KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – Russia and Ukraine engaged in intense strikes overnight into Saturday morning, resulting in the deaths of 10 individuals and injuring several dozen more, according to officials from both nations. This surge in violence occurred concurrently with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's visit to Istanbul for discussions with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as well as a meeting with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the leader of Eastern Orthodox Christians.
Upon his arrival in Istanbul, President Zelenskyy emphasized the importance of bolstering partnerships to enhance life protection, advance stability, and secure safety across Europe and the Middle East. He stated that, “Joint efforts always yield the best results,” in a post on the messaging app Telegram.
Throughout the night, Russia launched 286 drones towards Ukraine, of which the Ukrainian Air Force reported that 260 were intercepted successfully. The impact of these strikes was severe, with five fatalities—comprised of three women and two men—in the city of Nikopol, located in the Dnipropetrovsk region. In addition, 19 other individuals suffered injuries due to the damage inflicted on market stalls and a local shop, as reported by Oleksandr Hanzha, head of the regional military administration.
In the city of Sumy, near the Russian border, a strike resulted in 11 injuries, primarily affecting residential areas and damaging houses, vehicles, and utility networks, according to the National Police. Meanwhile, a drone strike in Kyiv ignited a fire on the first floor of a three-story office and warehouse building; fortunately, there were no casualties reported from this incident.
The conflict escalated further in the partially occupied Donetsk region, where a Russian drone strike targeted a civilian car on the Kostyantynivka-Druzhkivka road, leading to the death of one woman and injuring another, as conveyed by Serhiy Horbunov, the head of the Kostyantynivka City Military Administration.
The Russian Defense Ministry claimed responsibility for conducting strikes using “long-range air- and ground-based precision weapons, as well as strike drones,” targeting unspecified “military-industrial and energy facilities” linked to the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Conversely, Ukrainian forces were said to have damaged railroad infrastructure and private residences in the occupied Luhansk region, according to the Russian-installed head of the region, Leonid Pasechnik, who reported the deaths of a family of three, including an 8-year-old child.
Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) announced that it had undertaken drone strikes to disrupt operations at a metallurgical plant in Alchevsk, a city under Russian occupation in the Luhansk region. The SBU reported that these drone strikes caused significant damage to critical equipment, including blast furnaces, production workshops, gas pipelines, and electrical substations essential for the plant, which supplies Russia's state tank and railroad car manufacturer, Uralvagonzavod.
In response to the ongoing violence, the Russian Defense Ministry stated that its military successfully shot down 85 Ukrainian drones across various Russian regions, including Crimea and the Black Sea. In Russia's Rostov region near the Ukrainian border, one person was killed and four others injured due to an attack that sparked fires at a warehouse facility and on a foreign-flagged dry-cargo vessel situated several kilometers off the coast, as detailed by Governor Yuri Slyusar. Additionally, in Tolyatti, a city in the Samara region, one individual was reported wounded, and property damage occurred affecting residential structures.
