Ukraine staged major drone strikes on Moscow overnight just hours after the Ukraine leader accused Vladimir Putin of wanting to thwart Donald Trump’s ceasefire plan.
A major oil refinery just 55 miles from the Kremlin dictator’s £1 billion clifftop palace on the Black Sea was also hit in a strike triggering ten explosions followed by a massive inferno.
There were reports that Ukrainian military managed to drop a drone ‘virtually in front of Putin’s nose – 400 metres (1,312ft) from his route from Novo-Ogaryovo [his official residence outside Moscow] to the Kremlin’.
Meanwhile Vnukovo airport – used by Trump envoy Steve Witkoff to depart Moscow on his Gulfstream G650ER business jet after meeting Putin and his top officials – was closed due to the intense drone bombardment just hours after he left.
The barrage was the second concerted Ukrainian attack on Moscow in three days, and appeared to be a direct response to Putin setting multiple conditions for any ceasefire.
The Russian dictator said that Moscow ‘agrees with the proposal to cease hostilities,’ but only if it ‘led to enduring peace’ that ‘removed the underlying causes of this crisis’.
Volodymyr Zelensky has condemned Putin’s response as ‘highly predictable’, declaring in his nightly address that ‘Putin is afraid to tell President Trump directly that he wants to continue this war and keep killing Ukrainians.’
He added that his country was ready to work ‘quickly and constructively’ to bring about an end to the war.
‘We are not setting conditions that complicate the process – Russia is. As we have always said, the only one stalling, the only one being unconstructive, is Russia,’ he said. ‘They need this war. Putin has stolen years of peace and continues this war day after day.’
