Russia and Ukraine exchange fresh drone strikes after Zelensky agrees to partial ceasefire

Russia and Ukraine exchanged fresh drone strikes on Wednesday night, just hours after a phone call between US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in which Zelensky agreed to a 30-day moratorium on energy infrastructure attacks.

The Russian military launched at least 21 drones at the central Ukrainian city of Kropyvnytskyi overnight, Kirovohrad region Governor Andriy Raykovych told Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne, adding that the attack was the largest on the city in the war to date.

Ten people, including four children, were injured, according to the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, while Ukrainian Railways reported damage to railway infrastructure in the surrounding Kirovohrad region.

The Ukrainian Air Force said on Thursday that it had downed 75 of a total 171 Russian drones launched at 12 regions of Ukraine overnight, with a further 63 failing to reach their targets.

One person was killed and another injured in the Donetsk region city of Kostyantynivka on Thursday morning after a Russian rocket struck a warehouse and caused a serious fire to break out, the State Emergency Service of Ukraine reported, adding that the blaze was ultimately extinguished.

Meanwhile, Russia’s Defence Ministry said that its air defences had intercepted a total of 132 Ukrainian drones launched at six regions of Russia, as well as Russian-occupied Crimea.

The authorities in Russia’s Saratov region, where the Defence Ministry said it had downed 54 drones, reported the largest Ukrainian attack of the war so far on the cities of Saratov and Engels, which lie across from each other on the Volga River.

Saratov Governor Roman Busargin said that local residents were being evacuated following a strike on the Engels air base, which is home to the Russian Air Force’s fleet of Tupolev Tu-160 and Tu-95MS strategic bombers, which have been used extensively to strike targets in Ukraine.

The strikes came just hours after Zelensky and Trump attempted to move past their bad-tempered exchange in front of reporters in the Oval Office last month with a phone call that the Ukrainian president described afterwards as “positive, very substantive, and frank”.

“We believe that together with America, with President Trump, and under American leadership, lasting peace can be achieved this year”, Zelensky wrote on X, adding that, as well as agreeing to a halt in energy infrastructure attacks, Ukraine also supported a US-proposed “unconditional ceasefire on the frontline”.

In a statement issued after the call, the White House said that Zelensky and Trump had discussed the prospect of “American ownership” of Ukrainian nuclear power plants, which it described as being the “best protection” for Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.