Zelensky Urges Allies To Push For 'Regime Change' In Russia

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday urged his allies to bring about "regime change" in Russia, hours after a Russian drone and missile attack on Kyiv killed eight people including a six-year-old boy.

The overnight strikes reduced part of a nine-storey apartment block in Kyiv's western suburbs to rubble and wounded dozens more in the capital, according to authorities.

The Russian army meanwhile claimed to have captured Chasiv Yar, a strategically important hillside town in eastern Ukraine where the two sides have been fiercely fighting for months.

Moscow has stepped up its deadly aerial assaults on Ukraine in recent months, resisting US pressure to end its nearly three-and-a-half year invasion as its forces grind forward on the battlefield.

Speaking virtually to a conference marking 50 years since the signing of the Cold War-era Helsinki Accords, Zelensky said he believed Russia could be "pushed" to stop the war.

"But if the world doesn't aim to change the regime in Russia, that means even after the war ends, Moscow will still try to destabilise neighbouring countries," the Ukrainian leader added.

Between late Wednesday and early Thursday, Russia fired over 300 drones and eight cruise missiles at Ukraine, the main target of which was Kyiv, the Ukrainian air force said.

One missile tore through a nine-storey residential building in western Kyiv, tearing off its facade, authorities said.

AFP journalists at the scene of the strike saw rescuers scouring through a smouldering mound of broken concrete, the belongings of residents scattered among the debris.

The attack killed eight people in Kyiv and injured 73 others, a rescue services spokesperson told AFP.

Among the dead was a six-year-old boy, who died on the way to hospital in an ambulance, the head of the city's military administration, Tymur Tkachenko, said in a post on Telegram.

The attack came just days after US President Donald Trump issued a 10-day ultimatum for Moscow to halt its invasion, now in its fourth year, or face sanctions.

Russia said on Thursday it had captured the town of Chasiv Yar, which had been a strategically important military hub for Ukrainian forces in the eastern Donetsk region.

The town "was liberated by Russian forces", Russia's defence ministry said in a statement.

A Ukrainian army spokesperson rejected Russia's claim as "lies".

"Of course, this is not true," Viktor Tregubov, a spokesperson for the Khortytsia Operational Strategic Group of Forces, told AFP.

Taking control of Chasiv Yar would represent a major military boon for Russia, which has been making incremental but steady territorial gains for months.

Home to around 12,000 people before the war but now largely destroyed, the town's capture would pave the way for Russian forces to advance on remaining civilian strongholds in the eastern Donetsk region.

These include the garrison city of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, important logistical bases for the Ukrainian military and home to many civilians, who have up to now not fled the fighting.

The Kremlin has made the capture of the Donetsk region a priority since it claimed the industrial region as part of Russia in September 2022.

Following Thursday's strikes, Ukrainian officials called for more pressure on Russia to end the war.

"President Trump has been very generous and very patient with Putin, trying to find a solution", Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga wrote on X.

"It's time to make him feel the pain and consequences of his choices. It's time to put maximum pressure on Moscow", he said.

Russia, which denies targeting civilians, has not yet commented on the strike or Zelensky's call for regime change.

Putin has himself called for Zelensky to be removed from office and has repeatedly questioned his legitimacy.

Thursday's attacks came just hours before lawmakers in Ukraine's parliament voted to overturn a highly criticised law that curbed the powers of two anti-graft bodies.

Zelensky, who signed the bill into law last Tuesday, reversed course after the legislation sparked the biggest public unrest in Ukraine since Russia's invasion began.

The original law had put the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) under the direct authority of the prosecutor general, who is appointed by the president.

Critics said the move would allow Zelensky to meddle in high-profile corruption cases, while the European Union warned the bill could derail anti-corruption reforms key to joining the bloc.

A total of 331 members of parliament, the minimum required being 226, approved the new legislation, which was lauded by the European Union as a key safeguard against corruption.