At least seven people have been killed including two children during intense Russian drone and missile strikes on Ukraine, says President Volodymyr Zelensky. A kindergarten was hit in Ukraine's second biggest city Kharkiv and there was widespread damage in Kyiv, in a series of attacks that Zelensky said proved Moscow had not come under enough pressure for its continued war. At least 27 people including children are reported hurt. Hours earlier, US President Donald Trump said his plans for an imminent summit in Budapest with Russia's Vladimir Putin had been shelved as he did not want a wasted meeting. The Kremlin has rejected calls for a ceasefire along the current front lines made both by Trump and European leaders.

Russia has made gains in Ukraine's Donetsk region before President Vladimir Putin's high-stakes meeting with his United States counterpart Donald Trump in Alaska, raising fears that it may have increased its leverage amid talks aimed at ending the war. In advance of Friday's summit in Anchorage, Moscow's army pounded away at Ukraine's industrial heartland, attempting to seize the flashpoint town of Pokrovsk, a key highway and rail junction in eastern Donetsk, after repeated attempts to breach its defensive line during the week. As Putin and Trump prepared to meet, battlefield analysis site DeepState said that Pokrovsk was partially encircled. In recent days, Russian forces had reportedly seized the village of Yablunivka and the settlement of Oleksandrohrad – both in Donetsk. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has rejected Putin's demands that Kyiv withdraw from the remaining 30 percent of Donetsk that it still controls, played down the Russian advances, saying on X that his forces were "countering" and "increasing the pressure" on the "occupier".

Fox News contributors Katie Pavlich and Miranda Devine discuss how President Donald Trump could be the one to bring an end to the Russia-Ukraine war on'Hannity.' Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., late Thursday took shots at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, accusing him of trying to sabotage Friday's highly anticipated peace talks between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin by launching drone strikes on Russia. Greene responded to a post on X from the account, "Open Source Intel," which reported that Ukraine had in recent hours launched "one of the largest" drone attacks on Russia. "On the eve of the historic peace talks between President Trump and President Putin, Zelensky does this," the Republican lawmaker wrote. "Zelensky doesn't want peace and obviously is trying to sabotage President Trump's heroic efforts to end the war in Ukraine. Fox News Digital has reached out to the Ukrainian embassy, seeking a response to Greene's post. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., accused Ukrainian President Zelenskyy of trying to sabotage peace talks between President Trump and Russian President Putin by launching drone strikes on Russia. Ukraine launched multiple drone strikes into Russia overnight Thursday, damaging several apartment buildings in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don and injuring more than a dozen civilians, according to acting governor of the region, Yuri Slyusar. Two of those wounded were hospitalized in serious condition, he said. The Ukrainian strikes came after Russian strikes in Ukraine's Sumy region overnight Wednesday, resulting in multiple injuries, including a 7-year-old girl, per officials. Local officials also accused Ukraine of launching a drone strike in Belgorod that injured three people, and another that struck a car in the village of Pristen that killed at least one individual. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will not attend the summit in Alaska on Friday between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Despite the violence, Trump and Putin are scheduled to meet in Anchorage, Alaska, on Friday for a high-stakes summit on the future of the Ukraine war. The meeting will mark Putin's first visit to the U.S. since 2015 and the first U.S.-Russia summit since June 2021. President Donald Trump will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Aug. 15, 2025. Putin praised the U.S. on Thursday for making "sincere efforts" to end the war between Russia and Ukraine, which has been raging since early 2022. Appearing on television, the Russian president said the U.S. was "making, in my opinion, quite energetic and sincere efforts to stop hostilities, stop the crisis and reach agreements that are of interest to all parties involved in this conflict." Zelenskyy accused Russia of not being sincere in its intention to wind down the war. "This war must be ended.