Zelenskyy Says Russia Used Cluster Warheads in Overnight Strikes on Kyiv

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of firing cluster munitions at Kyiv overnight, as Moscow carried out a fresh wave of strikes on the capital and other parts of the country.

Ukraine's foreign ministry said at least four people were killed. Zelenskyy said on Thursday that another 34 were injured, among them five children. He said the attacks came just hours after talks involving U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"Last night, the Russians used, among other weapons against Kyiv, three ballistic missiles with cluster warheads," Zelenskyy wrote on X. He explained that such missiles detonate in the air as they near their target, hitting everything within a 400-meter diameter.

Cluster munitions scatter smaller bomblets across a wide area, and they can strike civilian sites indiscriminately. More than 100 countries have banned them under the Convention on Cluster Munitions, a treaty adopted in 2008. Russia did not sign it, and neither did the United States.

According to Zelenskyy, twelve regions of Ukraine came under Russian attack during the night. One strike hit Pechersk, the historic center of Kyiv, damaging monastery buildings as well as homes, shops, cafés and other civilian infrastructure. He also said Russia has carried out 170 strikes on energy infrastructure sites across Ukraine since Oct. 11.

Russia reported its own overnight attacks from the Ukrainian side. The Russian Defense Ministry said its air defenses downed 808 Ukrainian drones and that two people were reported injured, The Associated Press reported. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said more than 600 drones were fired toward the Russian capital between late Wednesday and early Thursday.

The strikes followed comments from Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, quoted by Russian news agencies, who said Moscow would study the proposals on the Ukraine war that Witkoff brought to St. Petersburg. Peskov added that the talks would take a long time.

Zelenskyy said the timing of the attack showed little had changed in Moscow's approach. "Almost immediately after another round of talks, Russia launched a pointed attack," he said. "This means there has been no real change in its attitude toward everything that is happening."

Earlier this week, Zelenskyy said that if President Trump "cannot rein Putin in," he should provide the interceptor missiles Ukraine has long requested so it can defend itself. Secretary of State Marco Rubio later said Trump has been "frustrated" by what he called false accusations that "he is doing things to deliberately harm Ukraine."

Rubio insisted that nothing had been "deliberately denied to Ukraine." He added that it is "a balance between our obligations to other partners and frankly our own .. requirements for our own facilities as well."