Russia targeted Ukrainian cities with another barrage of overnight drone and missile attacks, killing at least two people and wounding at least 10 others, Ukrainian officials said on July 12.

The new air attacks came ahead of what US President Donald Trump, who has been seeking to end the war in Ukraine since he took office in January but has run up against recalcitrance from President Vladimir Putin's Kremlin, said would be a "major statement on Russia" on July 14.

Cities in western Ukraine bore the brunt of the latest overnight attacks, in which Ukraine's air force said it shot down 319 of the 597 drones and all but one of the 26 missiles launched by Russian forces.

A 26-year-old woman and a 43-year-old man were killed and at least four other people injured as a result of drone strikes on Chernivtsi, near the Romanian border, regional military administration chief Ruslan Zaparanyuksaid onTelegram.

In Lviv, near the Polish border, six people were injured in drone attacks, including an 11-year-old boy,Maksym Kozytskiy, who holds the same position in the Lviv region, said on Telegram. Five were treated on site and one man was hospitalized.

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Russia has stepped up its missile and drone attacks this year, withnumbers increasingevery month since December, according to a monitoring group, and has intensified barrages on Kyiv and other cities in recent weeks while alsopressing forwardon the front lines -- albeit with massive casualties among its troops.

Trump has voiced increasing frustration recently with Putin, who has rejected his efforts to secure an extendable 30-day cease-fire in the war, now in its 41st month since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Ukraine agreed to the 30-day cease-fire when Trump first proposed it in March, but Russia has attached conditions that experts say were meant to drag out talks while its forces continue their attacks.

Two rounds of direct Russian-Ukrainian talks in Istanbul, on May 16 and June 2, led to exchanges of prisoners and the remains of soldiers killed in the war but produced no progress toward peace.

We get a lot of bullshit from Putin. It's very nice most of the time but meaningless, Trump, who has spoken to Putin by phone six times since his inauguration on January 20,said on July 8.

Trump said the United States is "sending defensive weapons to Ukraine because Putin is not treating human beings right. That marked a reversal of course days after a Pentagon announcement that delivery of some weapons to Ukraine would be halted over concerns that US stockpiles have declined too much.

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His promise of a major statement on July 14 has led to expectations that he might announce support for new sanctions against Russia, which he has so far refrained from imposing, or pledge more military aid to Ukraine.

Trump has said he is studying a bill sponsored by Senator Lindsey Graham (Republican-South Carolina) and Senator Richard Blumenthal (Democrat-Connecticut) that would impose sanctions and tariffs on countries that support Russias war effort in addition to targeting Russias banking system.