Russia strikes Ukrainian cities from east to west ahead of Zelensky-Biden meeting
LA TimesEmergency services personnel work at the scene of a Russian attack in Cherkasy, Ukraine, on Thursday. Russian missiles pounded cities across Ukraine early Thursday morning, authorities said, sparking fires, killing at least three people and trapping others under rubble, and Ukrainian ally Poland announced that it would stop providing weapons amid a trade dispute. The early morning missile attack on what’s known as the International Day of Peace was Russia’s largest in more than a month and came amid the United Nations General Assembly summit in New York, where Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had denounced Russia as “a terrorist state.” Zelensky is to meet Thursday with President Biden and congressional leaders in Washington, with an additional $24-billion aid package hanging in the balance. Seven people were injured in Kyiv, including a 9-year-old girl, Mayor Vitalii Klitschko said, as missile strikes blew out windows in buildings and cars and left fires burning around crumpled metal wreckage. Russia’s Defense Ministry said 22 drones were taken down overnight by air-defense systems, 19 above Russian-annexed Crimea and three others in the Kursk, Belgorod and Oryol regions near Ukraine.