KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday said a Russianmissile strike on a nine-story Kyiv apartment buildingwas a sign that more pressure must be applied on Moscow to agree to a ceasefire, as Moscow intensifies attacks in the three-year war. The drone and missile attack on Kyiv early on Tuesday, the deadliest assault on the capital this year, killed 28 people across the city and injured 142 more, Kyiv Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said on Thursday. Zelenskyy, along with the head of the presidential office Andrii Yermak and Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko, visited the site of the apartment building in Kyiv's Solomianskyi district Thursday morning, laying flowers and paying tribute to the 23 people who died there after a direct hit by a missile collapsed the structure. "This attack is a reminder to the world that Russia rejects a ceasefire and chooses killing," Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram, and thanked Ukraine's partners who he said are ready to pressure Russia to "feel the real cost of the war." Tuesday's attack on Kyiv was part of a sweeping barrage as Russia once again sought to overwhelm Ukrainian air defenses. Russia fired more than 440 drones and 32 missiles in what Zelenskyy called one of the biggest bombardments ofthe war, now in its fourth year. As Russia proceeds witha summer offensiveon parts of the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line,U.S.-led peace effortshave failed to gain traction. Russian President Vladimir Putin has effectively rejected an offer from U.S.President Donald Trumpfor an immediate 30-day ceasefire, making it conditional on a halt on Ukraine's mobilization effort and a freeze on Western arms supplies. Meanwhile,Middle East tensionsand U.S.trade tariffshave drawn world attention away from Ukraine's pleas for more diplomatic and economic pressure to be placed on Moscow. Russia in recent weeks hasintensified long-range attacksthat have struck urban residential areas. Yet on Wednesday, Putin denied that his military had struck such targets, saying that attacks were "against military industries, not residential quarters." Speaking to senior news leadersof international news agencies in St. Petersburg, Putin said he was open to talks with Zelenskyy, but repeated his claim that the Ukrainian leader had lost his legitimacy after his term expired last year — allegations rejected by Kyiv and its allies. "We are ready for substantive talks on the principles of a settlement," Putin said, noting that a previous round of talks in Istanbul had led toan exchange of prisonersand the bodies of fallen soldiers. Putin on Wednesday praised Trump's push for peace in Ukraine. But Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha wrote on X on Thursday that it was his country that had "unconditionally accepted" the U.S. proposal for a ceasefire, and said that Russian claims of willingness to end the war were "manipulations." "It has been exactly 100 days since Ukraine unconditionally accepted the U.S. peace proposal to completely cease fire, put an end to the killing, and move forward with a genuine peace process ... 100 days of Russia escalating terror against Ukraine rather than ending it," Sybiha wrote. "Ukraine remains committed to peace. Unfortunately, Russia continues to choose war, disregarding U.S. efforts to end the killing," he added. Overnight on Wednesday, Russia fired a barrage of 104 Shahed and decoy drones across Ukraine, according to the country's air force. Of those, 88 were intercepted, jammed, or lost from radars mid-flight. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage caused by the attack. ___ Follow AP's coverage of the war in Ukraine athttps://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
