Ukrainian officials say a massive Russian drone and missile attack in the eastern city of Kharkiv on Saturday has killed at least three people and injured 21, the latest in nearly daily widespread attacks.
The barrage included aerial glide bombs that have become part of a fierce Russian onslaught in the three-year war.
The intensity of the Russian attacks over recent weeks, along with Kyiv’s recent surprise drone attack on military airfields deep inside Russia, appear to be dampening hopes the warring sides could reach a peace deal anytime soon.
Ukrainian cities have come under regular bombardment since Russia invaded its neighbour in February 2022. The attacks have killed more than 12,000 civilians, according to the United Nations.
On Saturday, Ukraine’s air force said Russia struck with 215 missiles and drones overnight, and Ukrainian air defences shot down and neutralized 87 drones and seven missiles.
Several other areas in Ukraine were also hit, including the regions of Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk and Odesa, and the city of Ternopil, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said in a post on X.
“To put an end to Russia’s killing and destruction, more pressure on Moscow is required, as are more steps to strengthen Ukraine,” he said.
Russia confirms overnight strikes
Later Saturday, the Russian Defence Ministry confirmed its forces carried out strikes using high-precision long-range weapons and drones on military targets in Ukraine overnight.
“The objective of the strikes has been achieved. All designated targets have been hit,” the ministry said.
The Defence Ministry said its forces shot down 36 Ukrainian drones over the country’s south and west, including near the capital.
Four Ukrainian unmanned boats have also been destroyed in the Black Sea, Russian news agencies reported, citing the
ministry.
However, there was no comment from Moscow on the reports of casualties in Kharkiv.
Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said the strikes damaged 18 apartment buildings and 13 private homes. Terekhov called it “the most powerful attack” on the city since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began.
Twice a year, a volunteer team of medical staff travels to western Ukraine to treat soldiers and civilians with severe facial injuries from the war. Radio-Canada’s Raphaël Bouvier-Auclair visited the Canadian organization’s clinic to see the life-changing transformations.
Kharkiv’s regional governor, Oleh Syniehubov, said two districts in the city were struck with three missiles, five aerial glide bombs and 48 drones. Among the injured were a baby boy and a 14-year-old girl, he added.
In the Dnipropetrovsk province further south, two women ages 45 and 88 were injured, according to local Gov. Serhii Lysak.
Russian shelling also killed a couple in their 50s in the southern city of Kherson, close to the front lines, local Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin reported in a Facebook post.
U.S. President Donald Trump said this week that Russian President Vladimir Putin told him Moscow would respond to Ukraine’s attack last Sunday on Russian military airfields.
Trump also said that it might be better to let Ukraine and Russia “fight for a while” before pulling them apart and pursuing peace.
His comments appeared to be a detour from his often-stated appeals to stop the war and signalled he may be giving up on recent peace efforts.
Prisoner swap called into question
Also on Saturday, Russia and Ukraine each accused the other of endangering plans to swap 6,000 bodies of soldiers killed in action, agreed upon during direct talks in Istanbul on Monday that otherwise made no progress in ending the war.
Vladimir Medinsky, a Putin aide who led the Russian delegation, said Kyiv called a last-minute halt to an imminent swap.
In a Telegram post, Medinsky said refrigerated trucks carrying more than 1,200 bodies of Ukrainian troops from Russia had already reached the agreed exchange site at the border when the news came.
In response, Ukraine said Russia was playing “dirty games” and manipulating facts.
According to the main Ukrainian authority dealing with such swaps, no date had been set for repatriating the bodies. In a statement Saturday, the agency also accused Russia of submitting lists of prisoners of war for repatriation that didn’t correspond to agreements reached on Monday.
Reconciling the conflicting claims wasn’t immediately possible.
Monday’s talks unfolded a day after a string of long-range attacks by both sides, with Ukraine launching a drone assault on Russian airbases and Moscow launching its largest drone attack of the war against Ukraine.
A previous round of negotiations in Istanbul, the first time Russian and Ukrainian negotiators sat at the same table since the early weeks of the full-scale invasion, led to 1,000 prisoners on both sides being exchanged.
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