KYIV, Ukraine (AFP) — Russia said on Tuesday it wanted peace in Ukraine hours after mounting attacks that killed at least 25 people, including a 23-year-old pregnant woman and more than a dozen prison inmates.
United States President Donald Trump on Tuesday twice shortened his deadline for Russia to end its invasion of Ukraine — now into a fourth year — or face new sanctions, saying hours after the latest deaths the Kremlin had 10 days to act.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of wilfully targeting a prison in the Zaporizhzhia region, which Russia claims as its own territory, killing 16 people and wounding dozens of others.
“It was a deliberate strike, intentional, not accidental. The Russians could not have been unaware that they were targeting civilians in that facility,” Zelensky said on social media in response.
The Kremlin denied the claim.
“The Russian army does not strike civilian targets,” spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters, including from Agence France-Presse.
The attacks came hours after Trump said he was cutting the deadline for President Vladimir Putin to halt the war from 50 days to 10 to 12 days.
Hours later, Trump solidified the deadline to 10 days, threatening to impose “tariffs and stuff” and conceding he did not know if the measures would have any effect.