Kyiv (Ukraine) (AFP) – Russia unleashed a barrage of missiles, drones and bombs across Ukraine early Saturday, killing five people as it retaliated for a brazen attack on air bases days earlier.
The Kremlin has accelerated its attacks on Ukraine in recent weeks, while the latest ceasefire negotiations have failed to broker an end to the three-year war.
The Ukrainian air force said Russia had fired 206 drones and nine missiles and added that “the air attack was repelled by aviation, anti-aircraft missile troops, electronic warfare and unmanned systems units, and mobile fire groups of the Ukrainian Defense Forces”.
In Ukraine’s second largest city Kharkiv, Mayor Igor Terekhov counted 48 Iranian-made drones, two missiles and four guided bombs before dawn and said the attack was unprecedented.
The northeastern city of some 1.4 million residents is located less than 50 kilometres from the Russian border.
“Kharkiv is currently experiencing the most powerful attack since the beginning of the full-scale war,” Terekhov posted on Telegram around 4:40 am (0140 GMT), adding that drones were still buzzing overhead.
The Russian strikes pummelled homes and apartment blocks, killing at least three people and wounding 17 more, the mayor said. A woman was also pulled alive from the rubble of a high-rise building.
Kharkiv region Governor Oleg Synegubov said the wounded included two children.
“Medical personnel are providing the necessary assistance,” he wrote.
Kharkiv was already reeling from an attack on Thursday that wounded at least 18 people, including four children.
In the southern port city of Kherson, Russian shelling killed a couple and damaged two high-rise buildings, regional Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said.
In the central Dnipropetrovsk region, governor Sergiy Lysak said Ukrainian forces had repelled 27 drones and two missiles overnight, but two women aged 45 and 88 were injured.
Rescuers in the western city of Lutsk, near the Polish border, meanwhile discovered a second fatality from Friday’s strikes, describing the victim as a woman in her 20s.
The aerial bombardments come days after Ukraine launched a brazen attack well beyond the frontlines, damaging nuclear-capable military planes at Russian air bases and prompting vows of revenge from Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Russia’s defence ministry meanwhile said Saturday that 36 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles had been downed across a wide swath of territory.
Ukraine has been pushing for an unconditional and immediate 30-day truce, issuing its latest proposal during peace talks in Istanbul on Monday.
But Russia, which now controls around one-fifth of Ukraine’s territory, has repeatedly rejected such offers to end its three-year war.
The Kremlin said on Friday the Ukraine war was “existential” for Russia.