Nine killed in Russian and Ukrainian drone and missile attacks
Officials on both sides reported deaths in Ukraine, occupied Enerhodar and Russia’s Samara region after overnight strikes.
By Sofia Marchetti · World Affairs Correspondent
2 min read
Russian and Ukrainian attacks killed nine people overnight, officials on both sides said, as drone and missile strikes continued to hit cities, occupied territory and Russian regions. The deaths came as Ukraine’s air defences remain under strain and Western governments prepare further talks on military support for Kyiv.
Regional officials in Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region said Russian attacks killed three people overnight. Two of those deaths occurred at an “industrial enterprise” in Kryvyi Rih, the officials said.
In the southern city of Kherson, Mayor Yaroslav Shanko said a Russian drone attack killed a 48-year-old person. Ukrainian officials did not report further details on that strike in the accounts cited.
Al Jazeera, AFP and Reuters reported that Russia has increased attacks in recent weeks while Ukraine faces a critical shortage of munitions for its Patriot air defence system. That shortage has left Ukraine with limited ability to intercept ballistic missiles that travel at several times the speed of sound, according to their reporting.
NATO countries pledged at a summit in Ankara last week to provide more Patriot munitions to Ukraine, according to Al Jazeera, AFP and Reuters. President Donald Trump said he was willing to grant Kyiv a licence to produce the United States-made missiles inside Ukraine.
At least 25 heads of state in the “Coalition of the Willing” are expected to meet in Paris on Monday, according to Al Jazeera, AFP and Reuters. The meeting is due to focus on support for Ukraine and pressure on Russia to end the war.
Ukrainian strikes also killed people in territory held by Russia. Alexei Likhachev, head of the Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom, said Ukrainian attacks on Enerhodar killed four people and wounded four others.
Enerhodar is the town that hosts the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Russian forces took control of the town within weeks of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, according to Al Jazeera, AFP and Reuters.
In Russia, officials said a long-range Ukrainian drone strike killed a man in the Samara region. They did not provide additional details in the reported account.
The latest deaths add to a pattern of cross-border attacks that has widened beyond front-line areas. Ukrainian officials reported casualties from Russian strikes in Dnipropetrovsk and Kherson, while Russian and occupation authorities reported deaths in Enerhodar and Samara.
This story draws on original reporting from Al Jazeera.