Russia launches the largest wave of strikes on Ukraine for weeks

Russia launched 574 drones and 40 missiles at Ukraine in one of the heavier brackets in weeks, says Ukrainian officials.

One person was killed on a drone and a missile strike in the western city of Levv, and 15 people were informed in an attack on the southwest of Trankarbith.

The attacks came at a time when US President Donald Trump is leading diplomatic moves to stop the war, and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrei Sibha said that the strikes highlighted why the efforts to end them were “very critical”.

President Voludmir Zelinski said that Ukraine is ready to meet with the Russian Vladimir Putin “in neutral Europe” – in Switzerland or Austria – not against Istanbul as well.

Zelinski mentioned his willingness to meet Putin in “any form”, although he poured cold water on the idea of his interview in Budapest, which he said, “It is not easy today.”

The possibility of direct conversations appeared after Trump met Putin in Alaska, and then hosted Zelinski and Euilian leaders at the White House on Monday.

The US President initially suggested triple side conversations covered by Putin and Zellinski, but he has since suggested that he may not participate: “Now I think it would be better if they met without me … if necessary, I will go.”

The Air Force in Ukraine calculated 614 drones and other missiles that Russia launched overnight until Thursday and said it had stopped 577 of them. It is the largest air attack since July.

While the Russian strikes tend to focus on the eastern regions near the front lines, the latest attacks also hit the western regions. The Foreign Minister said that ballistic and ballistic missiles and marine flights were among the weapons used.

The Ukrainian Air Force said that many of the attacks came from western Russia, as well as from the Black Sea and one of the Crimean peninsula occupied by Russian.

In Lviv, where one person was killed, three others were injured in attacks that harmed more than 20 civilian buildings, including residential houses and custody.

15 other people were injured when marine flight missiles struck an American electronics company in the far southwestern town of Mokachivo in Transcarbata, not far from Ukraine’s borders with Hungary and Slovakia.

“One of the missiles hit a major American electronics manufacturing company in our western region, which led to severe damage and losses,” Sibaha wrote on social media on Thursday. Officials say the factory produces coffee machines and other home commodities.

Speaking to correspondents on Thursday, Zelinski said that there is no indication from Moscow that they were “really intended to participate in fundamental negotiations” to end the war.

He also explained his lack of enthusiasm for Budapest as a host of possible conversations on Thursday, citing the strong relations of Prime Minister Vicore Urban with Moscow: “I do not say that Urban’s policy was against Ukraine, but it was against the support of Ukraine.”

The idea of the Hungarian capital appeared as a possible place for peace talks in recent days, and Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szagto said that Budapest is ready to provide “fair and safe circumstances appropriately.”

The Ukrainian leader also said that the Russian forces were flowing on the southern confrontation line in the Zaburizah region – one of the four regions in Ukraine, which Russia is now claiming to be its own.

“We can see that they are continuing to move part of their forces from Kursk to Zaporizhzia.”