Putin’s response to Zelenskyy-Trump summit: Deploy Tu-95MS strategic bombers to pound Ukraine

Just hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with US President Donald Trump at the White House, Russian forces struck the Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk in the Poltava region, battering it so much that the city was covered in thick black smoke. The attack was so intense that NATO had to scramble its fighters, according to reports.

The attack happened as Trump rang Putin and began arrangements for a meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy, to be followed by yet another summit which would also include Trump.

Ukrainian sources said that the attack happened on Tuesday morning in the Poltava region when Russian forces deployed attack drones. Over 30 explosions rocked the city of Lubny alone. It was then that the Russian Tu-95MS strategic bombers from over the Caspian Sea. The Russian Tupolev Tu-95MS  is a heavy bomber designed during the Cold War era. Though it is a propeller-powered bomber and a slow aircraft, the Tu-94MS can fly a distance of 5,000 miles, and the current models have a reported range of over 9000 miles.

The impact of the attack was such that the explosions damaged every transport and energy infrastructure. Russia reportedly deployed five of its Tu-95MS strategic bombers for the overnight strikes, while over 270 Shahed drones were used. “The entire Kremenchuk is in smoke - close your windows,” warned authorities.

Mayor Vitaly Maletsky took to Facebook to lash out at Russia. “At the same time that Putin was assuring Trump on the phone that he wanted peace, and when President Volodymyr Zelensky was holding talks at the White House with European leaders about a just peace, Putin’s [military] was launching another massive attack on Kremenchuk,” he wrote on Facebook.

The incident prompted the Polish Armed Forces to scramble its fighter jets to “ensure the security of Polish airspace”, according to the Operational Command of the Polish Armed Forces (RFAF).“On the night of August 18-19, 2025, long-range aviation of the Russian Federation once again launched missile attacks on Ukrainian territory,” said a statement from Warsaw’s military headquarters.

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