Russia launches record drones into Ukraine, including Kyiv

· UPI

July 4 (UPI) -- One person died and 26 were injured in record Russian airstrikes throughout Ukraine's capital Kyiv on Friday, one day after U.S. President Donald Trump said he was "disappointed" that Russian President Vladimir Putin wasn't ready to end the three-year war.

Several thousand residents spent the night in shelters, including subway stations or underground parking lots during eight hours of drone and missiles strikes, CNN reported.

"Absolutely horrible and sleepless night in Kyiv," Ukraine's Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said about the nonstop strikes.

After the two presidents spoke on the phone, Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the "Special Military Operation," which started in February 2022, will continue until they've met their objective.

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Trump said that "no progress" had been made to end fighting, which began after Russia invaded Ukraine.

Trump said he planned to speak with Zelensky on Friday.

Ukraine's air force said the the 550 drones, 72 of which penetrated air defenses, surpassed the previous record of 537 launched last Saturday night.

Air raid alerts sounded overnight in Kyiv, the "main target of the strikes," the Ukrainian Air Force said on Telegram.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said it was a "brutal, sleepless night" as he condemned one of the most "demonstratively significant and cynical" attacks of the war.

"Notably, the first air raid alerts in our cities and regions yesterday began to blare almost simultaneously with media reports discussing a phone call between President Trump and Putin," Zelensky posted on X. "Yet again, Russia is showing it has no intention of ending the war and terror."

Again, he urged international allies, including the United States, to put more pressure on Russia to end the war and to impose harsher sanctions.

"All of this is clear evidence that without truly large-scale pressure, Russia will not change its dumb, destructive behavior," Zelensky said. "For every such strike against people and human life, they must feel appropriate sanctions and other blows to their economy, their revenues, and their infrastructure. This is the only thing that can be achieved quickly to change the situation for the better. And it depends on our partners, primarily the United States."

Some shipments of critical weapons to Ukraine have been halted by the United States.

Trump blamed former President Joe Biden for "emptying out our whole country giving them weapons, and we have to make sure that we have enough for ourselves."

A German government spokesperson said his nation is in talks with the U.S. to buy Patriot air defense systems to give to Ukraine.

The commander of Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces warned the number of long-range drones used by Russia could reach 1,000 or more daily.

The airstrikes damaged railway infrastructure, as well as schools, businesses and vehicles in the capital, including five ambulances that were summoned.

The Polish consulate also was damaged, said Poland's Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski, who called on the U.S. to "restore supplies of anti-aircraft ammunition to Ukraine and impose tough new sanctions on the aggressor."

With air pollution levels in the city "high," according to the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources, residents were warned to stay indoors, not to ventilate rooms and use air purifiers at maximum if possible.

"This attack happened immediately after Putin's conversation with Trump, and it confirms that Trump is a scoundrel, just like the fact that the U.S. wants to stop aid deliveries and he is not helping in any way during his presidency," one Kyiv resident, Yuriy, told CNN.

One body was found in the rubble in the Svyatoshynsky district, the leader of the Kyiv city military administration, Tymur Tkachenko, said.

Also hit were the Sumy, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Chernihiv regions.

Russian Defense Minister Andrey Belousov said the "massive" strikes were in response to the "terrorist acts of the Kyiv regime."

A woman was killed in a Ukrainian drone strike on a village not far from the border on Friday night, the acting governor of Russia's southern Rostov region said.