On Monday, August 18, Washington is hosting a meeting between US President Donald Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and the leaders of several European countries. The main item on the agenda is possible steps toward ending the war. Just three days earlier, on August 15, Trump met in Anchorage with Russian President Vladimir Putin, where Ukraine also dominated the discussion. Even as these talks unfolded, the war continued to claim lives.
On the day of the Alaska meeting, a Ukrainian drone crashed into a residential building in Kursk, killing one person and injuring more than ten. And in the early hours of August 18, Russian drones struck a five-story apartment block in Kharkiv’s Industrialny district. Seven people were killed, including five members of one family—a father, mother, their 16-year-old son, an 18-month-old daughter and a grandmother. At least 30 others were injured, according to regional governor Oleh Syniehubov.
Kharkiv mayor Ihor Terekhov stressed that the strike deliberately targeted the building in the early hours, when residents were asleep. “Pure terror. Terror that has neither explanation nor justification,” he wrote on Telegram. August 18 has been declared a day of mourning in the Kharkiv region.
Unpeace
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