Extract from ABC News
Firefighters try to put out a fire following a Russian attack in the Kharkiv region. (AP: Ukrainian Emergency Service/File )
In short:
Russia launched hundreds of drones and a balistic missile at four different Ukraine cities on Tuesday night, local time, injuring at least 15 people.
The latest Russia bombardment came ahead of a September 2 deadline set by Donald Trump to reach a peace deal in the three-year war.
What's next?
No date has yet been publicly set for a possible third round of direct peace talks.
Russia pounded four Ukrainian cities with hundreds of drones, including Volodymyr Zelenskyy's hometown, injuring at least 15 people in an attack that mostly targeted energy infrastructure.
The latest bombardment on Tuesday night, local time, came ahead of a September 2 deadline set by US President Donald Trump for Russian President Vladimir Putin to reach a peace deal in the three-year war.
Moscow faces the possibility of severe Washington sanctions if it doesn't.
No date has yet been publicly set for a possible third round of direct peace talks between delegations from Russia and Ukraine.
Two previous rounds delivered no progress apart from prisoner swaps.
Russia launched 400 Shahed and decoy drones, as well as one ballistic missile, during the night, the Ukrainian air force said.
The strikes targeted north-eastern Kharkiv, which is Ukraine's second-largest city, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's hometown of Kryvyi Rih in central Ukraine, Vinnytsia in the west and Odesa in the south.
Power was cut for 80,000 families in Kryvyi Rih and other locations in the Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine's largest private energy company DTEK said on the Telegram app.
The air force said it had shot down most of the drones, but that 12 targets were hit by 57 drones and the missile.
"Russia does not change its strategy," Mr Zelenskyy said.
"To effectively counter this terror, we need a systemic strengthening of defence: more air defence, more interceptors, and more resolve so that Russia feels our response."
Mr Zelenskyy called from a a "systemic strengthening of defense". (AP: Evgeniy Maloletka/File )
Mr Trump on Monday pledged to deliver more weapons to Ukraine, including vital Patriot air defence systems, and threatened to slap additional sanctions on Russia.
It was Mr Trump's toughest stance toward Russian President Vladimir Putin since he returned to the White House nearly six months ago.
But some US politicians and European government officials expressed misgivings that the 50-day deadline handed Mr Putin the opportunity to capture more Ukrainian territory before any settlement to end the fighting.
Other US ultimatums to Mr Putin in recent months have failed to persuade the Russian leader to stop his invasion of neighbouring Ukraine.
Tens of thousands of soldiers have been killed in the war, many of them along the more than 1,000-kilometre front line, and Russian barrages of cities have killed more than 12,000 Ukrainian civilians, the United Nations says.
AP/Reuters
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