A Russian drone has slammed into a tower block in eastern Ukraine while many were sleeping, killing three people and injuring 12 others, Ukrainian authorities reported.
The attack in Dnipro, Ukraine’s fourth largest city, was part of a large Russian missile and drone barrage across the country that targeted power infrastructure and also killed a worker at an energy company in Kharkiv, further north, a local official said.
Meanwhile, in eastern Ukraine, fighting for the strategic city of Pokrovsk has reached a key stage, with both Kyiv and Moscow vying to persuade US President Donald Trump that they can win on the battlefield.
A fire broke out and several apartments were destroyed in the nine-storey building in Dnipro, the emergency services said. Rescuers recovered the bodies of three people, while two children were among the injured.
Russia fired a total of 458 drones and 45 missiles, including 32 ballistic missiles. Ukrainian forces shot down and neutralised 406 drones and nine missiles, the air force said, adding that 25 locations were struck.
Firefighters evacuate a resident following the Russian rocket attack that hit a multi-storey apartment building in Dnipro (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
Authorities switched off power in several regions due to the attacks, Ukrainian energy minister Svitlana Grynchuk said in a post on Facebook.
Russia has been pummelling Ukraine with near-daily drone and missile strikes, killing and injuring civilians.
The Kremlin claims its only targets are linked to Kyiv’s war effort. Russia’s Defence Ministry asserted on Saturday that the night-time strikes hit military and energy sites supplying Ukrainian forces.
Moscow and Kyiv have traded almost daily assaults on each other’s energy targets as US-led diplomatic efforts to stop the nearly four-year war had no impact on the battlefield.
Ukraine’s long-range drone strikes on Russian refineries aim to deprive Moscow of the oil export revenue it needs to pursue the war.
Russia wants to cripple the Ukrainian power grid and deny civilians access to heat, light and running water in what Kyiv officials say is an attempt to “weaponise winter”.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said in a post on X that the strikes damaged “several major energy facilities” around Kharkiv and Kyiv, as well as in the central region of Poltava. An energy company worker was killed in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city, regional head Oleh Syniehubov said in a post on Telegram.
“We are working to eliminate the consequences of the attacks across the country. The focus is on the rapid restoration of heating, electricity and water supply,” Ms Svyrydenko added.
Russian forces, meanwhile, repelled a “massive” night-time strike on energy facilities in the southern region of Volgograd its governor, Andrei Bocharov, said on Saturday, two days after Ukraine claimed to have hit a key oil refinery there with long-range drones.
Mr Bocharov added that the strike knocked out power in parts of the region’s north-west, but caused no casualties. There was no immediate comment from Kyiv.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Saturday that its forces shot down 82 Ukrainian drones during the night, including eight over the Volgograd region. Two people were injured in the neighbouring Saratov region after a Ukrainian drone strike blew out windows in an apartment block, according to regional governor Roman Busarin.
Following weeks of long-range strikes on Russia’s energy infrastructure that Ukraine says both funds and directly fuels the Kremlin’s war, President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed on Friday to “find a way to ensure there is no Russian oil in Europe”.
Mr Zelensky spoke to reporters shortly after Hungary secured an exemption from recent US sanctions targeting major Russian oil producers.
“We will not allow it. We will not let the Russians sell oil there. It’s a matter of time,” he said at a news briefing after meeting senior Ukrainian military leaders, without elaborating how Kyiv might seek to halt the oil flows.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a Trump ally who has long urged the EU to repair ties with Moscow, argues that landlocked Hungary has no viable alternatives to Russian crude, and that replacing those supplies would trigger an economic collapse. Critics dispute that claim.
The Trump administration unveiled sanctions against Russia’s major state-affiliated oil firms Rosneft and Lukoil last month, a move that could expose their foreign buyers — including customers in central Europe, India and China — to secondary sanctions.
Volodymyr Zelensky has vowed to ‘find a way to ensure there is no Russian oil in Europe’ (PA)
While most European Union member states sharply reduced or halted imports of Russian fossil fuels after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24 2022, Hungary and Slovakia have maintained their pipeline deliveries. Hungary has even increased the share of Russian oil in its energy mix.
The city of Pokrovsk sits along the eastern front line, part of what has been dubbed the “fortress belt” of Donetsk, a line of heavily fortified cities crucial to Ukraine’s defence of the region. It could also be a key point in influencing Washington’s stance and sway the course of peace negotiations, analysts say.
Russian President Vladimir Putin claims his forces are on the cusp of winning. As a prerequisite for peace, he demands that Ukraine cede the Donbas, made up of Donetsk and neighbouring Luhansk.
Russian troops advanced near Pokrovsk and the nearby town of Myrnohrad, the Russian Defence Ministry said on Saturday, claiming both were encircled. It also said Russian forces surrounded Ukrainian defenders in Kupiansk, a key railway hub in the north-eastern region of Kharkiv.
Kyiv did not immediately respond to Moscow’s claims, which could not be independently verified. Ukrainian officials have previously acknowledged that the situation in Pokrovsk is dire. But they said there was no blockade either there or in Kupiansk, and that fighting continued.