Russian officials say at least five people were killed in Ukrainian strikes on Kursk with the Defence Ministry saying six Ukrainian drones had been shot down overnight over four regions, including the Crimean Peninsula which Moscow annexed in 2014.
At least 11 people have been killed in Russian attacks across eastern Ukraine on Saturday, while rescuers in the city of Dnipro dug through rubble after a strike ripped through a nine-story residential building, leaving one person dead.
The attacks came as Russia continues to stretch Ukraine’s troops in several areas along the 1,000-kilometre frontline.
Moscow has stepped up airstrikes in a bid to drain Ukraine’s resources, often targeting energy facilities and other vital infrastructure.
In a post on X, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said seven people had been killed in missile strikes on the town of Vilniansk, outside the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia.
“Our cities and communities suffer from such Russian strikes every day,” Zelenskyy posted.
“But there are ways to overcome this – by destroying the terrorists where they are, eliminating Russian missile launchers, hitting them with long-range weapons and increasing the number of modern air defence systems in Ukraine. I thank all our partners who are helping us.”
Zelenskyy repeated his appeal to allies to provide Ukraine with more long-range weapons and enhanced air defences to stop what he said were daily attacks on his country.
“Today the enemy carried out yet another dreadful terrorist act against the civilian population,” Zaporizhzhia Regional Governor Ivan Fedorov said in a video posted on the Telegram messaging app.
The attack occurred in “the middle of the day, a non-working day, in the town centre, where people were out relaxing, where there were no military targets,” he said.
Meanwhile, the governor of the frontline village of Niu-York in Donetsk said Russian forces had shelled populated areas 13 times in the past 24 hours.
The Ukrainian air force said on Saturday that it had downed 10 Russian drones launched in overnight attacks.
“This is why we constantly remind all of our partners: only a sufficient amount of high-quality air defence systems, only a sufficient amount of determination from the world at large can stop Russian terror,” Zelenskyy said.
Ukrainian strikes on Russia
Russian officials reported Ukrainian attacks in the Kursk region which killed five people. Two children were among the victims of the attack in the village of Gorodishche on the Russian-Ukrainian border, Governor Alexey Smirnov said on social media.
In its morning statement, the Russian Defence Ministry said that six Ukrainian drones had been shot down overnight over the country’s Tver, Bryansk and Belgorod regions, as well as over the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
The Ukrainian government also responded on Saturday to a statement from the Belarusian military saying it had increased its forces along Ukraine’s northern border in response to what it described as security threats.
The announcement came after the Belarus’ border agency claimed its troops downed a Ukrainian drone that had flown across the border to gather intelligence.
Kyiv dismissed the accusations, describing them as Russian propaganda.