Russia unleashed one of its most intense assaults on Ukraine since the war began, killing at least five people and injuring dozens in a wave of drone and missile strikes that hammered cities across the country.
The overnight barrage, described as “unprecedented" by local officials, targeted residential areas, infrastructure, and key urban centers, including Kharkiv, Kherson and Lutsk. Ukraine’s air force reported that Moscow launched 206 drones and nine missiles in a single night.
In Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said the attack was the most powerful since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. Explosions ripped through apartment buildings, killing three people and injuring 17, including two children.
Further south, Russian shelling in Kherson killed a couple and damaged multiple high-rise buildings, according to Governor Oleksandr Prokudin. A second fatality was confirmed in Lutsk, near Ukraine’s western border with Poland, where rescuers recovered the body of a woman in her 20s from the rubble.
The escalation comes amid stalled peace talks and ahead of a planned prisoner exchange- the only concrete outcome of negotiations held in Istanbul this week. Ukraine has proposed a 30-day truce, but Moscow has refused, reiterating its hardline demands, including Ukrainian troop withdrawals and a ban on NATO membership.
Russian officials described the war as “existential," and President Vladimir Putin has vowed retaliation for recent Ukrainian drone strikes that hit military airbases deep inside Russia.
