Several killed, dozens wounded in Russian attacks on Ukraine

Overnight Russian attacks in eight regions of Ukraine have killed several people and wounded dozens of others, according to a Ukrainian official.

The central Ukrainian city of Dnipro was hardest hit, with eight people killed and 49 people wounded, including two children, according to Mayor Borys Filatov, whose deputy was “nearly killed” in the attack.

Two people died in the city of Nizhyn in the northern region of Chernihiv, while a one-year-old boy was among the wounded in the Kharkiv region, police said.

Strikes also hit the Zaporizhia region, killing one person and wounding four in a civilian minibus, said regional military administration head Ivan Fedorov.

A rescue operation was under way at a residential building in Dnipro, while emergency services worked in regions across Ukraine, including in Chernihiv, Odesa and Kharkiv.

Donetsk Governor Vadym Filashkin wrote on Telegram that one person was wounded in attacks on Sloviansk, and another in Kramatorsk. Six homes, five high-rises and buildings, including a post office and a church, also reported damage.

Ukraine’s Air Force tallied 619 Russian drones and 47 missiles launched during the attacks. Air defences shot down or suppressed 610 of them, it said.

“Russia’s tactics remain unchanged – attack drones, cruise missiles, and a significant number of ballistic missiles. Most targets are civilian infrastructure in cities,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted on X on Saturday, along with a video of emergency workers responding to shelled-out buildings.

The latest attacks came on the heels of the killings of a Ukrainian married couple, both aged 75, during a Russian strike on the port city of Odesa yesterday. Strikes also destroyed residential buildings and hit a foreign ship, Ukrainian authorities said.

In parallel, Ukrainian drones struck a village in the Russian-occupied Luhansk region, killing three people, according to Moscow-installed governor Leonid Pasechnik.

Drone attacks on Russia killed one woman and wounded two men in the Belgorod region, according to governor Vyacheslav Gladkov.

Another attack on the neighbouring Kursk region wounded one person, according to governor Alexander Khinshtein on Saturday.

A Ukrainian drone also hit an apartment high-rise in Yekaterinburg, a city in Russia’s heartland more than a thousand miles away from Ukraine, said local governor Denis Pasler.

The European Union this week approved a new round of sanctions targeting Russia’s energy, banking and trade sectors. Discussions had previously stalled amid opposition from Hungary.

The EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, called on Friday for a new package of sanctions, telling reporters in Cyprus that the EU is “really pushing”.

Zelenskyy urged European leaders to expedite the process in light of the latest attacks.

“The pause caused by the blocking of the 20th package gave the aggressor additional time to adapt – it is important to counter this,” he added.