Ukrainian authorities reported Saturday that overnight drone attacks by Russian forces resulted in five civilian deaths and left 30 people wounded across the country.
The assault took place while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was en route to Istanbul for diplomatic discussions with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Zelenskyy is also scheduled to meet with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, who serves as the spiritual head of Eastern Orthodox Christians worldwide.
Ukrainian Air Force officials stated that Russia launched 286 drones during the overnight operation, with Ukrainian defense systems successfully intercepting 260 of them.
The deadliest strike occurred in Nikopol, located in the Dnipropetrovsk region, where three women and two men lost their lives, according to regional military administration leader Oleksandr Hanzha. The same attack wounded 19 additional people, including a 14-year-old girl, and caused damage to local market stalls and a retail shop.
Near the Russian border in Sumy, another strike left 11 people injured, including a 15-year-old victim, the National Police reported. The attack targeted residential neighborhoods, causing damage to homes, vehicles, and utility infrastructure.
In Ukraine’s capital city, a drone impact ignited a fire on the ground floor of a three-story building that houses offices and warehouse space, according to the State Emergency Service. Officials reported no casualties from the Kyiv incident.
Russian Defense Ministry officials claimed Saturday that their military targeted what they described as “military-industrial and energy facilities used by the Ukrainian Armed Forces” using “long-range air- and ground-based precision weapons, as well as strike drones.”
The ministry also reported that Russian air defense systems destroyed 85 Ukrainian drones overnight across nine Russian regions, the annexed Crimea territory, and over the Black Sea.
In Russia’s border region of Rostov, regional governor Yuri Slyusar confirmed one fatality and four injuries from Ukrainian attacks. The strikes ignited fires at a logistics company warehouse and aboard a foreign-flagged cargo ship positioned several kilometers offshore, Slyusar reported.
The Samara region’s Tolyatti city saw one person wounded and damage to an apartment building’s roof, with multiple units suffering broken windows, according to Governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev.
