Russian strikes on Ukraine killed at least 20 people, officials said Saturday, as heavy aerial attacks continued after the U.S. stopped sharing satellite images with Ukraine.
The decision to withhold intelligence and military aid came on the heels of a tempestuous White House visit last week by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Without U.S. satellite imagery, Ukraine’s ability to strike inside Russia and defend itself from bombardment is significantly diminished.
Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP
At least 11 people were killed in multiple strikes on a town in Ukraine’s Donetsk region late Friday. The attack also damaged eight apartment blocks in the town of Dobropillya, which is close to the front where Russian troops have been making steady advances.
Zelenskyy said at least five children were among the injured in Dobropillya.
“Last night, the Russian army fired two ballistic missiles at the center of Dobropillya,” he said. “After emergency services arrived at the scene, they launched another strike, deliberately targeting rescuers. It is a vile and inhumane intimidation tactic to which the Russians often resort.”
Another six people were killed in the front-line towns of Pokrovsk, Kostyantynivka, Myrnograd and Ivanopillya, officials said, while emergency services reported that three others died when a Russian drone hit a civilian workshop in the northeastern Kharkiv region.
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The barrage came after the U.S. suspended military aid and intelligence to Ukraine to pressure it into accepting a peace deal being pushed by the Trump administration.
When asked Friday by a reporter during an Oval Office exchange if Russian President Vladimir Putin was taking advantage of the U.S. pause on intelligence-sharing to attack Ukraine, President Trump responded: “I think he’s doing what anybody else would.”
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Retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, Mr. Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, told CBS News that Ukrainians brought the pause in U.S. intelligence sharing “on themselves.”
It’s “sort of like hitting a mule with a two-by-four across the nose,” Kellogg said of the impact of the intelligence pause on the battlefield. “Got their attention.”
Though Kellogg indicated that intelligence sharing could resume, he declined to say when. “That’s up to the president of the United States,” he told CBS News chief foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Brennan in an interview at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Mr. Trump proposed imposing large-scale banking sanctions and tariffs on Russia until a ceasefire and final peace settlement was reached.
Zelenskyy welcomed the prospect of additional sanctions on Moscow, saying, “Everything that helps Putin finance the war must be broken.”
Ukraine’s air force reported Saturday that Russian troops launched three Iskander missiles and 145 drones over the country overnight. The bombardment contained a mix of attack and decoy drones intended to confuse air defenses. One missile and 79 drones were shot down, while 54 more drones were lost without causing damage, the Ukrainian air force said.
Meanwhile, Russian troops shot down 31 Ukrainian drones overnight, including 26 over the country’s Krasnodar region, Russia’s Defense Ministry said Saturday.
Falling debris from one drone sparked a blaze at the KINEF oil refinery in Russia’s northern Leningrad region, local Gov. Aleksandr Drozdenko said in a statement. No casualties were reported.