President Volodymyr Zelensky said deadly attacks showed there was “no change” in Russia’s attitude on the war. He accused Russia of deliberately targeting civilians in Kyiv, including with cluster munitions, which disperse in the air and scatter dozens of smaller explosive devices, or bomblets, indiscriminately over a wide area.
Human Rights Watch reported in August an apparent increase in the use of such weapons, which are fired in rockets and missiles or dropped from aircraft. The organisation said doing so could be a war crime.
Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, hoping for a swift attack that would topple Zelensky and seize land. The fighting has become Europe’s biggest conflict since the Second World War. Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed, millions have been forced from their homes, and much of eastern and southern Ukraine has been destroyed.
Zelensky met US envoy Witkoff in Norway on Tuesday. Relations between Kyiv and Washington have fallen to their worst state since President Donald Trump publicly berated Zelensky in the Oval Office in February 2025. In recent days, Trump has blocked new sanctions on Russia, struck a deal to buy Russian diesel, and called for the Ukrainian leader to be replaced.
Zelensky has backed a return to trilateral talks. Several rounds over the past 18 months have failed to bring the sides closer to an agreement. Russia is demanding that Ukraine withdraw from territory in the eastern Donetsk region that it still controls, and wants sweeping political and military limits on the size of Ukraine’s army and on its Western alliances. Ukraine rejects those demands as equivalent to capitulation that would leave the country open to a fresh attack.
Moscow said a summit between Trump, President Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping was being prepared in China for next month. Europeans and Ukraine are worried that a deal could be struck over their heads. Witkoff described his talks with Putin as “constructive”, while saying “there is still important work left to do”. Technical-level talks are to continue among all three sides.
Putin has consistently rejected face-to-face talks with Zelensky. He has insisted that Moscow intends to seize the rest of eastern Ukraine, either through a deal or on the battlefield.