Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has urged US President Donald Trump’s administration to impose fresh sanctions on Russia without delay, following a series of deadly strikes across Ukraine.
His appeal came after he said he expected to meet Mr Trump in late September as Washington-led efforts continued to broker an end to the four-and-a-half-year war.
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“Sanctions need to be imposed now,” Mr Zelensky told the Yalta European Strategy forum.
“Honestly, I sometimes do not understand why decisions cannot be made quickly,” he added.
“Russia knows that if they strike, they will receive the same in return,” he said.
Mr Zelensky spoke after Russian attacks involving jet-powered drones struck two petrol stations in Kyiv, killing two people.
Ukrainian forces also launched drone attacks inside Russia, killing two people in the Tula region and one in the Kursk region, according to officials.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for sanctions at the Yalta European Strategy forum [file image]
As ground combat has largely stagnated, Russia and Ukraine have increasingly turned to logistics networks and other economic targets in an effort to weaken their opponent’s war effort.
For two weeks, Russia has mounted near-continuous attacks with faster jet-powered drones, killing several Kyiv residents and disrupting everyday life in the Ukrainian capital.
The barrage was halted during a visit to the city last weekend by US peace negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.
“Russia’s escalation with jet-powered ‘shaheds’ is gradually becoming increasingly terrorist in nature,” President Zelensky said on X.
Both countries reject accusations that they deliberately target civilians in the conflict, which began with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Officials said the two people killed in Kyiv were at one of the petrol stations hit in the attacks. One station was struck in what appeared to be a double-tap assault.
The strikes came after what appeared to be the first attack on a Kyiv petrol station yesterday.
Russia has targeted 300 petrol stations in recent months, primarily in or near areas close to Ukraine’s front line.
Russia has targeted petrol stations across Ukraine in recent months
“There is no military objective behind such strikes. This is terror of the civilian population,” said Bohdan Kukura, Chief Executive of Ukrainian oil company Ukrnafta.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said another 12 people, including a 12-year-old boy, were wounded in the capital.
Eight people were injured overnight when a residential building came under attack.
President Zelensky said Russian forces had also struck a building used by Kyivstar, Ukraine’s largest mobile operator, in Kyiv, while attacks were reported in eight other regions.
Kyivstar said its network remained operational.
A woman was killed in the wider Kyiv region, according to the regional governor.
Ukraine has responded with attacks on Russia’s largest online retailers and oil refineries, including targets deep inside Russian territory, as well as energy and fuel facilities in areas of Ukraine occupied by Russian forces.
President Zelensky said Ukrainian forces had struck an enterprise and an oil industry facility in Russia’s Saratov and Volgograd regions.
He also said other targets in unspecified areas and in the Black Sea had been hit.
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Dmitry Milyayev, governor of Russia’s Tula region, said two people had died and three others were injured in overnight Ukrainian drone attacks.
The governor of the Kursk region said a 37-year-old man had been killed in a Ukrainian drone strike.
Russian e-commerce company Ozon said a drone attack sparked a fire at its logistics hub in Saratov, a central Volga River city.
More than two dozen warehouses belonging to Ozon and fellow online retailer Wildberries have been hit in recent attacks. Kyiv says the strikes are aimed at economic infrastructure that supports Russia’s war effort in Ukraine.
Ukraine’s military said it had struck a Russian oil refinery in Saratov.
Local authorities said two people were injured when a missile hit two residential buildings and damaged an industrial facility in Volgograd, south of Saratov.
Smoke rises following a drone strike on a building in Kyiv
The Volgograd oil refinery, which is operated by energy company Lukoil, stands on the outskirts of the city.
The governor of Russia’s Perm region in the Ural Mountains said drones had attacked two industrial facilities.
US House of Representatives to consider sanctions on Russia
As Mr Zelensky pressed for tougher measures, the US House of Representatives was set to begin considering next week a Russia sanctions bill championed by the late Republican Senator Lindsey Graham.
The legislation has cleared the Senate but faces strong resistance from Democrats in the lower chamber.
The House Rules Committee said it had scheduled a meeting on Monday to consider the measure.
If the Republican-majority committee approves the bill, it could proceed to a vote in the chamber later in the week.
Mr Graham, a South Carolina Republican who died in July, was one of Ukraine’s most vocal supporters in the US Congress.
His bill would intensify economic pressure on Moscow by imposing sanctions on Russian officials and authorising steep tariffs on China, India and other countries in an effort to reduce their reliance on Russia’s oil and gas.
The Senate approved the measure last month by 86 votes to 11.
But the bipartisan backing that carried the bill through the Senate may not be sufficient to win approval in the House of Representatives.
