogue” with the United States as Trump starts a four-year term in the White House.
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
