Four people have been killed across Ukraine in Russian attacks, including two in Kyiv, where powerful explosions hit for the second night in a row.
Ukraine struck oil refineries in Russia’s Saratov and Tatarstan regions, according to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who was in Turkey to meet US president Donald Trump on the sidelines of the Nato summit.
Answering reporters’ questions with Zelenskiy, Trump said the US would give licences so that Patriot air-defence systems can be made overseas for Ukraine to counter Russia.
Zelenskiy thanked Trump for his support and said Kyiv wanted to discuss weapons supplies, possible peace negotiations and a developing drone deal.
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“Air defence is the priority,” Zelenskiy said, adding that Kyiv wanted to share details of its needs under the Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List (Purl), in which European allies and Canada are buying American weapons to help his country.
Zelenskiy also said Ukrainian and US officials had begun work on a drone deal, calling it “a very good beginning”.
In Kyiv, several explosions were heard shortly after midnight, even before authorities could issue an air-raid alert to give civilians time to find shelter.
The early morning Russian attacks killed one woman and injured two others in Kyiv, according to city administration head Tymur Tkachenko. The State Emergency Service said the attack damaged several administrative buildings and warehouses, as well as a garage complex and several trams.
Hours later, another Russian drone struck Kyiv’s Desnianskyi district, killing a second person and injuring six others, Tkachenko said. A total of eight people were injured in the Russian attacks on the capital.
In Kharkiv, two people were killed and 20 others were injured in a series of overnight strikes, according to mayor Ihor Terekhov.
In Zaporizhzhia, a Russian guided bomb injured a man and a woman on Tuesday night, regional head Ivan Fedorov said.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia fired 169 long-range strike drones and seven missiles, including five ballistics, at the country last night.
Air defences shot down or jammed 139 drones, and two anti-radar missiles did not reach their targets.
All five ballistic missiles and 20 drones struck targets at 15 locations, the air force said, underscoring the continued strain on Ukraine’s air defences.
Russia’s defence ministry said the military carried out a strike on arms industry facilities in Kyiv overnight, hitting a plant that was manufacturing components for Flamingo cruise missiles and a facility assembling mid- and long-range drones.
The ministry also said air defences shot down 415 Ukrainian drones from late on Tuesday to early Wednesday.
Saratov governor Roman Busargin said a Ukrainian drone attack killed one person, injured several others and damaged unspecified industrial facilities.
Zelenskiy said Ukrainian long-range attacks reached the Saratov, Tatarstan and Bashkortostan regions deep inside Russia, as well as the Voronezh region, closer to the Ukrainian border. The strikes hit refineries in Saratov and Tatarstan, the latest energy facilities struck by Ukraine that have worsened fuel shortages across Russia.
In the Tatarstan region, Nizhhnekamsk mayor Radmir Belyayev said Ukrainian drones damaged industrial facilities in the city and injured several people. Belyayev did not identify the damaged facilities. – Reuters
