French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Thursday condemned Russia’s major overnight attacks on Ukraine. Both said the attack was counterproductive to the ongoing peace process. JOIN US ON TELEGRAM Follow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official.

In a statement on X, Macron said the attack “lays bare all the hypocrisy. ” “By launching a new massive strike of drones and missiles against Ukrainian cities and civilians – the largest in the past four years – Russia is further compounding the outrage of its aggression,” Macron wrote. “It lays bare all the hypocrisy with which it negotiated the fragile truce of the past few days,” he added, referring to the May 9-11 ceasefire over the weekend.

Merz, speaking at the awards ceremony for the International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen 2026, said Berlin wished to help bring the war to an end, but the attacks “speak a different language. ” Advertisement “We want to help bring this terrible war to an end as soon as possible. But the attacks of last night speak a different language,” he said.

“The will to negotiate requires willingness to negotiate on both sides. ” Macron also criticized the attack by calling it Moscow’s way of retaliating against civilians amid battlefield setbacks. “By bombing civilians, Russia demonstrates less its strength than its weakness: It is running out of solutions on the military front and does not know how to end its war of aggression,” he continued.

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He added that Paris stands in solidarity with Ukraine and is working toward bringing a “just and lasting peace for Ukraine, one that guarantees its security and that of Europe. ” After Thursday morning’s attacks, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha also said the attacks were counterproductive to ongoing peace efforts.

“Right at the time when the leaders of the most powerful countries meet in Beijing and the world hopes for peace, predictability, and cooperation, Putin launched hundreds of drones, ballistic and cruise missiles, at the capital of Ukraine,” Sybiha said in a statement posted on social media. Advertisement Russia launched nearly 1,500 drones against Ukraine between Wednesday and Thursday, setting a new record for the highest number launched within a 24-hour period.

Wednesday’s daytime attack struck Uzhhorod, a city on Ukraine’s border with Hungary, for the first time since the 2022 invasion, prompting Budapest to summon the Russian ambassador – also a first since the start of the full-scale war. Overnight in Kyiv, one of the missiles toppled a residential building, with Kyiv Post correspondents registering explosions ringing across the city throughout the night.

The attack coincides with a renewed peace push from Washington and reiterated hardline stance from Moscow, with US President Donald Trump saying he believes the war’s end is “very close,” and the Kremlin again demanding Kyiv withdraw from territories Russian forces were unable to capture in the Donbas for negotiations. The Kremlin also voiced openness to negotiating with the EU, but on the condition that the bloc is represented by Gerhard Schröder, the pro-Kremlin former German chancellor.

Advertisement Merz on Thursday rebuffed the offer by saying, “We Europeans decide for ourselves who speaks for us, no one else does. ”