Death toll rises to 7 after Russian missiles slam into Ukrainian city’s downtown area

that would end the 17-month-old war, and that it is ready to respond to serious proposals. The Kremlin’s demands include Kyiv recognizing its annexation of four Ukrainian regions, which Russian forces at this point only partially control, and Crimea, which Moscow seized in 2014.

the information to the Russians, the statement said, without providing evidence.

Zelenskyy has been a prime target for the Kremlin since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, when he refused to leave Kyiv as Moscow’s forces approached.

Two Russian missiles slammed into the downtown area of Pokrovsk, in the eastern Donetsk region that is partially occupied by Russia, on Monday evening, local authorities said.

The missiles, which hit within 40 minutes of each other, damaged nine- and five-story buildings, houses, a hotel, dining establishments, shops and administrative buildings, Donetsk Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko said.

Russian missiles, drones and artillery have repeatedly struck civilian areas in the war. The Kremlin says its forces target only military assets and claim other damage is caused by debris from

Ukrainian air defense weapons. Neither side’s claims can be independently verified.

Meanwhile, an overnight attack on the town of Kruhliakivka, in the Kharkiv region, killed two people and injured nine others, Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said.

Ukraine’s Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said five people, including a local official of Ukraine’s State Emergency Service, were killed and 31 more were wounded by the strikes. Nineteen policemen, five rescuers and one child were among the wounded, Klymenko said.

The Suspilne news site, however, cited head of the Pokrovsk City Military Administration

Serhiy Dobriak as saying that seven people were killed and 27 were wounded. The conflicting reports could not be immediately reconciled.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in an online statement accused Russia of trying to leave nothing but “broken and scorched stones” in eastern Ukraine. His remarks accompanied footage of a damaged, five-story residential building with one floor partially destroyed.

The deadly attack came just a day after officials from around 40 countries gathered in Saudi Arabia to find a peaceful settlement for the war in Ukraine. Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Monday denounced the two-day talks in Jeddah as not having “the slightest added value” because Moscow— unlike Kyiv—wasn’t invited.

A statement by the Russian Foreign Ministry repeated previous assurances that Moscow is open to a diplomatic solution on its terms