Russia struck the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv overnight, killing three people — including an innocent 2-year-old boy — and wounding another 17, just hours before President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky are meeting to discuss a deal to end the deadly war.
A ballistic missile attack shook a residential area in Ukraine’s second-largest city Sunday night and a drone attack killed the young tot Monday morning, the larger Kharkiv region’s governor Oleh Synehubov said on the Telegram messaging app.
Six more children between the ages of 6 and 17 were among the injured in the dual strikes, according to Mayor Ihor Terekhov.
Officials said the casualty count was “continuously increasing” as rescue teams dig through the rubble for trapped victims and possible survivors.
At least one person was found alive under the debris left behind by the Russian attacks.
“A woman has just been rescued from under the rubble: she is alive,” Terekhov said in a post early on Monday.
Kharkiv, near Ukraine’s border with Russia, has been a frequent target of Russian forces since Moscow invaded the nation in February 2022.
“The enemy continues to deliberately target civilian infrastructure in the Sumy region — treacherously, at night,” Oleh Hryhorov, the head of the regional administration, wrote on Telegram.
Both sides have denied targeting civilians in the long-running conflict.
The deadly ambush comes as Trump prepares to welcome Zelensky and other European leaders to the White House Monday morning to discuss how to finally end the bloody war for good.
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The Trump administration has warned that Russia and Ukraine will both need to “get something” out of a peace deal for it to work after Russian strongman Vladimir Putin proposed taking all of the Donetsk region, to the south of Kharkiv, at his summit meeting with Trump in Alaska on Friday. However, Zelesnky has vowed that Kyiv will not forfeit land that Russian troops don’t already occupy.
The discussions in Washington, DC are expected to focus on a long-term deal to end the conflict rather than a cease-fire after Trump pivoted to a more permanent resolution.
