Sawt Falasteen - Ukraine's Zelensky visits Russian ally Serbia as Moscow pounds Kyiv

Zelensky was to hold talks with his counterpart Alexander Vucic at the presidential palace on Saturday, after another intense bombardment of Kyiv and the surrounding region overnight killed at least four people.

Diplomacy is at a standstill more than four years after the start of Russia's large-scale offensive against Ukraine and the two countries are ramping up long-range strikes, causing a growing number of civilian casualties.

Moscow has significantly upped its attacks on the Ukrainian capital in recent months, typically firing salvos of hard-to-intercept ballistic missiles in short blitzes, with Ukraine pleading for more US-made Patriot interceptors.

Kyiv, in turn, has been firing record numbers of drones at Russia in retaliation.

A senior Ukrainian official earlier described Zelensky's visit to Moscow's traditional ally Serbia as "a slap in the face for the Russians".

Serbia is historically close to Russia and Vucic has refused to sanction Moscow, a move that has irked the EU and slowed Belgrade's path to joining the bloc.

Zelensky had dinner on Friday with Vucic, who repeated this week that he will not change his mind on sanctions, ahead of the talks.

"We will discuss expanding economic ties between our countries, relations with the European Union, other areas that can benefit our nations, and security issues," Zelensky said on X.

The pair are also due to address the media.

Zelensky -- who has toured much of the world seeking support since Russia's 2022 invasion -- has not visited Serbia since he became president in 2019.

Although heavily dependent on cheap Russian gas and one of the rare European leaders to still visit Moscow, Vucic has also supplied non-military aid to Kyiv.

The Kremlin has accused Serbian firms of selling munitions to Ukraine, a claim Vucic has repeatedly denied.

Vucic went to Ukraine for a regional summit in 2025 and visited Kyiv this year. He has promised assistance to Ukraine but avoided signing a formal declaration of support in the war.

- Three-year-old killed -

The visit comes as Russia launched another overnight barrage of missiles and drones, targeting mostly the capital Kyiv region.

The attack killed three people, including a child, outside Kyiv, Zelensky said on X on Saturday.

"Last night, Russia killed three people in Pukhivka, Kyiv region, with drone strikes –- a grandfather, a grandmother, and their grandson," Zelensky said, adding that "the boy was only three years old".

Ukraine's state emergency service shared photos of a destroyed building in flames, saying the attack in Pukhivka destroyed a two-storey house and two cars and sparked a fire in a warehouse.

"Four more people were hospitalised: the child's parents, his 15-year-old brother, and a neighbour who came to the family's aid and was wounded in a double-tap strike," Zelensky said.

Another person was killed in a strike "involving six ballistic missiles against civilian infrastructure in Kyiv."

He urged more pressure on Russia, including "new sanctions that will prevent the production of these ballistic missiles".

An AFP reporter in the capital heard a dozen explosions as Ukraine's air force warned of the "threat of ballistic weapon use from the north".

burs-st/mmp/cw

K.Hassan--SF-PST