LONDON — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged international companions to use extra stress to Moscow as Russia adopted up Tuesday’s historic talks with the U.S. in Saudi Arabia with a significant missile and drone strike.
The U.S.-Russia talks in Riyadh — to which Ukraine was not invited — represented “an essential step ahead” towards ending Russia’s three-year-old invasion of its neighbor, in line with a State Division readout.
Hours after the discussions concluded with a dedication to proceed talks, Russia launched a significant missile and drone barrage into Ukraine. Ukraine’s air pressure reported 167 drones and two Iskander ballistic missiles launched into the nation, with 106 intercepted and 56 extra misplaced in flight.
Odesa Mayor Gennadiy Trukhanov reported a “huge enemy strike on a densely populated space of the town” inflicting electrical energy, heating and water outages.
Ukrainian forces seek for drones within the sky over Kyiv, Ukraine, throughout a Russian drone strike on Feb. 18, 2025.
Gleb Garanich/Reuters
Zelenskyy stated in a publish to social media that the strike focused “civilian power services,” in line with longstanding Russian doctrine. “For almost three years now, the Russian military has relentlessly used missiles and assault drones in opposition to them,” he stated.
“Simply yesterday, after the infamous assembly in Riyadh, it grew to become clear that Russian representatives had been as soon as once more mendacity, claiming they don’t goal Ukraine’s power sector,” Zelenskyy continued.
“But, virtually concurrently, they launched one other assault, with drones putting electrical transformers,” he wrote. “And that is throughout winter — it was minus 6 levels Celsius at night time.”
“We should always remember that Russia is dominated by pathological liars — they can’t be trusted and should be pressured,” the president stated.
Kyiv’s exclusion from the Saudi talks have badly unsettled Ukraine and its European allies. Trump was unapologetic when talking with reporters Tuesday at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, simply as Odesa got here beneath assault.
“They’ve had a seat for 3 years and a very long time earlier than that,” Trump stated of Ukraine, suggesting Kyiv may have made a take care of Moscow to keep away from the large lack of lives and land.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrives to fulfill with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Feb. 15, 2025 in Munich, Germany.
Sean Gallup/Getty Photos
Trump stated he believes he has “the ability to finish this struggle,” whereas falsely claiming Ukraine began the battle in opposition to Russia. The struggle started when Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of its neighbor in February 2022, a marketing campaign that adopted eight years of cross-border Russian aggression in Crimea and Ukraine’s jap Donbas area.
“I feel it is going very effectively,” Trump stated of U.S. efforts to finish the struggle. “However right now I heard, oh, ‘Nicely, we weren’t invited.’ Nicely, you’ve got been there for 3 years. It’s best to have ended it three years — you must have by no means began it.”
Trump additionally stated that Ukraine ought to maintain new elections — at the moment not attainable because of the imposition of martial regulation — and falsely claimed that Zelenskyy’s public approval ranking was “right down to 4%.”
Zelenskyy advised that the U.S.-Russia talks had been merely reviving ultimatums issued by Moscow within the early levels of its invasion.
“I’ve the impression that there are actually some negotiations taking place and so they have the identical temper, however between Russia and the US,” Zelenskyy stated throughout a go to to Turkey.
“Once more, about Ukraine with out Ukraine,” he added. “It is attention-grabbing, if Ukraine did not yield to ultimatums in essentially the most tough second, the place does the sensation come from that Ukraine will conform to this now?”
On this handout image launched by the official Saudi Press Company, Secretary of State Marco Rubio shakes fingers with Russian International Minister Sergei Lavrov throughout their assembly at Diriyah Palace, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Feb. 18, 2025.
-/SPA/AFP through Getty Photos
“I by no means meant to yield to Russia’s ultimatums and I do not intend to now,” Zelenskyy added.
In Riyadh, the U.S. and Russia agreed to nominate as-yet unnamed particular representatives to proceed peace talks, in line with the Russian International Ministry.
Putin aide Yuri Ushakov instructed the state-controlled Channel One tv channel that Trump’s Ukraine-Russia envoy — Keith Kellogg — would negotiate a settlement with Kyiv and European nations.
Kellogg arrived in Kyiv on Wednesday morning, the place he’s anticipated to carry talks with Ukrainian leaders. Kellogg instructed reporters his “mission is to sit down and pay attention” after which report again to Trump. He parried questions on whether or not Trump is siding with Putin, saying that Trump needs to finish the struggle as a result of “he understands the human struggling” it’s inflicting.
ABC Information’ Fidel Pavlenko and Will Gretsky contributed to this report.
