By Daniel Flynn and Pavel Polityuk
KYIV, Sept 23 (Reuters) – Russia pounded Kyiv with drone strikes on Wednesday, hitting railway infrastructure, warehouses and fuel stations, just hours after President Volodymyr Zelenskiy met US President Donald Trump to discuss peace efforts.
At least two people were killed and 22 were injured in the morning attack, according to city authorities, in one of the heaviest strikes since Russia began attacking Kyiv and nearby areas over the summer with faster and high-flying jet drones that are harder to intercept.
Explosions were heard and smoke billowed above the city centre.
“This is the view from the windows of the EU Delegation today. Buildings nearby are burning,” Katarina Mathernova, the EU ambassador to Ukraine, said in a social media post.
Zelenskiy met European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly on Tuesday to discuss ways to plug Ukraine’s gaping budget deficit, due to rising military expenditure that the Ukrainian leader blamed on Russia’s escalating airstrikes.
In his meeting with Trump, Zelenskiy discussed a potential bilateral ceasefire on energy-related targets and asked for increased supplies of U.S. Patriot air defence missiles to defend against an expected Russian winter campaign against Ukraine’s electricity infrastructure. No agreements were reached, he said.
Zelenskiy said he was ready for “any format” of an energy ceasefire with Moscow, as long as Russia halted its own attacks on Ukraine’s infrastructure.
On Wednesday, the Kremlin said the grounds for future peace talks with Ukraine were still not in place and there were no plans for any high-level meetings.
PETROL STATIONS HIT
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said a drone hit a nine-storey non-residential building, as well as a business centre and warehouses.
Ukrainian oil company Ukrnafta said Russia hit one of its petrol stations in the capital, the sixth such facility attacked in recent weeks.
In total, two petrol stations came under attack, authorities said. Reuters TV footage showed one of the heavily damaged stations on a busy highway.
Oleksandr Pertsovskyi, chief executive of the Ukrainian railway operator, said railway infrastructure came under attack in Kyiv and one of its workers had been injured.
Energy worker Mykola Nechypurenko, one of a team repairing damage to the power network, was sceptical about the prospects for any energy ceasefire with Russia.
“I don’t think they’ll agree on anything. As long as the war goes on, energy infrastructure remains under threat,” said Nechypurenko, 55. “I don’t believe it will work. Not until the war ends.”
(Reporting by Daniel Flynn and Pavel Polityuk in Kyiv, and Anna Pruchnicka in Gdansk; writing by Anna Pruchnicka; editing by Barbara Lewis, Andrew Cawthorne and Gareth Jones)
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