Russian attack kills 25 in Ukraine’s Ternopil as Zelensky meets Erdogan in Turkey

KYIV, Ukraine — A large Russian drone and missile barrage on Ukraine’s western city of Ternopil killed at least 25 people, including three children, authorities said Wednesday, as President Volodymyr Zelensky traveled to Turkey in search of diplomatic support for his fight against Russia’s invasion.

The nighttime attack hit two nine-story apartment blocks in Ternopil, located about 120 miles from the Polish border, according to Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko. At least 73 people, including 15 children, were injured, emergency services said.

At least 19 among those killed were burned alive, including three children aged 5, 7 and 16, Klymenko said. Two dozen people are still unaccounted for, he said on national television, and rescuers expect to work at least two more days to complete the search of rubble.

Russia fired 476 strike and decoy drones, as well as 48 missiles of various types, at Ukrainian targets overnight, Ukraine’s air force said. The bombardment included 47 cruise missiles, with air defenses intercepting all but six of them, the air force said. Western-supplied F-16 and Mirage-2000 jets intercepted at least 10 cruise missiles, it said.

“Every brazen attack against ordinary life indicates that the pressure on Russia [to stop the war] is insufficient,” Zelensky wrote on the messaging app Telegram.

Zelensky meets with Turkish president

Zelensky met with Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara later Wednesday as part of his efforts to diplomatically isolate President Vladimir Putin of Russia and bring more international pressure to bear on him. Putin has so far resisted making compromises, despite U.S. pressure.

In brief statements to the media, Zelensky and Erdogan expressed their commitment to finding a peaceful settlement. Turkey is a key broker in the Black Sea region, preserving relations with both Ukraine and Russia.

“We count on the strength of Turkish diplomacy, on [how] it’s understood in Moscow,” Zelensky said.

Zelensky said before the talks that he had seen “some positions and signals from the United States” about the war. He did not elaborate but tough new American sanctions on Russia’s oil industry, devised to push Putin to the negotiating table, are due to take effect Friday.

A senior Turkish official initially said that U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff would join Zelensky in Turkey, but backtracked later in the day and said Witkoff wouldn’t be coming. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity Tuesday because he wasn’t allowed to speak publicly about the arrangements.

An Army official confirmed Wednesday that U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll is in Ukraine for negotiations. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss sensitive travel plans, said that Driscoll is accompanied by Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George and Gen. Chris Donahue, Army commander for Europe and Africa.

Romania and Poland scramble fighter jets

Ternopil sits in a part of relatively peaceful western Ukraine, where many people from the east and south moved as they fled danger along the front line.

Almost 50 people were injured in Russian strikes on three other Ukrainian regions.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said it attacked Ukrainian energy facilities and military-industrial targets, including long-range drone depots, in retaliation against strikes by Kyiv on Russian territory.

Two Eurofighter Typhoon jets and two F-16s were scrambled in Romania when a drone entered the NATO member’s airspace during the Russian attacks, Romania’s Ministry of National Defense said.

The Polish military said that Polish and allied aircraft were deployed in the middle of the night as a preventive measure. Poland’s Rzeszów and Lublin airports were closed temporarily to prioritize military aviation, the Polish Air Navigation Services Agency said.

In northeastern Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, Russian drones injured 46 people, including two girls, the head of the regional military administration, Oleh Sinegubov, wrote on Telegram. Drones hit several city districts, at least 16 residential buildings, an ambulance station, school and other civilian infrastructure, he said.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday that Ukraine fired four American-supplied ATACMS missiles at the Russian city of Voronezh on Tuesday. All four were shot down, the ministry said, but the debris damaged a private house, an orphanage and a gerontology center. There were no casualties, the ministry said.

Ukraine’s General Staff on Tuesday reported firing ATACMS missiles at Russia without offering details.

Novikov writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Stephen McGrath in Leamington Spa, England, contributed to this report.