Russia has launched the largest barrage of drones and missiles into Ukraine this year, killing more than a dozen people and wounding more than 100 across the country, Ukrainian authorities said Thursday.
Russian airstrikes damaged buildings and caused fires, killing at least 16 people, including children, and injuring 118 others across the country, local authorities and Ukraine’s National Emergency Services Agency said.
According to Ukraine’s air force, Russia launched 659 drones and 44 missiles in the 24 hours ending Thursday morning in a wave of attacks on major cities including the capital Kiev, Kharkiv, Odessa, Dnipro and Zaporizhzhia.
“Over the past day and night, Russia carried out large-scale terrorist attacks against Ukraine using approximately 700 drones and dozens of ballistic and cruise missiles. The attacks mainly targeted civilians,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sibikha said in a post on Thursday.
Four people were killed in Kiev, including the body of a 12-year-old boy, whose body was found in the rubble of a destroyed building, the State Emergency Service said. It added that at least 48 people were injured.
The CEO of a construction company in Kiev said the strike came so close that the apartment complex “virtually exploded right next to the construction site,” injuring six workers, including two who were in critical condition and undergoing surgery.
At least eight people were killed in Odesa, and a video posted by the state Office of Emergency Services showed response teams carrying one injured person on a stretcher as the building was engulfed by fire. All of the deaths occurred in the same house, with one person killed first by a drone attack, and then a ballistic missile attack that killed more people.
The director of the Odesa State Conservatory, the city’s higher education music school, said one of the dormitory halls was badly damaged.
“At midnight, all students were evacuated to the academy grounds. Unfortunately, five students were injured and are being treated at a city hospital,” she wrote on Facebook, along with an image of a damaged bedroom littered with debris and broken glass.
Three people were killed and 34 injured in the attack in Dnipropetrovsk in central Ukraine, and at least one person was also killed in Zaporizhia in southeastern Ukraine, local authorities and the State Emergency Service said.
“Such attacks cannot be allowed to become the norm. They are war crimes and must be stopped, and the perpetrators must be held accountable,” Sibiha said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the attacks had left people dead in Odessa, Kiev and Dnipro, and accused Russia of “betting on war.”
“It was once again proven overnight that Russia does not deserve global policy relaxation or sanctions relief.”
President Zelenskiy visited Rome this week and met with Italian leaders. In a statement published in X, Zelenskiy said he briefed Italian President Sergio Mattarella on security cooperation agreements that Ukraine has signed with regional countries and discussed defense cooperation with Italian Defense Minister Guido Crozet.
The attack followed a brief truce with Ukraine, which last week declared a 32-hour ceasefire to coincide with Russian Orthodox Easter, following an offer from President Zelenskiy to suspend fighting.
