Baby among five killed in Russian drone strike on Ukraine, Zelensky calls for tougher western response

A Russian drone strike has killed five civilians, including a one-year-old baby, in a devastating overnight attack on the city of Pryluky in central Ukraine, Ukrainian authorities have confirmed.

The victims include three generations of a single family whose home was obliterated when the unmanned aerial vehicle struck.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the assault as a deliberate act of terror and accused Moscow of exploiting diplomatic hesitation to prolong its campaign of violence. He called on Western allies to impose the “maximum sanctions” and exert urgent “pressure” on the Kremlin.

“Russia is constantly trying to buy time for itself to continue killing,” Zelensky said in an emotional address. “When it does not feel strong enough condemnation and pressure from the world, it kills again. We expect action from the United States, Europe, and everyone in the world who can really help change these terrible circumstances.”

The drone hit the home of a local firefighting chief who had been responding to an earlier strike in the area. His wife, daughter and infant grandson were among the dead. Photos released by emergency services showed homes engulfed in flames during the night, with grey smoke rising into the black sky. By morning, firefighters were pictured standing amid the charred wreckage, the roof of the house completely destroyed.

Officials reported that two other people were killed in the same city, bringing the total death toll in Pryluky to five.

The tragedy came amid a sharp escalation in fighting and aerial attacks across the country, even as Russian and Ukrainian delegations engage in intermittent peace talks in Istanbul, aimed at resolving a war that has now entered its fourth year.

Elsewhere, 18 people, including four children, were wounded in a separate Russian attack on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, according to interior minister Igor Klymenko.

The rising violence follows an audacious Ukrainian drone strike over the weekend that destroyed several Russian nuclear-capable military jets, a development that prompted Russian president Vladimir Putin to issue a stern warning. In a phone call with Donald Trump, United States president on Wednesday, Putin reportedly vowed that Moscow would retaliate.