Russian strikes across Ukraine have killed at least eight people and injured dozens more over the last 24 hours.
On Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said one person was killed and nine were wounded in a drone attack on the northeastern city of Kharkiv.
“All the necessary emergency services have been deployed at the site,” Zelenskyy said, adding that residential buildings had been hit.
In the Dnipropetrovsk region, two women aged 35 and 74 were killed after Russia struck three districts in the area with drones, artillery, and aerial bombs on Saturday, per local authorities.
One person died and 12 were hurt after further Russian strikes on Zaporizhzhia Oblast in southeastern Ukraine.
Ivan Fedorov, the head of the Zaporizhzhia Regional Military Administration, said on Sunday morning that Russian forces had launched 1,029 strikes on 50 settlements in the region over the last day.
On Sunday, Fedorov said there were reports of another fatality following a Russian attack.
Another two people were reportedly killed and 24 were injured in Kherson Oblast this weekend.
“Russian forces struck critical and social infrastructure, as well as residential areas in the region’s settlements; in particular, they damaged 18 high-rise blocks and 17 private houses,” Oleksandr Prokudin, who heads the Kherson Regional Military Administration, wrote in a post on Telegram. “The occupiers also destroyed a church, a petrol station, shops, gas pipelines, a farm building, private garages and cars”.
In Sumy Oblast in northern Ukraine, a 53-year-old man was killed and eight people were wounded following Russian attacks.
It comes as Ukrainian authorities reported a hit on a shopping centre in Kryvyi Rih on Sunday. A fire reportedly broke out at an Epitsentr DIY store following the strike.
Kazakh leader calls for end to war
Kazakhstan’s President Qasym-Jomart Toqayev on Saturday reportedly told his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin that he should end his war in Ukraine.
“It is a shame, young people are dying… All this has to be stopped,” Tokayev said, per AFP.
Responding to the news on social media, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha thanked Toqayev for his “realistic, timely, and wise message.”
“Ukraine has proposed stopping the war along current frontlines and turning to diplomacy, but the Kremlin continues to reject this clear path to peace,” Sybiha said in a statement posted to X.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov had already pushed back at Tokayev’s comments, telling Interfax earlier on Saturday that it was “impossible” to “freeze” the war at the current time.
North Korea
Zelenskyy also warned in a video address on Saturday evening that Moscow was pushing for North Korea to send another 30,000 troops to support the Russian war effort in Ukraine.
The Ukrainian leader said Russia has been making preparations to receive them in the Voronezh region since June and that Pyongyang was also looking to deliver additional launchers for ballistic missiles.
“This is a threat not only to Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said. “Russia is helping North Korea learn how to wage war, improve its weapons, and gain real combat experience in using them. All of this is a threat to everyone in Asia who is within range of North Korean missiles”.
North Korea has been providing troops to support Russia’s full-scale invasion since the autumn of 2024, when they were first deployed in Russia’s Kursk Oblast.