{"id":150936,"date":"2025-05-25T11:49:59","date_gmt":"2025-05-25T11:49:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/ukraine-russia-war-latest-zelensky-hits-out-at-us-silence-after-12-killed-in-biggest-air-raid-of-war-the-independent\/"},"modified":"2025-05-25T11:49:59","modified_gmt":"2025-05-25T11:49:59","slug":"ukraine-russia-war-latest-zelensky-hits-out-at-us-silence-after-12-killed-in-biggest-air-raid-of-war-the-independent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/ukraine-russia-war-latest-zelensky-hits-out-at-us-silence-after-12-killed-in-biggest-air-raid-of-war-the-independent\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine-Russia war latest: Zelensky hits out at US \u2018silence\u2019 after 12 killed in biggest air raid of war – The Independent"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Three children are among those killed after drones and missiles hit Kyiv
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Volodymyr Zelensky<\/a> has condemned the \u201csilence of America\u201d after at least 12 people, including three children, were killed by Russian forces in the largest aerial bombardment since the war begun in 2022.
The Ukrainian president called on the United States, who have taken a softer stance on Putin since Donald Trump became president, and said: “The silence of America, the silence of others in the world only encourages Putin.”
“Every such terrorist Russian strike is reason enough for new sanctions against Russia<\/a>.”
Moscow<\/a> and Kyiv<\/a> have exchanged fire as Russia<\/a> said it faced a barrage of Ukrainian drones and intercepted or destroyed around 100 of the unmanned Ukrainian weapons including some aimed at Moscow<\/a>.
The drone attacks have intensified between Russia<\/a> and Ukraine<\/a> this week. On Friday evening, Russia launched dozens of drones and ballistic missiles at Kyiv<\/a> overnight in one of the biggest combined aerial attacks the war has seen.
This comes hours before Russia<\/a> and Ukraine<\/a> each swapped another 303 more prisoners of war in the final part of a negotiated exchange<\/a> which has resulted in 1,000 citizens from both sides returning to their country.
Zelensky<\/a> and Russia\u2019s defence ministry confirmed the second prisoner exchange on Saturday, after Friday\u2019s release saw each side exchange 390 civilians and personnel.
\u201cAmong those who returned today are soldiers from our army, the State Border Service, and the National Guard of Ukraine<\/a>,\u201d Mr Zelensky said on his official Telegram channel.<\/a>
For Kyiv, the day was particularly somber as the city observed Kyiv Day, a national holiday that falls on the last Sunday in May, commemorating its founding in the 5th century,
Zelenskyy said Russian missiles and drones hit more than 30 cities and villages and urged Western partners to ramp up sanctions on Russia \u2014 a longstanding demand of the Ukrainian leader but one that despite warnings to Moscow by the United States and Europe has not materialized in ways to deter Russia.
“These were deliberate strikes on ordinary cities,” Zelenskyy wrote on X, adding that Sunday’s targets included Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Khmelnytskyi, Ternopil, Chernihiv, Sumy, Odesa, Poltava, Dnipro, Mykolaiv, Kharkiv and Cherkasy regions.
“Without truly strong pressure on the Russian leadership, this brutality cannot be stopped. Sanctions will certainly help,” Zelenskyy said. “Determination matters now \u2014 the determination of the United States, of European countries, and of all those around the world who seek peace.”
Read the full article here after a large-scale drone and missile strike hit Ukraine overnight: <\/em>
In Markhalivka, just outside Kyiv where several village homes were burned down, the Fedorenkos watched their ruined home in tears.
“The street looks like Bakhmut, like Mariupol, it’s just terrible,” says 76-year-old Liubov Fedorenko, comparing their village to some of Ukraine’s most devastated cities.
She said she was grateful her daughter and the grandchildren hadn’t joined them for the weekend.
“I was trying to persuade my daughter to come to us,” Fedorenko said, adding that she told her daughter, “After all, you live on the eighth floor in Kyiv, and here it’s the ground floor.”
‘”She said, ‘No, mum, I’m not coming.’ And thank God she didn’t come, because the rocket hit (the house) on the side where the children’s rooms were,” Fedorenko said.
Another 303 Ukrainian servicemen have been welcomed home after being kept as prisoners of war by Russia.
In a post on X, Volodymyr Zelensky shared images of them reuniting with their loved ones and vowed: \u201cWe will definitely bring every single one of our people back from Russian captivity.\u201d
Russian troops have taken control of the village of Romanivka in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, the Russian Defence Ministry said on Sunday in a statement.
The battlefield report has not been independently verified.
The Netherlands will send the last one of 24 promised F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine on Monday, Defence Minister Ruben Brekelmans said on Sunday on a Dutch television talk show.
The first 23 Dutch F-16 jets were delivered from last summer. The Netherlands has also provided fighter jets to a training centre in Romania for Ukrainian pilots and crew.
Russia and Ukraine have completed the final stage of their prisoner exchange deal, with now 1,000 servicemen from each side returned to their country.
According to the Russian ministry of defence, 303 Russian servicemen and the same number of Ukrainians have been handed over.
The deal has been completed in three stages over the past three days.
The latest air attack on Ukraine was the largest since the war started in 2022.
“This was a combined, ruthless strike aimed at civilians. The enemy once again showed that its goal is fear and death,” Zelensky wrote on Telegram.
The assault comes as Ukraine and Russia prepared to conduct the third and final day of a prisoner swap in which both sides will exchange a total of 1000 people each.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on the United States, which has taken a softer public line on Russia and its leader, Vladimir Putin, since President Donald Trump took office, to speak out.
“The silence of America, the silence of others in the world only encourages Putin,” he wrote on Telegram.
“Every such terrorist Russian strike is reason enough for new sanctions against Russia.”
It was the largest attack of the war in terms of weapons fired, although other strikes have killed more people.
Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha said on social media platform X: “A difficult Sunday morning in Ukraine after a sleepless night. The most massive Russian air attack in many weeks lasted all night.”
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Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged inThree children are among those killed after drones and missiles hit Kyiv From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":150937,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-150936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150936\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}