Ukraine’s Zelensky slams Russia after three generations killed in drone strike

KYIV – A Russian drone slammed into a residential house in central Ukraine overnight on June 5, killing three members of a family, including a one-year-old baby, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

He accused Moscow of trying to “buy time for itself to continue killing” and called for the West to put “maximum sanctions” and “pressure” on Moscow, after Russia has repeatedly rejected calls for a full and unconditional ceasefire.

Five people were killed

in Pryluky, a city in central Ukraine, including victims from three generations of the same family.

A local firefighting chief was responding to an earlier attack when his own house was hit by a Russian drone, officials said.

“His wife, daughter and one-year-old grandson were killed,” Mr Zelensky said.

Photos showed houses on fire, billowing grey smoke into the pitch black sky as rescuers battled the blaze.

A picture at dawn, published by the emergency services, showed a firefighter standing in the burnt-down carcass of a residential home, with the roof gone, surrounded by charred ashes and debris.

“Russia is constantly trying to buy time for itself to continue killing. When it does not feel strong enough condemnation and pressure from the world, it kills again,” Mr Zelensky said.

“This is yet another reason to impose maximum sanctions and put pressure together. We expect action from the United States, Europe, and everyone in the world who can really help change these terrible circumstances,” he added.

Fighting and aerial attacks have escalated in recent weeks, even as the sides have held two rounds of talks in Istanbul that they say are aimed at finding an end to the three-year war.

But Russian President Vladimir Putin on June 4 told US President Donald Trump that Moscow would respond to

an audacious Ukranian drone attack

that destroyed several Russian nuclear-capable military jets over the weekend, the US leader said after a call between the pair.

Another attack on the north-eastern city of Kharkiv wounded 18 people, including four children, Interior Minister Igor Klymenko said in a post on social media.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed, swathes of eastern and southern Ukraine destroyed, and millions forced to flee their homes since Russia invaded in February 2022. AFP