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At least seven people have been killed in one of Russia’s largest overnight attacks on Ukraine since the start of its full-scale invasion in 2022, targeting its neighbour with more than 600 drones and 47 missiles, according to Ukraine’s Armed Forces.
30 locations across Ukraine were struck from either direct hits or from falling debris, while 610 of the aerial attacks were neutralised, Ukraine’s military said.
The eastern city of Dnipro was the hardest-hit area, while the regions of Chernihiv, Kharkiv, Sumy, Odesa and Kyiv were also hit.
Dnipro’s military administration said the city was subjected to a more than 10-hour Russian attack, “The Russians have been hitting Dnipro and other cities and communities practically all night,” Dnipropetrovsk governor Oleksandr Hanzha said.
At least five people died in a strike on an apartment block, including a nine-year-old boy, and 34 people were injured.
Others remained trapped under the rubble, and search and rescue operations were still ongoing late Saturday morning. The attack targeted high-rise residential buildings, industrial facilities, as well as houses and cars, and sparked fires across the city.
Two men were killed and two others injured in strikes on the city of Nizhyn in the north-eastern Chernihiv region. Meanwhile, another seven people were injured in attacks across the region, a regional official reported, adding that there had been 27 attacks on the region in the past day.
In response to the attacks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Saturday during a visit to Azerbaijan that the country needs increased support to strengthen its defence.
“Each such strike must remind our partners that the situation requires immediate and decisive action. We need rapid strengthening of our air defence”. Zelenskyy also urged the 21st package of EU sanctions against Russia to be put in place.
Drone crashes in Romania
A drone crashed in a populated area in Romania, a NATO and EU country that borders Ukraine, local authorities said, adding that they had to evacuate over 200 people.
Debris from the drone fell on the city of Galați, damaging a residential building, according to a Facebook post by Romania’s Defence Ministry.
Two British fighter jets were scrambled as a result.
Romania has repeatedly seen its airspace violated and had drone fragments land on its territory after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began, but its President Nicusor Dan said “this is the first incident where Romanian property has actually been damaged, a threshold we take very seriously.”