(NEW YORK) — Russia carried out a “massive” attack across Ukraine Friday night into Saturday morning, using more than 600 drones and missiles, according to the Ukrainian Air Force.
Russia confirmed Saturday that it had “launched a massive strike using long-range air- and ground-based precision weapons and attack drones against Ukrainian military-industrial complex enterprises developing the Sapsan tactical missile system, producing multipurpose strike and reconnaissance drones, robotic combat vehicles, interceptor UAVs, and loitering munitions.”
The Russian Ministry of Defense claimed that “the strike’s objectives were achieved” and “all designated targets were hit.”
However, Ukraine said their air defense systems repelled most of the projectiles, even though they confirmed at least three people were killed and dozens of others were injured, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The Russian strikes targeted Ukraine’s central city of Dnipro and the wider Dnipropetrovsk region, as well as the Mykolaiv, Chernihiv and Zaporizhzhia regions, and also communities in the Poltava, Kyiv, Odesa, Sumy, and Kharkiv regions, according to Zelenskyy.
“The enemy aimed at our infrastructure, residential areas, and civilian enterprises,” the Ukrainian president said in a post on X. “In Dnipro, a missile with cluster munitions directly struck an apartment building.”
“Every such strike is not a military necessity but a deliberate strategy by Russia to terrorize civilians and destroy our infrastructure,” he added. “That is why a strong international response is needed.”
Meanwhile, one month after his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska, U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposed in-person meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy has yet to come to fruition.
Russia has steadily intensified its long-range strikes on Ukraine. During one such strike last week, around two dozen Russian drones entered Poland — by far the largest-ever of Russian drones into NATO airspace. At least three of the drones were shot down by responding Polish and Dutch fighters.
NATO has responded by launching Operation Eastern Sentry, which it says will enhance its air defense posture all along the bloc’s eastern edge. Some allies are pushing for more action. Polish Foreign Minister Radoslav Sikorski, for example, has suggested that NATO should shoot down Russian drones operating over western Ukraine.
Ukrainian officials, meanwhile, are still pushing for the expanded sanctions and tariffs that Trump has repeatedly threatened to impose on Russia in response to Moscow’s refusal to accept a ceasefire or peace deal.
“And if the world does not deliver a truly tangible response to Russia’s prolonging of the war, if sanctions and tariffs are postponed, if the Russian army can already launch drones with impunity even against Poland — Putin will continue to see it as permission to wage war,” Zelenskyy said.
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