At least 13 people have been killed, including a 12-year-old child, in Ukraine after Russian forces unleashed a barrage of missiles and drones overnight.
Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said four people had died in the capital, while seven people were killed in Odesa and two in the southeastern city of Dnipro, where Russian attacks set residential buildings ablaze.
Photos of the attack on Ukrainian cities showed the night sky turning orange as Ukrainian air forces tried to intercept the incoming aerial weapons.
An air raid alert remained in effect in both Kyiv and Dnipro more than two hours after it had been imposed in the capital as Vladimir Putin’s forces ramped up their attacks.
Just hours earlier, Ukraine said its forces had downed or intercepted at least 349 drones and 20 missiles in a daytime attack.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukrainian cities have become repeat targets for brutal attacks. “We need air defence missiles every single day – every day the Russians continue their strikes on our cities,” he said in an appeal to allies.
Death toll rises to 15 in Russia overnight attacks on Ukraine
At least 15 people have been killed and 90 have been injured in Russian attacks targeting Ukrainian cities overnight, according to foreign minister Andrii Sybiha.
“The attack primarily targeted civilians. At least 4 people were killed in Kyiv, including a 12-year-old child, with over 50 more injured, 8 killed in Odesa, 3 killed and three dozen injured in Dnipro, 1 killed in Zaporizhzhia,” he said.
He said that Russian attacks in the past 24 hours involved almost 700 drones as well as dozens of ballistic and cruise missiles.
“Such attacks cannot be normalised. These are war crimes that must be stopped and their perpetrators held to account. We urge the international community to take immediate action. All decisions required to increase pressure on the aggressor must be unblocked now,” he said.
Sybiha said delaying sanctions on Moscow or aid packages for Ukraine was “immoral, counterproductive, and dangerous”.
Putin was ‘never friends with Orban’ after historic election defeat, says Kremlin
Mr Orban, who enjoyed warm relations with Russian president Vladimir Putin and was a persistent thorn in Ukraine’s side as it sought financial backing for its war effort from a divided Europe, was swept aside by Peter Magyar and his centre-right Tisza party.
What the future holds for the Russia-Hungary relationship is unclear, but in light of Mr Orban’s collapse in public support, Moscow now appears to be distancing itself and playing down the loss of its most influential ally in the European Union.
“We were never friends with Orban,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters, according to The Guardian. Hungary’s official designation is as an “unfriendly country”, he added, explaining that Russia therefore did not congratulate Mr Magyar on his election win.
Russian attack damages port infrastructure in Odesa
Russian overnight missile and drone strikes at Ukraine’s southern city of Odesa damaged port infrastructure facilities, its regional governor said this morning.
Facades and windows of at least three high-rise buildings, a dormitory and nearby buildings were also damaged, Oleh Kiper said on Telegram.
The attack triggered fires at certain infrastructure sites, he added.
Drone debris falls at port in Russia’s Tuapse, official says
Drone debris fell on the territory of enterprises at a port in the city of Tuapse in Russia’s Krasnodar region, a local official said this morning.
Tuapse is one of Russia’s major southern ports, serving as an oil product export hub and also handles dry bulk cargo such as coal and fertiliser. It is also home to a major oil refinery of the same name owned by Rosneft, Russia’s biggest oil producer.
Veniamin Kondratiev, governor of the Krasnodar region, said two children aged 5 and 14 were killed in what he called a massive attack by Ukrainian drones.
Unverified images published by Russian media on Telegram showed the night sky illuminated red from a fire in the area. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.
Ukraine says it downs 31 missiles, 636 drones in Russian attacks over past 24 hours
Ukraine’s air force downed or neutralised 31 Russian missiles and 636 drones in attacks at the country over the past 24 hours, it said this morning.
“During this period, the enemy launched two waves of combined attacks on Ukrainian territory, using ground-based and air-launched missiles, as well as attack drones,” the air force said in a statement on Telegram.
Overall, it detected 703 Russian aerial targets, it added.
Photos shows Russian drone heading for Ukrainian apartment
Death toll in attack on Ukrainian cities soars to 13
Russia unleashed missile and drone attacks on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and other cities overnight, killing 13 people, including a 12-year-old child, injuring several dozens and badly damaging buildings, officials said this morning.
In Kyiv, mayor Vitali Klitschko said four people, including the child, had died. Seven people were killed in Odesa and in the southeastern city of Dnipro, where Russian attacks set residential buildings ablaze, the regional governor said two people were killed.
Klitschko said 45 city residents were injured. The city came under another attack early on Thursday, he said, adding that a drone, flying very low, slammed into an 18-storey building.
Ukraine’s emergency services put the death toll in Kyiv at five.
Photos posted online showed fires burning out of control and smoke billowing skyward.
Klitschko said rescue teams had rescued a mother and child from a building in a central district where the ground floor was badly damaged. He also said missile debris had hit the sixth floor of an apartment building in the central Podil district.
Klitschko said a large fire had broken out in a building in a district in the north of the capital and four emergency medical workers were injured, while debris had fallen in several locations.
UK to send £752m and 120,000 drones to Ukraine to bolster defences against Russia
Britain has announced a major new package of support for Ukraine, worth millions of pounds, as senior ministers engage in a series of high-level international meetings.
In Washington DC, chancellor Rachel Reeves has confirmed a £752m payment to Ukraine, ahead of a meeting with Yulia Svyrydenko, the Ukrainian prime minister.
The payment, part of a larger £3.36bn loan, is earmarked to procure essential military equipment, including long-range missiles, advanced air defence systems, and drones.
Ms Reeves said: “This funding will help deliver the military equipment Ukraine needs as it defends itself against Russia’s unprovoked war.
Kremlin says drone plans for Ukraine are pulling Europe deeper into war
European plans to step up drone supplies to Ukraine are dragging those countries deeper into a war with Russia, the Russian defence ministry said.
The ministry said it believes governments in a number of EU countries have decided to increase the production and supply of drones to Ukraine, a move Moscow views as a step that is escalating the conflict.
It published a list of factories and enterprises in several European countries it alleges manufacture drones or drone components, and gave their addresses, including sites in Britain, Germany, Spain, Italy, Israel and Poland, among others.
“The European public should not only have a clear understanding of the true causes of the threats to their security, but also be aware of the addresses and locations of Ukrainian and joint enterprises producing UAVs and components for Ukraine within their own countries,” it said.
Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy chair of Russia’s Security Council, said in a subsequent post on X that the list published by the military amounted to a list of potential targets for Russia’s armed forces.
“When strikes become a reality depends on what comes next. Sleep well, European partners!” he said.
Russia’s Tuapse port area hit in Ukrainian drone attacks, governor says
At least two children aged five and 14 have been killed and a number of enterprises in the area of Russia’s Black Sea port of Tuapse were hit in Ukrainian drone attacks, local governor Veniamin Kondratiev said this morning.
In his post on the Telegram messaging app, he also said several residential houses were damaged in the massive drone attacks on the region.
Source: independent.co.uk