Zelensky accuses Russia of using cluster warheads in deadly strikes hours after US prisoners’ release

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of using cluster munitions overnight as it renewed strikes on kyiv and several other locations.

At least four people were killed, according to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry. Another 34 people were injured, including five children, Zelensky said Thursday. after Russia frees American Stephen Hubbard and American special envoy Steve Witkoff encounter with Russian President Vladimir Putin and called him a humanitarian.

“Last night, the Russians used, among other weapons against kyiv, three ballistic missiles with fragmentation warheads,” Zelensky wrote on Thursday X. “The peculiarity of these missiles is that they explode in the air when approaching the target, hitting everything within a radius of 400 meters.”

More than 100 countries have banned the use of cluster munitions under the Convention on Cluster Munitions, an international treaty adopted in 2008. The munitions disperse smaller “bombs” over a wide area that can hit civilians indiscriminately.

Russia, like the United States, has not signed the treaty.

The Russian Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said air defenses shot down 808 Ukrainian drones overnight and two people were injured, the Associated Press reported. More than 600 drones were fired towards Moscow between Wednesday evening and Thursday morning, according to Mayor Sergei Sobyanin.

The developments came after Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying that Moscow would study proposals on the war in Ukraine presented to St. Petersburg by Witkoff, but that talks would take a long time.

“Almost immediately after a new round of negotiations, Russia launched a targeted attack,” Zelensky said. “This means that there has been no real change in his attitude towards everything that is happening.”

Twelve regions were attacked by Russia overnight, according to Zelenskyy, who said an attack hit Pechersk, the historic center of kyiv, and damaged monastery buildings, homes, shops, cafes and other civilian infrastructure.

Since October 11, 170 strikes have taken place against energy infrastructure sites across Ukraine, the Ukrainian president said.

Zelensky said earlier this week that if President Trump “fails to rein in Putin,” he should provide long-requested interceptor missiles so Ukraine can defend itself. Secretary of State Marco Rubio later said Mr. Trump was “frustrated” by what he described as false accusations that “he was doing things to deliberately harm Ukraine.” He insisted that nothing had been “deliberately denied to Ukraine”, but added: “It’s simply a balance between our obligations to other partners and, frankly, our own demands on our own facilities as well.”