Reports indicate that a significant nighttime assault by Russia on Ukraine resulted in the deaths of at least five civilians. The attack, which involved drones, missiles, and guided aerial bombs, specifically targeted civilian infrastructure, according to Ukrainian officials.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy revealed that more than 50 ballistic missiles and approximately 500 drones were dispatched by Moscow, striking nine regions in Ukraine during the overnight attack into Sunday.
In Lviv, four individuals, including a 15-year-old, lost their lives in a coordinated drone and missile strike, as confirmed by regional officials and Ukraine’s emergency service. Lviv, a historic city in western Ukraine known for its relative safety from conflict, saw six additional injuries from the attack, as reported by Ukraine’s police force.
The strike in Lviv left two districts without power and led to a temporary halt in public transport early Sunday, according to Mayor Andriy Sadovyi. He mentioned that a business complex on the city’s outskirts, described as a civilian facility unrelated to Ukraine’s military operations, caught fire after the strike.
Further south in the Ivano-Frankivsk region, one person sustained injuries as a result of the assault, as reported by local Governor Svitlana Onyshchuk.
In Zaporizhzhia, a city in southern Ukraine, a civilian woman was killed and nine others, including a 16-year-old girl, were wounded in a nighttime aerial attack. Regional Governor Ivan Fedorov stated that the assault involved drones and guided aerial bombs, causing destruction to residential buildings and leaving approximately 73,000 households without power in Zaporizhzhia and its vicinity.
Separately, in Sloviansk, a city in the eastern Donetsk region under Ukrainian control, six individuals, including a child, were injured when a Russian guided aerial bomb hit an apartment block. Regional prosecutors reported that over two dozen residential buildings, as well as vehicles, shops, and a café, were damaged by Russian airstrikes on Saturday evening.
In a renewed plea for assistance, President Zelenskyy urged Western allies to provide additional air defense systems to counter Russia’s aerial attacks, labeling them as “aerial terror.”
Zelenskyy emphasized the targeting of vital infrastructure by Russian forces, disrupting the normal lives of Ukrainian citizens. He stressed the urgency of implementing defense agreements, particularly in air defense, to render such aerial assaults ineffective.
Ukraine’s retaliatory actions against Russia have included long-range strikes focusing on Moscow’s oil infrastructure, contributing to ongoing fuel shortages.