Dozens wounded in Ukraine amid Trump ceasefire talks in Riyadh
On The Ground newsletter: Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondentsGet a weekly dispatch from our international correspondentsGet a weekly international news dispatchDozens of Ukrainians have been injured after a school and hospital were hit in a Russian missile attack, officials said, as US-led ceasefire talks continued in Saudi Arabia.As the delegations met in Riyadh, at least 74 people – including 13 children – were wounded on Monday as a Russian missile strike inflicted heavy damage on a hospital, a school and a residential area in the Ukrainian city of Sumy, regional governor Volodymyr Artiukh said.Speaking from the scene, against a backdrop of thick black smoke, fires and damaged buildings and cars, Mr Artiukh said the schoolchildren had been in a shelter at the time. Several high-rise flats in the city centre were also damaged, he said.The previous night, Ukraine’s delegation described its talks with US officials – in what marked the first such parallel talks in three years – as “constructive and meaningful”. Kyiv officials said on Monday they would remain in Riyadh and expected to meet again with the Americans.open image in galleryFirefighters tackle a blaze in a residential building in Sumy on Monday (The State Emergency Service of Ukraine)Follow our blog for the latest updatesAs Russian and US officials met on Monday morning, Moscow’s negotiator Grigory Karasin said talks were proceeding in a “creative way”, telling state news agency Interfax that the US and Russian delegations “understand each other’s views”.It came as Time magazine published an interview with Volodymyr Zelensky, in which the Ukrainian president expressed fears that some White House officials have started taking Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin at their word, even when their claims are contradicted by US intelligence.Mr Zelensky cited the example of Donald Trump repeating the claim that thousands of Ukrainian troops had become encircled in Kursk, following a phone call with Mr Putin. “That was a lie,” said Mr Zelensky.And Mr Zelensky suggested that Moscow was responsible for feeding the White House claims that “the Ukrainians do not want to end the war, and something should be done to force them” – a claim with which Mr Trump berated his Ukrainian counterpart during their White House showdown last month, before suspending US intelligence sharing with Kyiv. open image in galleryVolodymyr Zelensky during a meeting at an undisclosed location in the Donetsk region (Ukraine's presidential press service/ AFP)But after Kyiv was targeted for a third successive night on Monday, Ukraine’s foreign minister Andrii Sybiha said: “Moscow speaks of peace while carrying out brutal strikes on densely populated residential areas in major Ukrainian cities. Instead of making hollow statements about peace, Russia must stop bombing our cities and end its war on civilians.”One major sticking point in a potential ceasefire is which targets would be off-limits to strike. While Mr Putin agreed to a truce in attacks on energy facilities earlier this month after a phone call with Mr Trump, Moscow then launched strikes on Ukraine’s energy grid within hours of the call.While the White House said “energy and infrastructure” would be covered, the Kremlin declared that the agreement referred more narrowly to “energy infrastructure”. Mr Zelensky has said he would also like to see infrastructure like railways and ports protected while emphasising that Ukraine is open to a full 30-day ceasefire on all targets of any kind.In a televised statement on Sunday, Mr Zelensky urged Kyiv’s allies to step up pressure on Russia to “stop this terror”, noting that Russia has chosen to continue its attacks despite a proposal for an unconditional ceasefire having been on the table since 11 March.But Mr Putin has made a complete ceasefire conditional on a halt of arms supplies to Kyiv and a suspension of Ukraine's military mobilisation – demands rejected by Kyiv and its Western allies.Russia said its “main” objective in Riyadh’s talks would be to secure a pause on attacks in the Black Sea to ensure the safety of commercial shipping. open image in galleryThe Ritz-Carlton hotel in Riyadh where talks are underway with US mediation (AFP/Getty)Despite Russia having unilaterally withdrawn from a similar UN-brokered deal in 2022, the Kremlin claimed that Mr Putin had “responded constructively” in recent days to a Trump initiative on Black Sea shipping.Ahead of the talks in Riyadh, Mr Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, who last week praised Mr Putin as “gracious” and “super smart”, claimed: “I think that you’re going to see in Saudi Arabia on Monday some real progress, particularly as it affects a Black Sea ceasefire on ships between both countries. And from that, you’ll naturally gravitate into a full-on shooting ceasefire.”Heavy fighting continued along the frontline on Monday, however, with close to 90 combat clashes reported by Kyiv’s military as of 4pm local time [GMT 1400]. Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces claimed to have destroyed four military helicopters in Russia’s Belgorod region with the use of American-supplied Himars rocket systems, while Ukrainian state railway operator Ukrzaliznytsia said it had been hit by a “massive targeted cyberattack”.Civilians also bore the brunt of a vast overnight Russian drone attack, with one man in Kyiv suffering shrapnel wounds, while a pregnant woman and a 25-year-old woman were taken to hospital after a residential building was hit in Kharkiv.
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