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By Brendan Cole
Senior Reporter
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Russian forces have launched missiles and drones at Kyiv in a resumption of attacks that had been paused during the visit to the Ukrainian capital by U.S. envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff.
Russia and Ukraine pledged to halt strikes on each other’s capitals for three days as Washington sent envoys to Moscow and Kyiv, although fighting continued elsewhere.
The talks yielded no tangible breakthrough and after the envoys’ departure, Russian forces attacked Ukraine with anti-ship, ballistic and cruise missiles, as well as 166 attack drones, Ukraine’s Air Force said.
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The focus of the attacks were Kyiv and Odesa and Russia used Onyx anti-ship missiles, Iskander-M/S-400/KN-23 ballistic missiles and also 32 air-launched Kh-101 cruise missiles, a statement on Telegram read.
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The attack on Kyiv killed at least two people, injured 10 others, and sparked a series of huge fires, Ukrainian authorities said.
Elina Beketova, fellow, democratic resilience, Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) told Newsweek Russia’s barrage after the U.S. delegation left demonstrates something fundamental about the Kremlin’s current calculations.
“Moscow continues to believe it can use military force without facing consequences significant enough to change its behavior,” she said.
Newsweek has contacted the Russian defense ministry for comment.
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Buildings Damaged in Kyiv
Residential buildings, a school, and warehouses were damaged in the attacks which started in Kyiv at 3.30 a.m. Tuesday, the Kyiv Independent reported.
Ukraine's air force had warned earlier that Russian ballistic missiles and jet-powered strike drones were bound for Kyiv and monitoring channels reported at least 12 ballistic missiles had targeted the city within an hour.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 32 cruise missiles, 166 Shahed-type drones half of which were jet-powered and a number of ballistic missiles.
Ukraine managed to intercept two ballistic missiles, 31 cruise missiles, and 142 drones were intercepted, it said.
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Fires and damage were reported in several Kyiv neighborhoods and the surrounding region was also struck, as well as the port city of Odesa in the south of the country.
Air raid alarms also sounded overnight in other regions including Rivne Oblast in the northwest and other areas far from the front lines.
Meanwhile on Tuesday, Russian authorities reported Ukrainian drone attacks across Russia and annexed Crimea that killed at least four people and injured 19 others.
An attack on a gas station in the Bryansk region town of Starodub, 21 miles north of the Ukrainian border, killed one man and injured three others, acting Governor Yegor Kovalchuk said.
In the nearby Belgorod region, acting Governor Alexander Shuvayev said one person was killed and four others injured after Ukraine carried out 112 attacks over 24 hours.
Witkoff and Kushner’s Diplomacy Yields No Breakthrough
The Russian strikes followed a three-day pause of strikes against Kyiv while Witkoff and Kushner visited the city for peace talks which passed without an aerial attack.
They spoke with President Volodymyr Zelensky who said afterward he expects "the war will continue" into the winter months.
Zelensky and the envoys also mentioned future trilateral meetings—including U.S.-Ukraine-Europe talks and U.S.-Ukraine-Russia talks—without revealing dates or locations.
These followed talks with Vladimir Putin in Moscow in which the Russian president reiterated Moscow’s unwillingness to make any compromises to end the war in Ukraine.
Beketova from CEPA said the level of U.S. engagement in talks involving Witkoff and Kushner in Kyiv after their meetings in Moscow matters because Ukraine had felt important discussions were taking place without it.
"Diplomacy is important, and these channels need to remain open but diplomacy alone is unlikely to stop Russian attacks," she said.
"Russia is likely to stop when the cost of continuing the war becomes greater than the perceived benefits—either because Ukraine has the capabilities to make further attacks much more difficult for Russia, or because Russia faces serious consequences for continuing them."
"The renewed barrage is another reminder that this pressure component cannot be separated from the diplomatic process," added Beketova.
Putin’s aide Yuriy Ushakov outlined his demands which include the Ukrainian withdrawal from all of Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia, and Kherson oblasts, the "denazification" of the Ukrainian government and future Ukrainian neutrality.
Ushakov’s statement showed that the Kremlin remains unwilling to make any meaningful compromises to Russia’s maximalist demands, the Institute for the Study of War said Sunday.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Tobias Meyjes and Tony Phillips.
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