Zelenskiy says US unwilling to help as death toll tops 70

Zelenskiy said Washington lacked the will to help Ukraine after a Russian strike in Kramatorsk killed at least 35, taking two-day deaths past 70.

Speaking on Thursday evening, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russian strikes had killed 78 people and wounded 215 across the country over two days. Hours earlier, an attack on the eastern city of Kramatorsk ripped through two buses.

An evening drone strike on the city killed two more people, raising the toll there to 35, city officials said. Elsewhere, a guided aerial bomb killed two villagers in the Dnipropetrovsk region, while a strike in Ivano-Frankivsk, in the west, killed another person.

Zelenskiy’s plea for Starlink

In Pryluky, he pressed the US to give Ukraine wider use of the Starlink satellite network. That, he said, would help his troops strike Russian launchers for ballistic missiles. “Open Starlink for Ukraine,” he said. The US did so for Iran, he argued. Then, he said, Putin would come to the negotiating table.

He also rejected the claim by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio earlier on Thursday that the war had reached a stalemate. “That’s called unwillingness,” Zelenskiy said. In his view, Washington cannot talk to Russia about future business deals while also describing diplomacy as deadlocked.

Reports this week said top Russian and US officials, US Special Envoy Jared Kushner among them, had held talks about a US investor taking a stake in the Nord Stream pipelines. Rubio added that Washington would keep pushing for a deal. A Ukrainian negotiating team heads to the US for two days of talks starting Friday. Zelenskiy urged President Donald Trump to tighten sanctions on Russia. He wants European partners at the table, he said, and his team will raise the need for air defence.

Russia steps up its air war

The Kramatorsk strike, which wounded 20 people, ranks among the deadliest single Russian attacks this year. It came a day after a huge drone and missile barrage killed dozens across Ukraine, including 22 people in an apartment building in Pryluky, about 130 km east of Kyiv.

“The Russians are deliberately targeting civilians,” regional governor Vadym Filashkin said. For them, he added, “a bus full of passengers is an attractive target.” Official images showed bodies on a street covered in debris beside the burnt frame of a bus. Officials had not yet identified some victims, Zelenskiy said, and he promised the attack would not go unanswered. Moscow, however, denies targeting civilians.

In the capital, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said morning attacks killed four people and wounded 19. Attacks also cut water and power, and officials said repairs would take time. In recent weeks, Russian drones have pounded Kyiv almost without pause, hitting warehouses, data centres and the electricity network before winter.

Ukraine has tried in recent months to seize the battlefield initiative, as Russian gains have slowed. Zelenskiy did not mention the Ukrainian drone strike on a Yandex data centre in Russia. Still, he said Ukraine was mirroring Russian attacks on data centres.