US President Donald Trump said a Russian missile strike on an apartment building in Kiev that killed 24 people, including three children, could hamper efforts to reach a peaceful resolution to the war in Ukraine, Reuters reports.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on his way back from China, Trump said he had discussed the conflict with Chinese President Xi Jinping and that the two leaders agreed that the fighting had to stop.
"This is an issue that we would like to see resolved. It looked good until last night, but they (the Ukrainians) took a big hit last night. So it will happen (the end of the war). "But it's a shame," Trump said, referring to the Russian attack.
The US president has been trying for months to broker an end to the war, which he has repeatedly described as a senseless bloodbath.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the site of the strike in Kiev and laid red roses in the rubble of a destroyed apartment building. He called on Moscow to bear responsibility for the attack.
For its part, Russia said Ukrainian drones killed four people, including a child, in a nighttime strike on the city of Ryazan.
Both Moscow and Kiev say they are not deliberately targeting civilian targets, although thousands of civilians have died since the war began.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin confirmed that Vladimir Putin is expected to visit China and meet Xi Jinping next week. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the exact dates would be announced soon.
Putin, he said, intends to discuss Trump's visit to China with Xi, as well as bilateral relations and the international situation.