Despite the flurry of diplomacy between the U.S., Russia, Ukraine, and Europe over the last five days on ending the war, Moscow has continued to allow its forces to unleash daily attacks on Ukrainian civilians.
At least 31 civilians have been killed and 145 injured in Russian strikes across Ukraine since U.S. President Donald Trump met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Aug. 15.
Hours before Putin walked down the red carpet in Anchorage, Russian attacks killed six civilians and injured 17.
The next day, on Aug. 16, three people were killed and 12 were injured as a result of Russian attacks in Kherson Oblast, where the words ‘human safari’ have become synonymous with Russia's first-person-view drone attacks in the area that target civilians.
"Getting around the city is like the lottery, because it is impossible to plan or predict shelling or drone attacks,” Kherson resident, Nataliia Shatylova Pohasiy, told the Kyiv Independent.
Five people were killed and 11 were injured on Aug. 17. Ahead of the Zelensky-Trump meeting at the White House, Russian strikes killed 13 and injured 65 across Ukraine on Aug. 18.
Just hours before Zelensky and European leaders were scheduled to meet with Trump, a Russian missile attack on Zaporizhzhia killed three and injured another 30 people. Zelensky condemned the attack.
Russia "knows that today there is a meeting in Washington to end the war," he said, referring to his talks with Trump later in the day.
"Putin will kill demonstratively in order to continue putting pressure on Ukraine and Europe and to undermine diplomatic efforts," Zelensky added.
The most casualties on Aug. 18 were reported in Kharkiv, with 24 people injured, seven killed, including a one-and-a-half-year-old girl.
On Aug. 19, not long after the Trump-Zelensky meeting, Russia launched a missile attack on central Ukraine. On Aug. 20, five people were killed and 34 were injured, 14 of them in Sumy Oblast.
"A family with wounded children, aged five months, four years, and six years, sought help after the attack," Zelensky said on Aug. 20.
In July this year, at least 286 civilians were killed and 1,388 injured in Ukraine, setting a new record since the first year of Russia's full-scale invasion, U.N. human rights monitors said on Aug. 13.
"For the second month in a row, the number of civilian casualties in Ukraine hits a new three-year high," said Danielle Bell, head of the U.N. human rights monitoring mission in Ukraine.
Russia's use of long-range weapons like missiles and loitering munitions accounted for almost 40% of the casualties, the U.N. said in its report. Short-range drones were the second most common cause of civilian losses, amounting to 24%.
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