Zelenskyy Pleads For 'Strong Response' From West As Russian Attacks Mount

By RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service March 30, 2025

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on March 29 pleaded for a "strong response" from Ukraine's Western partners as deadly Russian attacks mounted, including air strikes on a Kharkiv military hospital and on the cities of Dnipro and Kryviy Rih.

"Our partners should clearly understand: These strikes are not just attacks on Ukrainian civilians, but also on all international efforts -- on the very diplomacy we are trying to use to end this war," Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address.

"Russia is striking at the positions of everyone who wants to end this war. It is impossible to ignore hundreds of Shaheds every night," he added, referring to Iranian-made drones.

"We expect a response -- a serious one. We are working toward a response. A strong response is urgently needed -- above all from the US, from Europe, from everyone in the world who has placed their bets on diplomacy. Russia must be forced into peace -- only pressure will work."

Zelenskyy added that "for too long," a US proposal for an unconditional cease-fire has been on the table "without a proper response from Russia. That says a lot."

Zelenskyy's remarks came after a 24-period of intensifying deadly strikes by Russian forces.

Late on March 29, Ukraine's General Staff said that "Russian terrorists struck a military hospital in the city of Kharkiv" with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV).

"As a result of the Shahed-type UAV hit, the hospital building and nearby residential buildings were damaged. According to preliminary data, there are casualties among the servicemen who were treated at the medical center," the command said.

Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said at least two people were dead, but it was not immediately clear in what part of the city those deaths had occurred.

Earlier, a regional governor said a Russian drone attack on the southeastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro late on March 28 killed four people and sparked a large fire in a hotel and restaurant complex as well as at multiple private homes.

Russian forces used more than 20 drones in the strike on Dnipro, which also injured 25. Zelenskyy said a pregnant woman was among the injured.

Pictures and videos posted on social media showed flames and large plumes of smoke in the air. Others showed shattered buildings, the badly damaged upper floors of a high-rise apartment block, and streets strewn with smashed glass and pieces of buildings.

Elsewhere on March 29, at least seven people were injured in a missile strike on Kryviy Rih, Ukraine's state emergency service said.

Meanwhile, Russia claimed it had captured two more villages in eastern and southern Ukraine as it pressed forward with its ground attacks.

The Defense Ministry in Moscow said its forces had taken villages in the southern Zaporizhzhya region and in the eastern Donetsk region. The reports could not immediately be confirmed.

Ukraine's military said a strike it carried out on March 27 in the Bryansk region of Russia had destroyed the military infrastructure of a checkpoint. The Ukrainian Air Force struck the Pogar border checkpoint in the locality of Sluchovsk in the Bryansk region, the General Staff said.

Meanwhile, amid a series of US-led talks aimed at establishing a lasting truce between Kyiv and Moscow, US Vice President JD Vance said on March 28 that he sees "an incredible amount of progress" being made toward a peaceful resolution of the war in Ukraine.

"We make sure that what we're seeing from one party is met by the other party and vice versa [...] For the first time in four years, thanks to President Trump's leadership we have an opportunity to really achieve a peaceful settlement," Vance told reporters while visiting the US military base at Pituffik in Greenland.

Separately, The Washington Post and other media reported that the Trump administration has reversed its decision to terminate a US initiative that documented alleged Russian war crimes.

The report, citing people familiar with the matter, said the Conflict Observatory initiative tracked the mass deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia-controlled territory using satellite imagery, biometric data, and other digital forensic tools, leading to multiple criminal cases -- including the indictment of Russian President Vladimir Putin at the International Criminal Court.

The Post reported that the temporary policy reversal will give the observatory authorization and funding for six weeks to complete the transfer of its data to EUROPOL, the European Union's law-enforcement agency, for further investigations.

With reporting by Reuters and The Washington Post

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-russia-zelenskyy- kharkiv-dnipro-donetsk/33364023.html

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Zelenskyy Pleads For 'Strong Response' From West As Russian Attacks Mount