Russia kills 16 people including three children in missile strike on Zelenskyy's home town, with dozens wounded
by Kit Heren · LBCBy Kit Heren
Sixteen people have been killed, including three children, in Russian airstrikes on Volodymy Zelenskyy's hometown.
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After the strike on the city in the Dnipropetrovsk region, local leader Serhii Lysak said the invasion was a "fight against civilians".
It followed a drone attack late Thursday on Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city, that killed five civilians.
Emergency crews carried black body bags from a burning apartment building as onlookers wept and hugged in the dark.
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Over 50 people were wounded. Some of them, bloodied and in shock, limped out into the street or were carried on stretchers as flames shot from the windows of their homes.
"Now, I think it is obvious who wants peace and who wants war," Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha said at a Nato meeting in Brussels, referring to the Kharkiv strike.
"We must get Russia serious about peace. We must pressure Russia into peace."
Russia has effectively rejected a US proposal for a full and immediate 30-day halt in the fighting, and the UK and French foreign ministers on Friday accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of dragging his feet in ceasefire talks to halt Russia's all-out invasion of Ukraine.
"Our judgment is that Putin continues to obfuscate, continues to drag his feet," Foreign Secretary David Lammy told reporters at Nato headquarters, standing alongside French counterpart Jean-Noel Barrot in a symbolic show of unity.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio said that Russia's real intentions in the negotiations will become clear within weeks.
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"We will know from their answers very soon whether they are serious about proceeding with real peace or whether it's a delay tactic," Mr Rubio told reporters. "Now we've reached the stage where we need to make progress."
A Kremlin envoy who visited Washington this week for talks with Trump administration officials said on Friday that further meetings would be needed to resolve outstanding issues.
Kirill Dmitriev told Russian reporters that "the dialogue will take some time, but it's proceeding positively and constructively".