Russian forces unleashed a fearsome and extensive barrage overnight, launching 367 drones and missiles in their largest aerial offensive of the ongoing conflict. This devastating attack swept through Ukrainian cities, including the heart of the nation, Kyiv, leaving a trail of destruction that claimed the lives of 13 people and injured many more, as reported by officials.
Among the victims were three innocent children from the northern region of Zhytomyr, as reported by local officials there.
In a heartfelt plea, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged the United States, which has shown a more restrained public approach towards Russia and its leader, Vladimir Putin, following President Donald Trump’s rise to power, to voice its condemnation. “The silence from America, along with others around the globe, merely fuels Putin’s audacity,” he expressed on Telegram. “Every terror-filled Russian attack warrants further sanctions against Russia.”
This formidable assault, characterized by its vast number of launched weapons, proceeds as Ukraine and Russia gear up for the final and third phase of their prisoner swap, in which both nations will exchange a total of 1000 prisoners each.
Ukraine and its European allies have sought to push Moscow into signing a 30-day ceasefire as a first step to negotiating an end to the three-year war.
Their efforts suffered a blow earlier this week when Trump declined to place further sanctions on Moscow for not agreeing to an immediate pause in fighting, as Kyiv had wanted.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia had launched 298 drones and 69 missiles in its overnight assault, although it said it was able to down 266 drones and 45 missiles.
Damage extended to a string of regional centres, including Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, as well as Mykolaiv in the south and Ternopil in the west.
In Kyiv, Tymur Tkachenko, head of the city’s military administration, said 11 people were injured in drone strikes. No deaths were reported in the capital, although four were killed in the region around the city, according to officials.
This was the second large aerial attack in two days. On Friday evening, Russia launched dozens of drones and ballistic missiles at Kyiv in waves that continued through the night.
In northeastern Ukraine, Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said early on Sunday that drones hit three city districts and injured three people. Blasts shattered windows in high-rise apartment blocks.
Drone strikes killed a 77-year-old man and injured five people in the southern city of Mykolaiv, the regional governor said. He published a picture of a residential apartment block with a large hole from an explosion and rubble scattered over the ground.
In the western region of Khmelnytskyi, many hundreds of kilometres away from the frontlines of fighting, four people were killed and five others wounded, according to the governor.
“Without pressure, nothing will change and Russia and its allies will only build up forces for such murders in Western countries,” the Ukrainian president’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak wrote on Telegram.
“Moscow will fight as long as it has the ability to produce weapons.”
Russia’s Defence Ministry reported that its air defence units had intercepted or destroyed 95 Ukrainian drones over a four-hour period. The Mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin, said 12 Ukrainian drones had been intercepted on their way to the capital.