Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned on Friday Russian attacks across the country overnight, including a missile strike that killed one person and injured nearly 100 others in the northeastern city of Kharkiv.

Why It Matters

Last week, Russia launched ballistic missile strikes on the northeastern city of Sumy as residents attended church services marking Palm Sunday, killing at least 35 people and injuring at least 129 others.

It was the second large-scale ballistic missile attack on a major Ukrainian city this month, after Moscow targeted Zelensky’s home city of Kryvyi Rih on April 4 in strikes that killed 20 people.

Kyiv officials have been warning in recent weeks that Moscow is gearing up for a fresh offensive push into Sumy and the neighboring Kharkiv region, as U.S.-brokered ceasefire talks grind on with little concrete progress and notable frustration from the Trump administration.

What To Know

Zelensky said in a post to messaging app Telegram that Russia had marked Good Friday with ballistic and cruise missile attacks, and by sending Iranian-designed Shahed explosive drones into Ukraine.

The aerial attacks were a “mockery of our people and cities,” the Ukrainian president said.

In its own Telegram past, Russia’s defense ministry said on Friday it had carried out strikes using long-range weapons and drones on Ukrainian “key production sites” linked with Kyiv’s military.

Zelensky said a Russian missile had targeted the city of Kharkiv, damaging “dozens” of residential homes, buildings and cars. Ukraine’s state emergency service wrote on Telegram that it was battling a fire covering 450 square meters around one of the affected buildings in Kharkiv.

Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said on Telegram that one man had been killed in his apartment, and 98 people were injured in the city, including six children. A 2-year-old girl was wounded, Zelensky said.

Terekhov said Russia had used cluster munitions to attack Kharkiv, and the “scale of the tragedy could have been ten times greater if the enemy had struck an hour later.” Cluster munitions release submunitions, or bomblets, which can spread over a wide area and pose a significant threat to civilians.

Ukrainian authorities also reported attacks overnight around the capital, the northeastern Sumy region, the southern Dnipropetrovsk and Mykolaiv regions, and in the eastern Donetsk region where much of the heaviest fighting of the war has blazed.

Drones hit a bread factory in Sumy, killing one person, Zelensky said.

On Telegram, Ukraine’s air force said Russia had launched a short-range ballistic missile from Moscow-controlled Crimea, and five cruise missiles from the peninsula and from Russian-held areas of the southern Zaporizhzhia region. Russia also launched 37 strike drones, the air force said.

Kyiv said it had intercepted three of the cruise missiles and 23 drones, with 10 uncrewed aerial vehicles straying off course.

Ukraine has repeatedly appealed to its allies for air defense systems and missiles, including the U.S.-made Patriot systems. These ground-based anti-aircraft systems are considered the gold standard of air defense.

Zelensky said during an interview with CBS earlier this week, following the strikes on Kryvyi Rih, that Kyiv was willing to pay $15 billion for 10 of the surface-to-air missile systems. Each Patriot battery comes with an estimated price tag of $1.5 billion, every interceptor missile costing several million dollars.

When asked during a media briefing about Zelensky’s offer to purchase 10 Patriot components, President Donald Trump dismissed the Ukrainian leader’s remarks and replied: “He’s always looking to purchase missiles.”

The president then accused Zelensky of starting the more war, adding: “You don’t start a war against somebody that’s 20 times your size and then hope that people give you some missiles.” Russia started the full-scale invasion of its Eastern European neighbor in February 2022.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Friday that the Trump administration could abandon its fervent efforts to negotiate a ceasefire deal if senior officials feel an agreement would not be possible in the coming weeks.

The White House has conceded that Trump has been “continually frustrated” with negotiations, with the president at various points putting the blame on Kyiv and Moscow for tripping up talks. Ukraine last month agreed to a U.S. proposal for a full ceasefire lasting 30 days, which the Kremlin refused to sign while making its consent to a partial ceasefire in the Black Sea hinge on sanctions relief.

Rubio’s remarks came after high-level talks in Paris with Ukraine and European allies, which the head of Zelensky’s office, Andriy Yermak, called “very meaningful.”

“We’re not going to continue to fly all over the world and do meeting after meeting after meeting if no progress is being made,” Rubio said.

Late on Thursday, Ukraine’s economy minister Yulia Svyrydenko said Kyiv and Washington had signed a “memorandum of intent” in long-running talks toward inking a rare earth minerals deal.

The announcement marked the first advancement toward a full agreement that was thrown into jeopardy by rounds of tense talks and Zelensky’s disastrous White House visit in February.

What People Are Saying

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday: “Our rescuers, doctors, other emergency and special services – everyone responds, everyone helps. I am grateful to each and every one who saves people and restores living conditions in the cities and villages of Ukraine. We are grateful to each of our partners who help defend Ukraine. Every defense package matters, all air defense systems, a sufficient number of missiles for air defense – all this really helps.”

Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said on Friday: “Many apartments are in complete ruins.”

What Happens Next?

Further negotiations on Ukraine’s future have been scheduled for next week in London.