Kyiv and Moscow have stepped up their aerial attacks as US pushes the warring parties to agree on a ceasefire.
A Russian drone attack has killed at least four people and wounded 21 in the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro, damaging high-rise buildings and triggering fires in a hotel and homes, the regional governor said, as Moscow claims to have made gains on the ground elsewhere.
Late Friday, Russia sent “more than two dozen drones” to Dnipro, the governor of the surrounding Dnipropetrovsk region, Sergiy Lysak, wrote on his official Telegram account on Saturday.
“The massive attack caused large-scale destruction and fires. A hotel and restaurant complex, 11 private houses, garages, and a service station were on fire,” he said, adding that high-rises and cars were also damaged.
Pictures and videos posted online showed flames and large plumes of smoke wafting skyward. Others showed the shattered interior of a building, the badly damaged upper floors of a high-rise apartment block and streets strewn with smashed glass and building materials.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy noted that Russia had launched more than 170 drones into Ukraine overnight, striking targets in the Dnipropetrovsk, Kyiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, and Khmelnytskyi regions.
Russia claims gains on the ground
On Saturday, Russian forces said they had captured the settlement of Panteleimonivka in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region and Scherbaky in Ukraine’s Zaporizhia region, areas already under partial Russian occupation, according to the Interfax news agency, which cited the Russian Ministry of Defence. Russian forces also captured the settlement of Veselivka in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region, according to the Russian state-run TASS.
In the meantime, Russia’s Defence Ministry accused Ukraine of attacking its energy facilities in the past 24 hours. The ministry said Ukraine attacked power grids in the Belgorod region several times, leaving about 9,000 residents without a power supply.
Both Russia and Ukraine have stepped up their aerial attacks as US President Donald Trump pushes both countries to agree to a ceasefire after more than three years of ruinous war.
Moscow is preparing to launch a new military offensive in the coming spring to maximise the pressure on Kyiv and strengthen the Kremlin’s negotiating position in ceasefire talks, Ukrainian government and military analysts have said.
On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin called for a “transitional administration” to be put in place in Ukraine and promised his army would “finish off” Ukrainian troops.
Zelenskyy dismissed Putin’s call for a UN-run administration as the Russian leader’s latest ploy to delay a peace deal.
“Russia is making a mockery of peacekeeping efforts around the world. It is dragging out the war and sowing terror because it still feels no real pressure,” he said.
The United States, however, is continuing to try to negotiate a ceasefire in the Black Sea and end strikes targeting energy infrastructure in both nations.
While both have agreed to these truces in principle, their implementation remains unclear, and Russia and Ukraine continue to trade accusations that the other is seeking to derail them.