Russia carried out a number of missiles, drones and bomb attacks across Ukraine early this morning, killing five people as it retaliated for a major drone strike on its air bases.
The Kremlin has accelerated its attacks on Ukraine in recent weeks, while the latest ceasefire negotiations have failed to broker an end to the three-year war.
The Ukrainian air force said Russia had fired 206 drones and nine missiles and added that “the air attack was repelled by aviation, anti-aircraft missile troops, electronic warfare and unmanned systems units, and mobile fire groups of the Ukrainian Defense Forces”.
In Ukraine’s second largest city Kharkiv, Mayor Igor Terekhov counted 48 Iranian-made drones, two missiles and four guided bombs before dawn and said the attack was unprecedented.
The northeastern city of some 1.4 million residents is located less than 50 kilometres from the Russian border.
“Kharkiv is currently experiencing the most powerful attack since the beginning of the full-scale war,” Mr Terekhov posted on Telegram around 4.40am (2.40am Irish time), adding that drones were still buzzing overhead.
The Russian strikes pummelled homes and apartment blocks, killing at least three people and wounding 17 more, the mayor said.
A woman was also pulled alive from the rubble of a high-rise building.
Kharkiv region Governor Oleg Synegubov said the wounded included two children.
“Medical personnel are providing the necessary assistance,” he wrote.
Kharkiv was already reeling from an attack on Thursday that wounded at least 18 people, including four children.
In the southern port city of Kherson, Russian shelling killed a couple and damaged two high-rise buildings, regional Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said.
In the central Dnipropetrovsk region, governor Sergiy Lysak said Ukrainian forces had repelled 27 drones and two missiles overnight, but two women aged 45 and 88 were injured.
Rescuers in the western city of Lutsk, near the Polish border, meanwhile discovered a second fatality from yesterday’s strikes, describing the victim as a woman in her 20s.
This morning’s attacks come a day after Russia launched an intense missile and drone barrage at the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, killing at least six people as powerful explosions reverberated across the country.
The attacks followed a warning from Russian President Vladimir Putin, conveyed via US President Donald Trump, that the Kremlin would hit back after Ukrainian drones destroyed several strategic bomber aircraft in attacks deep inside Russia.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said three emergency responders were killed in the missile and drone salvo against the capital while two died in an attack on the northern city of Chernihiv and at least one more in the northwestern city of Lutsk.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said its forces had carried out the strike on military and military-related targets in response to what it called Ukrainian “terrorist acts” against Russia.
“They gave Putin a reason to go in and bomb the hell out of them last night,” Mr Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One yesterday, when asked about how Ukraine’s earlier drone strikes had affected the conflict.
Mr Zelensky said 80 people nationwide had been injured in the attacks yesterday, which also struck several other towns and cities.
He said residents could still be trapped under rubble.
In Chernihiv, the national emergency services said two bodies were recovered from the rubble of a wrecked industrial enterprise.
In Lutsk, the body of a man was found in the ruins of an apartment block, while emergency crews kept searching for his wife.
Thirty people were hurt in the city, where educational institutions and a government building were also hit.
Russian forces also struck industrial facilities and infrastructure in the western city of Ternopil, leaving parts of it without power, Mayor Serhii Nadal said.
The regional administration said the attack had injured ten people and asked residents to temporarily stay inside due to a high concentration of toxic substances in the air after a fire.
Hopes of ceasefire dim
The Kremlin said yesterday the Ukraine war was “existential” for Russia.
The comments are Russia’s latest to dampen hopes for a breakthrough amid a flurry of meetings between Russian and Ukrainian delegations, as well as telephone calls between President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump, aimed at stopping the fighting.
“For us it is an existential issue, an issue on our national interest, safety, on our future and the future of our children, of our country,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, responding to remarks by Trump on Thursday comparing Russia and Ukraine to brawling children.
Ahead of the talks this week in Istanbul, an audacious Ukrainian drone attack damaged nuclear-capable military planes at Russian air bases, including thousands of kilometres behind the front lines in Siberia.
Mr Putin had told Mr Trump he would retaliate for the brazen operation, 18 months in the planning, in which Ukraine smuggled more than 100 small drones into Russia, parked them near Russian air bases and unleashed them in a coordinated attack.
Mr Putin has issued a host of sweeping demands on Ukraine if it wants to halt the fighting.
They include completely pulling troops out of four regions claimed by Russia, but which its army does not fully control, an end to Western military support, and a ban on Ukraine joining NATO.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has dismissed the demands as old ultimatums, questioned the purpose of more such talks and called for a summit to be attended by him, Mr Putin and Mr Trump.
