At least six killed and dozens were injured as Russia fired 800 drones at Ukraine on Wednesday despite recent talks of possible peace. This is one of the longest attacks by Moscow in the 4-year-old war, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
Drone attacks lasted for hours in Kyiv
The attack began in midmorning and lasted for hours in the capital of Kyiv, the western city of Lviv near Poland, and the port of Odesa on the Black Sea, among other population centres, Zelanskyy said on the Telegram messaging app.
“Our soldiers are defending Ukraine, but Russia’s obvious goal is to overload air defences,” Zelenskyy said, as the bombardment stretched into the late afternoon. He cautioned that a cruise and ballistic missile attack could follow the drone barrage.
It wasย massive Russian attacks against Ukraine: Zelenskyyย
It was “one of the longest, massive Russian attacks against Ukraine,” he said on social media. It also rattled neighbours. Hungarian Prime Minister Pรฉter Magyar said his new government has summoned the Russian ambassador over a drone attack near Hungary’s border, in a significant shift from his predecessor Viktor Orbรกn’s friendly relations with Moscow.
“The Hungarian government strongly condemns the Russian attack on Transcarpathia,” Magyar told journalists, adding that Foreign Minister Anita Orbรกn will speak with the ambassador Thursday morning.
The foreign minister will ask “when Russia and Vladimir Putin plan to finally end this bloody war,” Magyar added. “Thank you for your compassion and strong position!” Zelenskyy said on X after Magyar’s comments.
Three people killed in Rivne region
Drone debris fell in an open area in Kyiv’s Obolonskyi district with no casualties, city officials said, as air defense systems engaged Russian drones over the capital. Mayor Vitali Klitschko said emergency services responded to the scene. Explosions were heard across the city earlier Wednesday.
Three people were killed in a drone attack in the Rivne region west of Kyiv, according to Oleksandr Koval, head of the regional military administration. Moscow’s attacks are unrelenting, even as Ukraine is emboldened by its recent military accomplishments and as U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin said – without providing evidence – that the war could be approaching an end.
On Tuesday, Zelenskyy said, 14 Ukrainian regions came under attack, followed by overnight strikes on Ukraine’s residential, energy and railway infrastructure. “It is important to support Ukraine and not remain silent about Russia’s war. Every time the war disappears from the top of the news, it encourages Russia to become even more savage,” Zelenskyy said, apparently referring to the world’s attention being focused on the Iran war.
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