At least four people were killed and 10 others injured after Russia launched a series of overnight attacks on Ukraine, officials said Friday.
In the Sumy region, near the border with Russia, two women, an elderly man and a girl under the age of 2 were killed when a Russian drone hitting a house, authorities said.
Seven people were also injured after a Russian missile strike in the city of Kryvyi Rih, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s hometown.
Day of mourning in Kyiv
The overnight strikes came as the Ukrainian capital Kyiv was set to hold a day of mourning on Friday, a day after Russian attacks killed at least 30 people .
Thursday’s attacks, the deadliest on the capital this year, also injured more than 90 people, the head of Kyiv’s military administration Tymur Tkachenko said, adding that the number of casualties was likely to rise as rescue efforts continued on Friday.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko described it as the “enemy’s most massive attack on the capital.”
The Ukrainian Red Cross said its humanitarian warehouse had also been damaged by the Russian attacks, with 320,000 relief items being destroyed.
The damage will affect “emergency response and humanitarian operations across Ukraine,” the organization said on its X account.
More lives could have been saved, Zelenskyy says
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy cut a visit to Ireland short in the wake of Thursday’s attacks.
In a video on his X account, he said Ukraine’s allies should have delivered air defenses to his country, as promised.
“If our partners had delivered on their promises in a timely manner, I think we could have saved more homes and lives today,” Zelenskyy said.
According to Ukraine’s Air Force spokesperson Yuri Ihnat, Russia launched 74 missiles and 496 drones at Ukraine overnight.
Moscow’s defense ministry said its “massive attack” hit military and energy facilities, with the attacks a retaliation for Ukrainian drone strikes on Russia. President Vladimir Putinwas also briefed on the attacks, the Kremlin said.
EU mulls more sanctions on Russia
The EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, has said she would propose new sanctions on “entities supporting Russia’s military-industrial complex” in response to the strikes.
“The more Moscow attacks civilians, the more sanctions must be imposed,” she posted on her X account on Thursday.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres also condemned the attacks, describing them as a “deadly pattern” of Moscow hitting populated areas.
Russia’s full-scale war on Ukraine is in its fifth year, with US-led mediation efforts bringing little progress towards a cessation of hostilities so far.
The Ukrainian president is set to attend next week’s NATO summit, where he hopes to meet US President Donald Trump.
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Edited by: Karl Sexton
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