KYIV, Ukraine — Russian drone and missile strikes across Ukraine killed six people and wounded dozens, officials said, as Kyiv reported damage to homes, schools, businesses and energy sites from a sweeping overnight barrage.
Mykola Kalashnyk, head of the Kyiv regional military administration, said five people were killed in the region and four of the wounded were in critical condition after attacks that “targeted ordinary settlements in the region: residential buildings, educational institutions, businesses, and critical infrastructure.” He said authorities had “information about 30 damaged sites.”
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President Volodymyr Zelensky said rescue and clearing operations were underway in the Kyiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Dnipro and Mykolaiv regions as emergency crews worked through mangled debris and shattered facades.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 430 drones and 68 missiles in the latest wave, adding that air defenses intercepted 402 drones and all 68 missiles. The claims could not be independently verified. Images from Kyiv showed residents clearing shards of glass from balconies in a heavily scarred residential high-rise after one of the strikes.
Later in the afternoon, a separate strike on a residential area in the suburbs of Zaporizhzhia wounded 18 people, including two children, the regional administration said. Local officials reported extensive blast damage to apartment blocks and parked vehicles.
The nationwide assault underscored the pace and scale of Russia’s air campaign as Ukraine enters another year of war with critical infrastructure under persistent pressure and civilian neighborhoods absorbing repeated blows. Regional authorities appealed to residents to heed air-raid warnings and shelter orders as waves of drones and missiles arrived overnight and into the day.
Amid the attacks, Kyiv’s leadership voiced growing unease about international headwinds that could reshape the battlefield. Zelensky said he was concerned that a temporary easing of U.S. sanctions on Russian oil, adopted to address disruptions in the Middle East, would hand the Kremlin new energy revenues to finance its war effort.
Diplomatic efforts to halt the fighting have also faltered. Peace talks spearheaded by the United States aiming to end more than four years of conflict have been derailed by the US-Israeli war with Iran, according to Ukrainian officials, leaving little movement toward a negotiated settlement even as front-line casualties mount.
Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022 reignited a conflict that has become Europe’s bloodiest since World War II, forcing the displacement of millions and killing hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians on both sides, according to Ukrainian and international estimates. As rescue teams in Kyiv and beyond sifted through wreckage for survivors, authorities warned that more barrages could follow and urged the public to conserve power where grid facilities were hit.
With air defenses stretched across multiple regions and repair crews racing to restore damaged utilities, Ukraine’s government renewed calls for sustained international support, arguing that more interceptors and energy equipment are critical to keeping lights on and lives safe as the war grinds on.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
