Three people are dead following a Russian drone strike in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region, local officials confirmed Saturday, as Romania shot down a drone over its airspace for the second time in two days.
Sumy regional head Oleh Hryhorov reported that the drone hit a “civilian facility,” triggering a large fire. He identified the victims as drivers employed by Nova Poshta, a private Ukrainian postal and courier service.
In southeastern Ukraine, a separate Russian drone attack struck a shopping center in Zaporizhzhia late Friday night, igniting a fire that burned across a 500-square-meter area and left several people injured, according to regional head Ivan Fedorov.
The violence comes after a major Russian strike Friday on a location near Kyiv hosting a defense industry event left at least 10 people dead and nearly 100 others wounded.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy used his Friday evening address to warn that intelligence reports suggested Russia was readying missiles for a large-scale attack on Ukraine, with signs pointing to a possible strike within the next 48 hours.
On the NATO front, Romania’s defense ministry announced Saturday that its forces “safely shot down” a drone that had entered its airspace over an “unpopulated area” near the Ukrainian border. Romanian President Nicușor Dan wrote on Facebook that the drone was “shot down by a Romanian pilot from an F-16 aircraft.”
That interception followed a similar incident Friday, when a drone was brought down near Padina, a community northeast of the Romanian capital, Bucharest.
Drone incursions originating from both Russia and Ukraine have repeatedly violated the airspace of Romania and other NATO member nations since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
In June, a Ukrainian maritime drone involved in wartime operations detonated at the Black Sea port of Constanta, with three additional sea drones exploding just outside the port — though no injuries were reported. A month before that, a Russian drone that strayed during an attack on Ukraine struck an apartment building in eastern Romania, injuring two residents.
