Ukraine says hit by record barrage

AFP | Kyiv

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Russia fired more than 620 drones and long-range missiles overnight, killing at least six people in the latest wave of strikes, Ukraine said yesterday, calling for fresh sanctions on Moscow to halt its record barrages.

Moscow has stepped up aerial strikes over recent months and US-led ceasefire talks aimed at pausing the over three-year war have stalled.

“Twenty-six cruise missiles and 597 attack drones were launched, of which more than half were ‘Shaheds’,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said, referring to Iranian-made drones.

The Ukrainian air force said it had downed 319 Shahed drones and 25 missiles, adding that one missile and about 20 drones hit “five locations”.

Zelensky said the strikes had killed at least two people and wounded 20 in the southwestern Chernivtsi region, far from the front lines of the east and south.

Twelve people were wounded in Lviv, also in the west.

In the east, two people died in Dnipropetrovsk and three were wounded in Kharkiv, local authorities said. Russia also “dropped two guided aerial bombs on the homes of civilians” in the northeastern Sumy region killing two, local prosecutor’s office said.

“As a result of the enemy attack, a 65-year-old man and his wife were killed. Fourteen residential buildings were destroyed and damaged,” it added.

The Russian defence ministry said it had targeted companies in Ukraine’s military-industrial complex in Lviv, Kharkiv and Lutsk and a military aerodrome.

US special envoy Keith Kellogg is due on Monday to begin his latest visit to Ukraine as a Washington-led peace effort flounders.

US President Donald Trump also said he would make a “major statement... on Russia” on Monday.

On Friday, the Kremlin restated its opposition to a European peacekeeping force in Ukraine, after French President Emmanuel Macron said Kyiv’s allies had a plan “ready to go... in the hours after a ceasefire”.

Trump called Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin last week but said afterwards there had been no progress towards ending the war.

The Kremlin said Putin would not give up on Russia’s war goals but would nonetheless continue to take part in negotiations.

Moscow says its aim in Ukraine is to get rid of the “root causes” of the conflict and has demanded that Kyiv give up its NATO ambitions.

In Russia’s Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, a drone “hit the Belgorod Arena sports centre, where classes were taking place,” regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said yesterday, adding there were no casualties.