Zelensky warns of massive Russian strike planned for Ukraine

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday warned that Russia plans to launch a massive attack on Ukrainian soil, coming on the heels of a drone strike that hit a major communications center in Moscow.

“We know that Putin has been preparing a massive strike against Ukraine for some time,” Zelensky wrote on the social platform X, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin. “That is exactly the threat we are facing tonight. Russia’s head is completely refusing to end the war.”

Zelensky repeated his call to meet with Russian officials to seek an end to the four-year-long war. Earlier this month, he asked Putin to meet with him face-to-face; Putin rejected the request, saying he did not “see any point for now.”

“And although through all possible official and unofficial channels –– including through people close to him –– we have conveyed that the war can and must be ended, and that we in Ukraine are ready for meetings and meaningful negotiations, he sees only further aggression against Ukraine and against other neighbors and Europe as a whole,” he wrote on social media.

Ukraine has stepped up its drone strikes into Russia’s territory. Zelensky previously praised his country’s success in entering Russian territory after a Ukrainian drone entered Moscow on Tuesday and hit Dubna Satellite Communications Centre, a major source of intelligence-gathering and where Russia can coordinate its military operations in Ukraine.

This latest attack was the second time Kyiv has struck the communications center, CNN reported.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov slammed Ukraine’s attacks, saying three civilians were injured and a 6-month-old baby was killed in the attack.

“We would like once again to bring the international community’s attention to this criminal conduct of the Kyiv regime,” he said, according to Russian state news agency TASS. “Civilians have been affected, and children have been dying as a result of actions by the Kyiv regime. And everybody should know and remember that.”

Former U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the attack, along with other Ukrainian successes, shows that Putin is “not quite sure what to do” with the war.

“I just think that it’s clear right now that Putin is cornered in this situation and is not quite sure what to do,” Panetta told NewsNation’s Leland Vittert. “He obviously ought to, frankly, negotiate some kind of ceasefire, but knowing Putin, he will continue to resist that, and Russia is going to pay the price.”

Russian officials touted Putin’s summit with President Trump in Alaska last August as a crucial point in the war, with an agreement in place to end hostilities. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov even said Putin signed on to the U.S.’s peace proposal.

Putin, however, said on Sunday that there was no such deal, telling a state television reporter that “nobody signed anything.”

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Dmitry Peskov

Donald Trump

Leland Vittert

Leon Panetta

Sergei Lavrov

Sergey Lavrov

Vladimir Putin

Volodymyr Zelensky

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