Zelenskyy: Russia can’t be talked into peace

Russian strikes Tuesday on the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv killed three people and wounded more than 30, Ukrainian officials said.
“The targets of the Russian bombs were an apartment building, a bakery, a stadium. In other words, the everyday life of ordinary people,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a statement.
Zelenskyy released a photograph of the apartment building which showed an immense hole in the middle of the structure, several floors destroyed, blown-out windows and rubble strewn across the ground.
The attack on the Ukrainian town came while Zelenskyy is in the United States. He addressed the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday afternoon.
“There is much discussion now at the U.N. General Assembly about collective efforts for security and the future. But we just need to stop the terror. To have security. To have a future,” he said.
He later told the United Nations Security Council that the war between his country and Russia “can’t be calmed by talks. Action is needed.”
“Putin has broken so many international norms and rules that he won’t stop on his own,” Zelenskyy said. “Russia can only be forced into peace, and that is exactly what’s needed, forcing Russia into peace, as the sole aggressor in this war, the sole violator of the U.N. Charter.”
The mayor of Kharkiv said the same building had been attacked at the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and repairs were nearly complete. The mayor, Ihor Terekhov, said on Telegram that the most densely populated part of the city was hit. Regional prosecutors said, also on Telegram, that the city was hit by six Russian guided bombs.
Two people also were reported killed in Pokrovsk by Russian shelling, according to Agence France-Presse.
Ukrainian officials said earlier Tuesday that Russian attacks on the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia killed at least one person and injured six others.
Ivan Fedorov, the regional governor of Zaporizhzhia, said the attack destroyed a house and damaged an infrastructure facility.
Ukraine’s military said Russia attacked the country with four missiles and 81 drones, with Ukrainian air defenses shooting down 66 of the drones. Intercepts took place over the Cherkasy, Kirovohrad, Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Poltava, Sumy, Vinnytsia and Zhytomyr regions.
In the Poltava region in central Ukraine, officials said debris from destroyed Russian drones damaged energy infrastructure and knocked out electricity to some areas.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday it shot down seven Ukrainian drones over the Belgorod region, five drones over Kursk and another drone over Bryansk.
Some information for this story was provided by Agence France-Presse and Reuters.