Zelensky has heavily criticised Trump’s diesel deal with Russia, calling it a gift to President Vladimir Putin that amounts to “an investment in a war that must be ended, not prolonged”.
More recently, in his response to the overnight strikes, he said “Russia interprets any easing of pressure as a signal that it can supposedly continue the war.
“Russia must understand that the war needs to be stopped, and for that, it must feel its losses,” he wrote on X, external.
Both Russia and Ukraine have stepped up attacks on infrastructure in recent months, as the war between the two countries drags on.
Zaporizhzhia is a major regional centre with more than 700,000 residents. It is located less than 10 miles (16 km) from the front line and is frequently attacked by Russian drones and missiles.
The latest strikes on the city comes amid a sharp increase in the number of Russian attacks that are causing higher numbers of civilian casualties.
On Thursday, at least 33 people were killed in another Russian glide bomb attack on two civilian buses in Kramatorsk, in the eastern Donetsk region.
The day before, 22 people including five children died as a Russian missile hit an apartment block in the town of Pryluky, east of Kyiv.
According to the UN, the number of civilian casualties in Ukraine jumped by 55%, external in the first eight months of this year.
Russia has also targeted Ukrainian energy infrastructure, ramping up attacks every winter since Putin launched a full-scale invasion in 2022.
For its part, Ukraine has attacked Russia’s infrastructure – with the latest being strikes on data centres owned by tech giant Yandex.
