One person has been killed and four injured in Russia’s latest missile attack on Ukraine’s capital overnight.
Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said a nine-year-old girl was among the injured in the attack in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
The Ukrainian military said it had shot down six out of seven ballistic missiles and 71 drones launched by Russia overnight.
It comes after President Volodymyr Zelensky suggested Ukraine would be prepared to swap land with Russia in potential peace negotiations.
The attack caused damage in Kyiv’s Holosiivskyi, Podilskyi, Sviatoshynskyi and Obolonskyi districts, Klitschko said on Telegram.
Meanwhile, the city of Kryvyi Rih saw damage to various infrastructure and residential buildings as it too was targeted in a Russian missile strike overnight, Dnipropetrovsk regional governor Serhiy Lysak said on Telegram.
Reacting to the attack, Zelensky said Russian president Vladimir Putin was “not preparing for peace”.
“He continues to kill Ukrainians and destroy cities.
“Right now, we need unity and support from all our partners in the fight for a just end to this war,” he wrote on Telegram.
It comes after Zelensky earlier told the Guardian that he would be prepared to swap land with Russia in a future peace negotiation.
He told the paper that parts of Russia’s Kursk region – which Ukraine has held since an offensive six months ago – could be returned in exchange for Ukrainian territory currently occupied by Moscow.
Ukraine has never said it wanted to permanently occupy the hundreds of square kilometres it seized in Russia’s Kursk region, but the goal has perhaps become clearer.
It was initially hoped the Kursk operation would relieve pressure on overstretched Ukrainian troops on other parts of the front line, however with continued Russian battlefield dominance, President Zelensky is now looking to use it as political leverage.
He admits Ukraine can’t enjoy any security guarantees without its biggest ally, the US.
On Friday he will meet with Vice President JD Vance, who has been a critic of American military support for Kyiv.
With the Whitehouse eyeing up Ukraine’s natural resources in exchange for continued aid, Ukraine’s leader is very much in pitching mode.
