Ukrainian officials said on Tuesday that an overnight Russian attack on the central city of Kremenchuk in Poltava region shows President Vladimir Putin has no genuine interest in peace, despite ongoing international efforts to end the war.
The strike, which triggered multiple blasts and left thousands without electricity, came as U.S. President Donald Trump hosted President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House on Monday. Trump pledged that Washington would help guarantee Ukraine’s security under any eventual peace deal and later called Putin to begin arranging a meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian leaders.
“At the very same time when Putin was assuring Trump over the phone that he seeks peace, and when President Zelenskyy was holding talks at the White House with European leaders about a just peace, Putin’s army launched yet another massive attack on Kremenchuk,” the city’s mayor, Vitalii Maletskyi, wrote on Telegram. “Once again, the world has seen that Putin does not want peace, he wants to destroy Ukraine.”
Poltava Governor Volodymyr Kohut confirmed that the attack damaged administrative buildings tied to the region’s power infrastructure. Nearly 1,500 households and 119 businesses in the Lubny district were left without electricity, though no casualties were reported.
Ukraine’s Air Force said the central region was under threat of a cruise missile assault, but did not provide full details of the strike’s scale.
Russia has not commented on the incident. However, Moscow said separately on Tuesday that Ukrainian drones targeted Russia’s Volgograd region overnight, sparking fires at an oil refinery and the roof of a hospital.
Both Kyiv and Moscow have increasingly targeted energy and military-linked infrastructure during the conflict, intensifying the humanitarian toll on civilians.
Written By Rodney Mbua
