Russian drone strikes kill 7 in Kharkiv during Zelenskyy's White House meeting with Trump

Just as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in Washington, D.C. to meet President Donald Trump at the White House, Russia routed his nation with airstrikes on Monday, killing 10.

Seven people, including a toddler and a 16-year-old, were killed by a Russian drone strike on the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, according to local authorities.

Ukrainian officials took the strikes as a message from Russian President Vladimir Putin that he has no intention to end the war. 

"That’s why Putin doesn’t want to cease fire," Andriy Yermak, Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, wrote on Telegram.  "He enjoys shelling peaceful cities while talking about his desire to end the war."

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Airstrike on residential building in Kharkiv. (Press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Kharkiv region/Handout via REUTERS)

Video footage of the aftermath released by local authorities shows a residential building where the upper levels collapsed, with firefighters hosing it down as smoke rises from the rubble. 

A partially blurred photo released by Ukraine’s emergency services appeared to show a firefighter holding the limp body of a child. 

Ihor Terekhov, the mayor of Kharkiv, wrote on Telegraph that he believed the attack on the residential building was "deliberate."

"Five enemy ‘Shaheds’ approached it from different directions and targeted people who were peacefully sleeping at five in the morning," he said, referring to armed drones.  

Zelenskyy met with Trump at the White House on Monday. (REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque)

At least three others were killed in an attack in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, and nearly 20 people injured, local authorities said. 

Zelenskyy addressed the Monday bombings at the start of his meeting with Trump, noting a one-and-a-half-year-old had been killed. 

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Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday.  (REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque)

"We need to stop this war, to stop Russia. And we need support, American and European partners. We will do our best for this," Zelenskyy said.

Russia had made gains in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region ahead of Putin’s summit with Trump in Alaska, in a movement onlookers believed was designed to gain territorial leverage ahead of high-stakes negotiations. 

But since at least the start of this month, Russia has seemingly reduced the number of drones and missiles it fires towards Ukrainian cities each night. 

Trump, ahead of his meeting with Putin, had said he would be "unhappy" if the Russian leader did not agree to a ceasefire. 

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And while Putin did not appear to agree to a ceasefire at that meeting, Trump touted the meeting as a win and said the pair had reached agreement on a number of issues. 

A United Nations report found that between December 2024 and May 2025 1,000 civilians in Ukraine, including Russian-occupied areas, had been killed.