Kyiv, 5 June

At least five people, including a 1-year-old child, his mother and grandmother, were killed on Thursday in a nighttime Russian drone strike that hit the northern Ukrainian city of Pryluky, officials said.

Six drones hit a residential area in the city shortly before dawn, according to authorities. The child killed was the grandson of an emergency responder, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

“One of the rescuers arrived to respond to the aftermath right at his own home,” Zelenskyy said in a post on Telegram. “It turned out that a Shahed drone hit his house.”

The attack came just hours after US President Donald Trump spoke by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

According to Trump, Putin said “very strongly” that Russia will retaliate for Ukraine's weekend stunning drone attacks on Russian military airfields.

US-led diplomatic efforts to stop the more than 3-year-long war have delivered no significant progress, and the grinding war of attrition has continued unabated.

The mother of the 1-year-old killed in Pryluky was a police officer called Daryna Shyhyda, Ukraine's National Police said.

“Today our hearts are scorched by pain,” the police force wrote on Telegram. “This is not just a loss — it is three generations of life uprooted.”

Drones struck across regions

Six people were wounded in the Pryluky attack and are in hospital, officials said.

Pryluky, which had a prewar population of around 50,000 people, lies about 100 kilometres east of Kyiv, the capital. The city is far from the front line and does not contain any known military assets.

The last time Pryluky was struck was in November last year, when a Russian missile hit an administrative building and injured one person.

Zelenskyy said a total of 103 drones and one ballistic missile targeted multiple Ukrainian regions overnight, including Donetsk, Kharkiv, Odesa, Sumy, Chernihiv, Dnipro and Kherson.

“This is another massive strike,” Zelenskyy said. “It is yet another reason to impose the strongest possible sanctions and apply pressure collectively.”

US peace effort remains stalled

Zelenskyy, who has accepted a US ceasefire proposal and offered to meet with Putin in an attempt to break the stalemate in negotiations, wants more international sanctions on Russia to force it to accept a settlement.

Putin has shown no willingness to meet with Zelenskyy, however, and has indicated no readiness to compromise.

Germany's new leader Friedrich Merz was due to meet with President Donald Trump in Washington on Thursday as he works to keep the US on board with Western diplomatic and military support for Ukraine.

Ukraine's top presidential aide, Andriy Yermak, met with senior American officials in Washington on Wednesday and called for greater US pressure on Russia, accusing the Kremlin of deliberately stalling ceasefire talks and blocking progress toward peace, according to a statement on the presidential website.

Yermak, who travelled to the US as part of a Ukrainian delegation, met with senior American officials to bolster support for Ukraine's defence and humanitarian priorities. He said Ukraine urgently needs stronger air defence capabilities.

More people wounded in Kharkiv

Hours later, 19 people were injured in a Russian drone strike on the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. Those hurt included children, a pregnant woman, and a 93-year-old woman, regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov wrote on Telegram.

At around 1.05am., Shahed-type drones struck two apartment buildings in the city's Slobidskyi district, causing fires and destroying several private vehicles.

“By launching attacks while people sleep in their homes, the enemy once again confirms its tactic of insidious terror,” Syniehubov wrote on Telegram.

Russian aircraft also dropped four powerful glide bombs on the southern city of Kherson, injuring at least three people, regional authorities said.