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Russian air attacks on Ukrainian cities have now killed nine people — three in the capital Kyiv, three in the eastern city of Kharkiv, and three in other cities, Ukrainian officials have said.
The attacks followed a warning from Russian President Vladimir Putin, conveyed via United States leader Donald Trump, that the Kremlin would hit back after Ukrainian drones destroyed several strategic bomber aircraft in attacks deep inside Russia.
Russia attacked the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv at night with drones, missiles and guided bombs, killing at least three people and injuring 22, including a one-and-a-half-month-old baby, the city mayor, Ihor Terekhov, said on Saturday.
One of Ukraine’s largest cities, Kharkiv is located just a few dozen kilometres from the Russian border and has been under constant Russian shelling during the more than three years of war.
“Kharkiv is currently experiencing the most powerful attack since the start of the full-scale war,” Terekhov said on the Telegram messenger early on Saturday.
Dozens of explosions were heard in the city through the night and Russian troops were striking simultaneously with missiles, drones and guided aerial bombs, he said.
Kharkiv attacks follow strikes on Kyiv
Those attacks were preceded by an intense missile and drone barrage on Kyiv in the early hours of Friday, in which three emergency responders were killed, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
“Those killed in Kyiv were rescue workers who arrived at the scene of an initial strike and, unfortunately, were killed in a repeat Russian strike,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address.
Two also died in an attack on the northern city of Chernihiv and at least one more in the northwestern city of Lutsk, he added.
“Overnight, Russia ‘responded’ to its destroyed aircraft … by attacking civilians in Ukraine … Multi-storey buildings hit. Energy infrastructure damaged,” foreign minister Andrii Sybiha wrote on X.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said its forces had carried out the strike on military and military-related targets in response to what it called Ukrainian “terrorist acts” against Russia.
Zelenskyy said 80 people nationwide had been injured in the attacks, which also struck several other towns and cities. He said residents could still be trapped under rubble.
In Chernihiv, the national emergency services said two bodies were recovered from the rubble of a wrecked industrial enterprise.
In Lutsk, the body of a man was found in the ruins of an apartment block, while emergency crews kept searching for his wife. Thirty people were hurt in the city, where educational institutions and a government building were also hit.
Russian forces also struck industrial facilities and infrastructure in the western city of Ternopil, leaving parts of it without power, Mayor Serhii Nadal said.
The regional administration said the attack had injured 10 people and asked residents to temporarily stay inside due to a high concentration of toxic substances in the air after a fire.
The air force said Russia had used 407 drones, one of the largest numbers recorded in a single attack. It said 45 cruise and ballistic missiles were also fired.
Zelenskyy calls for pressure on Russia after attacks
In response to the strikes, Zelenskyy called for concerted pressure on Russia.
“If someone is not applying pressure and is giving the war more time to take lives — that is complicity and accountability. We must act decisively,” he wrote on X.
The Ukrainian military said it had launched a pre-emptive strike overnight on the Engels and Dyagilevo airfields in the Russian regions of Saratov and Ryazan, in addition to striking at least three fuel reservoirs.
In one of the most audacious attacks of the war between Ukraine and Russia, Ukrainian spies last weekend destroyed a claimed US$7 billion ($10.8 billion) worth of Russian strategic bomber aircraft on the ground using quadrocopter drones hidden in wooden sheds.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the mission — dubbed Operation Spider’s Web — “our most long-range operation” in more than three years of war.
The Kremlin was planning an unspecified response to the Ukrainian attack on Russian air bases, Trump said after a telephone conversation with Putin on Wednesday.
“President Putin did say, and very strongly, that he will have to respond to the recent attack on the airfields,” Trump said after the conversation.
Russia has also accused Ukraine of being behind a deadly bomb attack on a bridge over a railway line in western Russia at the weekend that was blown up just as a train carrying 388 passengers to Moscow was passing underneath.
Seven people were killed and 155 injured in the incident, which Kyiv has not taken responsibility for.
