Zelenskyy calls for more pressure on Russia after deadly missile strike
in Ukrainian capital Kyiv
[June 20, 2025]
By JUSTIN SPIKE and ILLIA NOVIKOV
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Russian missile strike on a nine-story Kyiv
apartment building was a sign that more pressure must be applied on
Moscow to agree to a ceasefire, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy
said Thursday, as Moscow intensifies attacks in the war.
The drone and missile attack on Kyiv early Tuesday, the deadliest
assault on the capital this year, killed 28 people across the city and
wounded 142 others, Kyiv Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko
said.
Zelenskyy, along with the head of the presidential office, Andrii Yermak,
and Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko, visited the site of the apartment
building in Kyiv’s Solomianskyi district on Thursday morning, laying
flowers and paying tribute to the 23 people who died there after a
direct hit by a missile brought down the structure.
“This attack is a reminder to the world that Russia rejects a ceasefire
and chooses killing,” Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram, and thanked Ukraine's
partners who he said are ready to pressure Russia to “feel the real cost
of the war.”
Intensifying attacks
Tuesday's attack on Kyiv was part of a sweeping barrage as Russia once
again sought to overwhelm Ukrainian air defenses. Russia fired more than
440 drones and 32 missiles in what Zelenskyy called one of the biggest
bombardments of the war, which began on Feb. 24, 2022.
As Russia proceeds with a summer offensive on parts of the roughly
1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line, U.S.-led peace efforts have
failed to gain traction. Russian President Vladimir Putin has
effectively rejected an offer from U.S. President Donald Trump for an
immediate 30-day ceasefire, making it conditional on a halt on Ukraine’s
mobilization effort and a freeze on Western arms supplies.
Meanwhile, Middle East tensions and U.S. trade tariffs have drawn away
world attention from Ukraine’s pleas for more diplomatic and economic
pressure to be placed on Moscow.
In recent weeks, Russia has intensified long-range attacks that have
struck urban residential areas. Yet on Wednesday, Putin denied that his
military had struck such targets, saying that attacks were “against
military industries, not residential quarters.”
Putin told senior news leaders of international news agencies in St.
Petersburg, Russia, that he was open to talks with Zelenskyy, but
repeated his accusation that the Ukrainian leader had lost his
legitimacy after his term expired last year — allegations rejected by
Kyiv and its allies.
“We are ready for substantive talks on the principles of a settlement,”
Putin said, noting that a previous round of talks in Istanbul had led to
an exchange of prisoners and the bodies of fallen soldiers.
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In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office,
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy lays flowers at the site of
Russia's Tuesday deadly missile attack that ruined a multistory
residential building in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, June 19, 2025.
(Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP)
Prisoners exchanged
A new round of such exchanges took place in Ukraine's Chernihiv
region on Thursday, involving the repatriation of Ukrainian
prisoners of war who, according to Ukraine's Coordination
Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War or KSHPPV, were
suffering from severe health issues caused by injuries and prolonged
detention.
The exchange was confirmed by Russia's Defense Ministry, which
released a video of Russian servicemen at an exchange area in
Belarus after being released in the prisoner swap.
Commenting on the exchange, Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram: “We are
working to get our people back. Thank you to everyone who helps make
these exchanges possible. Our goal is to free each and every one.”
Many of the exchanged Ukrainian POWs had spent over three years in
captivity, with a large number captured during the defense of the
now Russian-occupied city of Mariupol in 2022, according to the
KSHPPV, which added that preparations for another prisoner exchange
are ongoing.
In St. Petersburg on Wednesday, Putin praised Trump’s push for peace
in Ukraine. But Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha wrote on X
on Thursday that it was his country that had “unconditionally
accepted” the U.S. proposal for a ceasefire, and said that Russian
claims of willingness to end the war were “manipulations.”
“It has been exactly 100 days since Ukraine unconditionally accepted
the U.S. peace proposal to completely cease fire, put an end to the
killing, and move forward with a genuine peace process ... 100 days
of Russia escalating terror against Ukraine rather than ending it,”
Sybiha wrote.
“Ukraine remains committed to peace. Unfortunately, Russia continues
to choose war, disregarding U.S. efforts to end the killing,” he
added.
Overnight on Wednesday, Russia fired a barrage of 104 Shahed and
decoy drones across Ukraine, according to the country's air force.
Of those, 88 were intercepted, jammed, or lost from radars
mid-flight.
There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage caused by
the attack.
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