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Five people have been killed in Ukraine and Russia as both countries launched a wave of overnight drone and missile attacks.
In Ukraine’s Dnipro region, three people died in Russian shelling, while two were killed in Russia’s Rostov region after a Ukrainian drone strike.
Ukrainian officials said Russia launched 235 drones and 27 missiles in a “massive combined attack” overnight.
Ten missiles and 25 drones found their targets, striking nine locations, while air defences shot down or intercepted the rest, according to Ukraine’s Air Force.
“A terrible night. A massive combined attack on the region,” Serhiy Lysak, the governor of Dnipropetrovsk region, wrote on Telegram.
An additional six people were injured, he said, posting photos of smashed buildings, burnt-out cars and firefighters battling blazes.
In Dnipro city, a multi-storey building and a business were damaged, and a fire engulfed a shopping centre outside the city.
Ukraine’s southern Dnipro and northeastern Sumy regions also came under heavy rocket and drone attack.
Officials in Sumy reported three people injured after Russian drones hit a central square and damaged the regional administration building.
Kharkiv also sustained intense bombardment.
Ukraine’s emergency services said six people were hurt, including four rescuers injured in a so-called “double tap” strike, where a second attack follows the first to target emergency workers.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed that Russia would feel the consequences.
Russian military enterprises, Russian logistics, Russian airports must feel that the Russian war has real consequences for them,” he said.
“There can be absolutely no silence in response to such strikes, and Ukrainian long-range drones ensure this.”
Ukraine’s attacks on Russia have also intensified in recent months.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said its air defences intercepted 54 Ukrainian drones overnight, including 24 over the Bryansk region and 12 over Rostov.
Officials in Moscow and other areas also reported drone attacks, though most were shot down.
In Russia’s Rostov region, which borders Ukraine, acting governor Yuri Slyusar said a Ukrainian drone attack killed two people.
Drones also struck an industrial facility in the neighbouring Stavropol region, sparking a brief fire, according to governor Vladimir Vladimirov.
Officials also reported drone attacks on Moscow and the Penza region southeast of the capital, though they were intercepted.
In Russia’s Ingushetia region in the North Caucasus, a woman and three children were injured after a drone fell on a home, regional health officials said.
On the battlefield, Russia’s Defence Ministry claimed to have seized the village of Zelenyi Hai in the eastern Donetsk region and Maliivka in the Dnipro region. Kyiv did not comment on the claims.
Mr Zelensky said he had been briefed by Chief of Staff Oleksandr Syrsky on “active and long-range actions on Russian territory,” including clashes in Pokrovsky and efforts to repel Russian advances into the Sumy region.
“Our forces are consistently blocking Russian attempts to advance deep into the Sumy region from the border,” he said.
Mr Zelensky added that drone production in Ukraine this year would “significantly exceed” earlier forecasts.
In Moscow, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that peace talks had never truly been on the West’s agenda.
“If the West wanted ‘real peace’ in Ukraine, it would stop supplying Kyiv with weapons,” she said, according to state news agency TASS.
Russia’s Defence Ministry claimed its overnight strikes had hit Ukrainian military sites “that manufacture components for missile weapons, as well as produce ammunition and explosives.” The Independent could not verify this claim.
