Russia launched one of its deadliest barrages in days on Saturday, killing at least 20 people in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region — including three children — a day after Donald Trump announced a diesel supply deal with Vladimir Putin that Kyiv warned would bankroll Moscow's war.
Five Russian glide bombs slammed into residential buildings in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine's State Emergency Service said. At least 18 people were wounded. Missiles also struck Kyiv in a daytime attack, wounding four, while drones hit energy facilities and knocked out power across parts of the capital.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy didn't mince words about the timing.
"Today, Russia expressed its thanks for the lifting of sanctions on diesel exports by dropping five glide bombs on residential buildings in Zaporizhzhia," he wrote Saturday on X.
"Last night confirmed once again that in Russia, they take any easing of pressure to mean they can keep fighting, to mean they can keep dropping bombs on cities. Different signals are needed," he added. In a later Telegram post he declared: "Russia's choice is war."
The Ukrainian president warned that every additional billion dollars Russia earns from fuel exports would pay for weapons components, drone upgrades, missile production and mercenary recruitment — and that Moscow would only stop "when its ability to fight diminished."
The Zaporizhzhia strike caps a brutal stretch: more than 60 people have been killed in Russian bombardments over the past four days, as Russia and Ukraine remain locked in a long-range aerial war with front lines largely deadlocked more than four and a half years into the full-scale invasion.
Zelenskyy said he had spoken with French President Emmanuel Macron about shoring up air defenses and with Finnish President Alexander Stubb about ammunition for the F-16s Ukraine uses to intercept Shahed drones — warning of an increased risk of further missile strikes in the coming days.
The diesel deal that triggered Kyiv's fury was announced by Trump on Friday: Russia would immediately supply over 300,000 tons of diesel to the U.S. and global markets, with millions more tons to follow, while Washington eased sanctions on the Russian diesel trade. Trump cast it as relief for American fuel prices ahead of the midterms. Zelenskyy called it "a gift to Putin" and "an investment in a war that must be ended, not prolonged."
On Saturday, as rescuers pulled bodies from the Zaporizhzhia rubble, that warning looked prophetic.