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Russian strikes on Ukraine in the past day have killed seven people and injured more than 67. In a post on X, Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that a number of regions had been hit, including Odesa, Sumy, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, Kherson, Donetsk, and Dnipro.
Zelenskyy said Russia had sent more than 130 attack drones and eight missiles into Ukraine overnight and into Friday morning.
Ukraine’s state electricity grid, Ukrenergy, said the strikes had caused power outages in Odesa, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, and Sumy regions.
The Ukrainian Air Force reported that the country’s air defence systems were able to intercept five missiles and 115 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that had been launched by Russia into the north, south, and east of the country.
The attacks came shortly after President Zelenskyy’s reshuffle of his government on Thursday, which included the appointment of a new prime minister, Sergii Koretskyi. Koretskyi is the former head of the state gas operator Naftogaz.
The appointment has been overshadowed by the removal of the defence minister, Mykhailo Fedorov. The move has reportedly left the country’s military leadership ‘unsettled’.
Protests have been taking place in Kyiv and other cities against the removal of Fedorov. Demonstrators have been seen holding signs reading “Don’t mess with what works”, “Hands off Fedorov”, “Bring Fedorov back”, and “Power still belongs to the people”.
Separately, the Russian Defence Ministry said it had downed 243 Ukrainian drones overnight into Friday.