Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is urging Washington to move swiftly, calling on US President Donald Trump’s administration to impose new sanctions on Russia in response to recent deadly attacks on Ukraine.
Mr Zelensky made the appeal as he announced plans to meet Mr Trump in late September, with the United States leading efforts to broker an end to the four-and-a-half year war.
“Sanctions need to be imposed now,” Mr Zelensky told the Yalta European Strategy forum.
“Honestly, I sometimes do not understand why decisions cannot be made quickly,” he added.
In separate remarks, Mr Zelensky also pushed for a truce with Russia that would cover strikes on energy targets, warning that Ukraine is prepared to retaliate if Russia targets the country’s energy grid during the winter months.
“Russia knows that if they strike, they will receive the same in return,” he said.
The comments came as Russia launched strikes using jet-powered drones on two petrol stations in Kyiv, killing two people.
Ukrainian drone attacks on Russia killed two people in the Tula region and one in the Kursk region, officials said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for sanctions at the Yalta European Strategy forum [file image]
With front-line fighting largely stuck in place, each side has increasingly turned in recent weeks to hitting logistics routes and other economic targets in an effort to weaken the other’s war effort.
For the past fortnight, Russia has carried out near-constant attacks using faster, jet-powered drones that have killed several Kyiv residents and disrupted daily life in the capital.
Those attacks paused during a visit to Kyiv last weekend by US peace negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.
“Russia’s escalation with jet-powered ‘shaheds’ is gradually becoming increasingly terrorist in nature,” President Zelensky said on X.
Both sides deny targeting civilians in the war, which was triggered by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Officials said the two people killed in Kyiv were at one of the two attacked petrol stations, and that one of them was hit in a double-tap strike.
The assaults followed what appeared to be the first strike on a Kyiv petrol station a day earlier.
In recent months, Russia has struck 300 petrol stations, mostly in or near Ukraine’s frontline regions.
Russia has targeted petrol stations across Ukraine in recent months
“There is no military objective behind such strikes. This is terror of the civilian population,” said Bohdan Kukura, Chief Executive of Ukrainian oil company Ukrnafta.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said 12 more people were injured in the capital, including a 12-year-old boy.
Eight people were also hurt overnight in an attack on a residential building.
Mr Zelensky said Russia struck a building used by Ukraine’s largest mobile operator, Kyivstar, in Kyiv, and reported strikes across eight other Ukrainian regions.
Kyivstar said its network remained operational.
A woman was killed in the area around the capital, the regional governor said.
Ukraine, for its part, has targeted Russia’s largest online retailers and oil refineries—often far from the border—as well as energy and fuel logistics in parts of Ukrainian territory occupied by Russian forces.
Mr Zelensky said Ukrainian forces struck an enterprise and an oil industry facility in Russia’s Saratov and Volgograd regions.
He also reported strikes on unspecified targets in other areas and in the Black Sea.
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Dmitry Milyayev, governor of Russia’s Tula region, said two people were killed and three injured in overnight Ukrainian drone attacks.
The governor of the Kursk region said a 37-year-old man died in a Ukrainian drone strike.
Russian e-commerce company Ozon said a drone attack sparked a fire at its logistics hub in Saratov, a central city on the Volga River.
More than two dozen warehouses belonging to Ozon and rival online retailer Wildberries have been hit in recent attacks, which Kyiv describes as part of a campaign against economic infrastructure supporting Russia’s war effort in Ukraine.
Ukraine’s military said it struck a Russian oil refinery in Saratov.
Local authorities said two people were injured in a missile attack in Volgograd, south of Saratov, that hit two residential buildings and damaged an industrial facility.
Smoke rises following a drone strike on a building in Kyiv
The Volgograd oil refinery, operated by energy company Lukoil, sits on the outskirts of the city.
The governor of Russia’s Perm region in the Ural Mountains said drones attacked two industrial facilities.
US House of Representatives to consider sanctions on Russia
As Mr Zelensky renewed calls for tougher economic pressure, the US House of Representatives is set to begin considering a Russia sanctions bill next week that was championed by late Republican Senator Lindsey Graham.
The measure has already passed the Senate, but it faces strong resistance from Democrats in the lower chamber.
The House Rules Committee said it scheduled a meeting for Monday to consider the proposal.
If the Republican-majority committee approves it, the move would clear the way for a vote in the full chamber later in the week.
Mr Graham, a South Carolina Republican who died in July, was one of Ukraine’s most outspoken supporters in the US Congress.
His bill is designed to tighten economic pressure on Moscow by sanctioning Russian officials and authorising steep tariffs on China, India and other countries, aimed at reducing their reliance on Russian oil and gas.
The Senate passed the measure last month by 86 votes to 11.
But the bipartisan support that carried the bill through the Senate may still fall short of ensuring passage in the House of Representatives.
