By Current Time Ray Furlong
Russian forces pounded Ukraine in a massive overnight attack hours after a phone call between the US and Russian Presidents that Donald Trump said left him 鈥渄isappointed.鈥
Kyiv bore the brunt of the attack, which Ukrainian officials said included more than 500 drones and 11 missiles.
There were no immediate reports of fatalities but more than 20 people were injured in the strikes, which hit civilian targets including a medical facility in the Ukrainian capital.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha wrote on X: “Absolutely horrible and sleepless night in Kyiv. One of the worst so far. Hundreds of Russian drones and ballistic missiles rained down on the Ukrainian capital. Right after Putin spoke with President Trump. And he does it on purpose.”
Emergency services reported that residential properties were damaged and fires broke out at apartment blocks.
“As a result of the enemy’s night attack on the capital, five ambulances were damaged, which were responding to calls to injured residents of Kyiv. According to current information, there are no injured doctors,” the city鈥檚 mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said.
Some 14 people were hospitalized after the strikes, he added. One of those injured was reportedly a 10-year-old girl.
Trump 鈥淰ery Disappointed鈥 With Talk With Putin
The attacks underlined the message that Russian President Vladimir Putin put to Trump in a roughly 1-hour phone call on July 3 that Moscow would not give up its aims in Ukraine.
Putin told Trump that 鈥淩ussia will achieve its goals鈥 in Ukraine and 鈥渨ill not abandon鈥 them, according to Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov.
“I’m very disappointed with the conversation I had today with President Putin, because I don’t think he’s there, and I’m very disappointed,” Trump said.
“I’m just saying I don’t think he’s looking to stop, and that’s too bad.”
Trump added that he would speak to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy later on July 4.
“All of this is clear evidence that without truly large-scale pressure, Russia will not change its dumb, destructive behavior,” Zelenskyy wrote in a social media post responding to the overnight attacks.
“And it depends on our partners, primarily the United States,” he added.
Zelenskyy has also said he wants to speak to Trump about Washington鈥檚 partial halt on weapon supplies to Kyiv, which includes Patriot air defense missiles according to US media reports.
Senator Jeanne Shaheen (Democrat-New Hampshire), ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a July 3 statement that the Senate, on a bipartisan basis, “was shocked” by the halt in aid and is seeking to reverse the administration’s decision. Ukraine has traditionally enjoyed widespread bipartisan support in Congress.
Shaheen said the contents of the call showed that Putin continued to “play” Trump.
Mikhail Alexseev, a political science professor at San Diego State University, told RFE/RL that the July 3 call confirmed that Putin is not willing to compromise on the issue of Ukraine.
“Moscow’s position just remains entrenched, and in some ways, indeed tougher,” he said, pointing to Putin’s recent comments at a conference in St. Petersburg dismissing Ukrainians as a people distinct from Russians.
“In their thinking, they see Trump abandoning Ukraine. And if he does, they don’t have any incentive to stop the fighting, and they can become just more insistent on achieving their initial objectives,” Alexseev said.
Despite Russia鈥檚 ongoing aerial campaign against Ukrainian cities, another prisoner exchange between the two countries was scheduled for later on July 4.