Yevheniia Sobolieva, 23, an interpreter and event manager in Kyiv, told NBC News that the overnight explosions shook her walls and slammed the doors shut in her apartment, sending her and other panicked residents into the corridor as more missiles fell.
Outside, the air was filled with smoke and ash, and the street scattered with broken glass. Sobolieva ran to take shelter at a nearby metro station, which she said, was so full of people, it was like “the first days of the full scale invasion.”
The attacks follow the latest conflicting and often contradictory statements in the U.S.-brokered peace talks.
On Wednesday, Trump said in the Oval Office that “I think we have a deal with both” sides — before suggesting that an agreement with Ukraine was still pending.
“I thought it might be easier to deal with Zelenskyy,” he said. “So far, it’s been harder.”
Earlier in the day, Trump launched his latest criticism of Zelenskyy on Truth Social, accusing his Ukrainian counterpart of making “inflammatory statements” — a reference to a Wall Street Journal interview in which Zelenskyy pushed back on Washington’s peace plan — and said of a deal that Zelenskyy needs to “GET IT DONE.”
The White House is trying to push Ukraine into a accepting a deal with Russia despite setting terms that Kyiv deems deeply unfavorable. High-level talks in the United Kingdom disintegrated earlier this week after Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff pulled out, leaving lower-level ministers to meet instead.
Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, retired Lt Gen. Keith Kellogg, who was part of the talks, told NBC News that “talks in London yesterday were candid, constructive and productive.”
While visiting South Africa, Zelenskyy told a news conference that a document drafted at the talks “is on President Trump’s table.” He again lamented that “we do not see strong pressure on Russia and new sanctions for its aggression” on Thursday.
Witkoff is set to travel to Moscow this week to speak with President Vladimir Putin about the talks, the White House said Tuesday. Plane spotters using the website FlightRadar24 said they had tracked a plane matching one previously used by the envoy flying from Paris to Moscow overnight.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov did not mention Thursday’s attacks in his morning briefing with journalists. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Kyiv’s “inability to negotiate is becoming increasingly obvious.”
The Russian Ministry of Defense said it had shot down 87 Ukrainian drones overnight.
