Russia Launches Large-Scale Overnight Attack on Ukrainian Cities, Casualties Reported

Russia Ukraine war (Image credit: AP)

Just hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned of an impending major Russian strike, Moscow launched a large-scale overnight attack targeting multiple Ukrainian cities. The attack marks the latest in a series of intensifying cross-border drone strikes as Russia and Ukraine continue to trade blows in the more than four-year war.

In Dnipro, five fatalities were reported, and dozens of others were wounded, as per Reuters. In Kyiv, at least four were killed and 51 were injured. As cited by BBC, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko confirmed that two high-rise apartment buildings had been struck, and there are growing fears that people may still be trapped beneath the rubble. “Preliminary reports indicate that there are people trapped under the rubble,” Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv city military administration, wrote on Telegram.

In the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, an industrial facility was also attacked. No casualties have been reported there so far.

Ukrainian drone strike kills civilian in Russia's Kursk region

A Ukrainian drone strike also killed one person in Russia's Kursk region near the Ukrainian border, according to an AFP report. "Today in the village of Shchekino, Rylsky district, an enemy drone attacked a civilian vehicle," Kursk region Governor Alexander Khinshtein wrote on Telegram. "To our immense grief, a civilian has been killed."

Stalled peace efforts despite mounting casualties

The war in Ukraine has ground on for more than four years since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. Both sides have increasingly relied on unmanned aerial vehicles to target infrastructure, military positions, and, at times, civilian areas. Efforts to end the conflict, which has already claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and displaced millions more, remain stalled. Negotiations have ground to a halt despite mounting casualties on both sides, with no clear path to a ceasefire in sight.