Russian attacks on major Ukrainian cities have killed at least 12 people as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visits Washington, DC, supported by European leaders, for high-stakes peace talks with United States President Donald Trump that could determine Ukraine's future and its fate in the war, now in its fourth year. An entire family, including a toddler and a 16-year-old, were among seven people killed in an overnight drone strike on a residential neighbourhood in the northeastern city of Kharkiv, authorities said on Monday. The attack also injured 20 people, including six children. Russian forces killed five people and injured four in attacks in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region, where some of the fiercest fighting on the ground rages on and where Russian President Vladimir Putin, feeling Moscow has the upper hand, seeks Ukraine's withdrawal from the third of the region Kyiv still controls. In Zaporizhzhia, a city in the southeast, 17 people were injured in an attack, according to Governor Ivan Fedorov.

Kyiv, Ukraine – Russia's aerial attack on Ukraine was colossal. Moving in waves from several directions and at different speeds and heights, 127 missiles and 109 drones attacked 15 of Ukraine's 24 regions. The attack is being seen in Ukraine as Russian President Vladimir Putin's revenge for Kyiv's daring incursion into the western Russian region of Kursk that began in early August and has resulted in the apparent takeover of more than 1,000sq kilometres (386sq miles). "He is a vindictive person, he got offended," General Lieutenant Ihor Romanenko, ex-deputy head of the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces, told Al Jazeera. The attack began in predawn darkness on Monday as buzzing swarms of explosives-laden heavy drones took off from the Azov Sea town of Yeisk in southwestern Russia.