Russia resumes strikes on Kyiv after pause for US envoys’ visit

Russia resumed strikes on Kyiv and across Ukraine early on Tuesday following a pause in attacks that allowed President Trump’s top envoys for peace negotiations to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the country’s capital.

The Ukrainian military downed 175 aerial targets, the Ministry of Defense said , but added that ballistic missiles hit homes in Kyiv, a market in Odesa and a train in the Sumy region.

“The russians bombed us all night. Kyiv was exploding and burning. We were all hiding in shelters,” the European Union’s ambassador to Ukraine, Katarina Mathernova, posted on the social platform X .

Two civilians were killed, the ministry said. At least 19 people were wounded in Kyiv, and fires broke out in 14 high-rise buildings, a dorm, a school, a clinic, warehouses and other sites, Reuters reported , citing Ukrainian officials.

The Russian attacks came shortly after Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff left Kyiv after meeting with Zelensky on Monday, tasked with restarting negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv to end the more than four-and-a-half-year war. Both Russia and Ukraine had agreed to a three-day ceasefire to allow for Kushner and Witkoff’s travel.

Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, and Witkoff, the president’s longtime friend and business partner, had earlier met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. They then traveled to Kyiv, marking the first time they visited the Ukrainian capital. Witkoff said he had visited Moscow at least eight times as part of Trump’s efforts to end the war.

The envoys said they put forward “new ideas” to end the war, although they did not provide details publicly. Kushner said they are in touch with Ukrainian officials almost daily.

Facing a press conference in Kyiv on Monday, Kushner and Witkoff defended their diplomatic efforts despite failing to achieve a ceasefire in a war that Trump promised to end within 24 hours of returning to office. A reporter noted that negotiations to end the war with Iran and bring peace to Gaza weren’t going much better.

“The tone of your question was a little bit like, why haven’t you done every single impossible thing possible? We are very honored to be able to have the opportunity to work on these under President Trump’s leadership,” Kushner responded.

“We have been doing everything we can to try and find a way out of a mess that was created before President Trump’s time.”

Zelensky, speaking at the press conference, said he discussed with Witkoff, Kushner and European partners present for the talks about scaling up defensive materials for the winter to combat an expected increase in Russian ballistic missile attacks against Ukrainian energy infrastructure and civilian sites. Ukraine is pleading with the U.S. and other allies to provide critical air defenses — particularly Patriot interceptors — to counter Russian ballistic missiles.

“We are counting on support for air defense and the energy sector, as well as substantial volumes of American LNG [liquified natural gas] and the ability to use them,” Zelensky said, in remarks translated in a post on X.

The Ukrainian leader said sticking points in talks with Russia remain, specifically around territory that Russia wants to claim in any peace deal, and said these must be discussed between the country’s leaders. Putin has mocked Zelensky as an illegitimate leader, conditioned any leader-level talks on the Ukrainian president traveling to Moscow, and called for elections to take place in Ukraine before any leader-level talks.

“I think such complex issues can only be resolved at the level of leaders,” Zelensky said.

“But the main thing is that today we have the opportunity to discuss everything — security guarantees, Ukraine’s future and the prosperity plan. We are talking not only about security guarantees, but also about economic guarantees for Ukraine — to recover and rebuild.”