Russian forces have pounded the southeastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro in waves of attacks with drones and missiles that also hit other regions, killing 10 people and injuring dozens.
Dnipro was subjected to three separate attacks overnight on and during the day on Saturday.
Regional Governor Oleksandr Hanzha said eight people were killed and 49 injured in the city, a repeated target in more than four years of war with Russia.
In the initial overnight strike, a large chunk of an apartment building collapsed after being hit. Four bodies were recovered, Hanzha said.
The site was struck again during the day while rescuers were working. The second attack killed one person and injured seven.
Eight more were injured in a subsequent attack on Saturday evening. All were being treated in hospital, Hanzha said.
“For more than 20 frightening hours, the Russians attacked Dnipro in waves,” Hanzha wrote on Telegram.
“They hit with missiles and drones. They hit deliberately. They hit residential areas.”
Ukraine’s air force said Russian forces deployed 619 drones and 47 missiles overnight, adding that it downed 580 drones and 30 missiles.
Moscow has been launching smaller barrages of dozens of drones nightly at Ukraine, interspersing them with occasional large-scale attacks.
Thick columns of black smoke streamed into the sky on Saturday morning, as local media warned of poor air quality.
A Reuters reporter saw a Russian drone being destroyed in the sky over the ruined apartment block as rescuers worked in the rubble.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said it had hit military-industrial and energy targets overnight. It did not comment on the apartment block strike in Dnipro.
“Russia is deliberately prolonging its terror against our people, continuing to target critical infrastructure and residential buildings,” Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said.
At the destroyed apartment block in Dnipro, residents were stricken with grief and rage.
“May their children sleep in their warm beds in Russia, and may everything be all right for them. Let them watch as Russia ‘liberates’ us of our apartments and houses,” said 37-year-old Aliona Katrushova, who lives in the building opposite.
She looked on in her dressing gown as survivors were hauled out from the rubble. Saturday is her husband Oleh’s birthday.
“It’s like being given a second life,” he said after surviving the attack, although the couple’s apartment was damaged.
In the northern region of Chernihiv, missile and drone attacks killed two and wounded seven, the governor there said.
“Every strike like this must remind our partners that the situation needs immediate and firm action, rapid strengthening of our air defences,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said.
Drone fragments damaged an electricity pole and household annex in NATO member Romania, which borders Ukraine, authorities there said. There were no casualties. Ukraine has stepped up drone attacks on Russian territory. Officials in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg said a Ukrainian drone struck an apartment building, causing minor injuries.
The Russia-appointed governor in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian region of Luhansk said a Ukrainian drone attack had killed three residents of a village.
The Ukrainian leader was visiting Azerbaijan on Saturday to sign agreements on defence and energy co-operation. Kyiv is seeking to strengthen its diplomatic and security alliances by leveraging experience in countering aerial attacks.
Zelenskiy posted a picture of his meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, and said he also met a Ukrainian military team.
Azerbaijan has a long border with Iran, with which it has tense relations. Azerbaijan has also fought multiple wars with its other neighbour Armenia since 1991. Since the US and Israel attacked Iran in February, triggering a war in the Middle East, Kyiv has worked to build security co-operation with Middle Eastern nations concerned about Iranian drone and missile bombardment.
