Three killed and over 50 injured in latest Russian drone strikes on Ukraine

Three people were killed and over 50 more were injured as Russian drone attacks on cities across Ukraine continued from Sunday night into Monday morning, local authorities have said.

According to the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, two people were killed and two more were injured after a Russian drone strike caused two residential buildings to catch fire and damaged around 20 others near the village of Bytytsia in the eastern Sumy region.

One person was also killed in the southern port city of Odesa after a drone strike caused a fire at a security post near a residential building under construction, Odesa Governor Oleh Kiper said.

At least 29 people, including four children, were injured as Russia struck Ukraine’s second city, Kharkiv, with four drones overnight, Mayor Oleh Syniehubov said, with 11 more wounded in a separate attack on Monday morning.

Ivan Fedorov, governor of the Zaporizhzhia region in central Ukraine, said that Russia had launched six drone strikes on the city of Zaporizhzhia on Monday morning, wounding at least 10 people, while overnight strikes on the neighbouring Dnipropetrovsk region injured at least five.

Nighttime drone strikes also caused damage in Kyiv and Kherson, the State Emergency Service of Ukraine said.

Ukraine’s Air Force said Russia launched four missiles and 101 drones at Ukraine between 9:30pm on Sunday and 9:30am on Monday, with 58 drones intercepted and a further 17 failing to reach their targets, with air raid warnings subsequently continuing into Monday morning.

Writing on X after the attacks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said rescue operations had been ongoing all night and throughout Monday, and that Russia had launched a total of around 1,270 drones, 39 missiles and almost 1,000 guided bombs at Ukraine over the past week.

“We are strongly counting on our partners to fully deliver on what we have agreed. Air defence remains the top priority for protecting lives”, Zelensky said.