Russian missile and drone attacks on Ukraine overnight killed at least four people and wounded 17 others, local officials said.
In the capital, Kyiv, two people were killed and 13 wounded in a ballistic missile attack in the early hours of Saturday, Timur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv’s city military administration, said. Three of the wounded were hospitalised, according to Ukraine’s state emergency service.
A fire broke out in a non-residential building in one location, while debris from intercepted missiles fell in an open area at another site, damaging windows in nearby buildings, the emergency service wrote on Telegram.
“Explosions in the capital. The city is under ballistic attack,” the mayor, Vitali Klitschko, wrote on Telegram during the onslaught.
In the Dnipropetrovsk region, two people were killed and seven wounded, said the acting regional governor, Vladyslav Haivanenko, adding that apartment buildings, private homes, an outbuilding, a shop and at least one vehicle were damaged in the strikes.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched nine missiles and 62 drones, of which air defences intercepted four missiles and 50 drones.
In Russia, the country’s defence ministry said its air defences shot down 121 Ukrainian drones overnight.
The attacks came after Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, urged the US on Friday to expand sanctions on Russian oil from two companies to the whole sector, and appealed for long-range missiles to hit back at Russia.
Zelenskyy was in London for talks with two dozen European leaders, who have pledged military help to shield Ukraine from future Russian aggression if a ceasefire stops the war.
The meeting, hosted by Keir Starmer, aimed to step up pressure on Vladimir Putin, adding momentum to recent measures that have included a new round of sanctions from the US and Europe on Russia’s vital oil and gas export earnings.
The talks also addressed ways of helping protect Ukraine’s power grid from Russia’s almost daily drone and missile attacks as winter approaches, enhancing Ukrainian air defences, and supplying Kyiv with longer-range missiles that can strike deep inside Russia. Zelenskyy has urged the US to send Tomahawk missiles, an idea with which President Donald Trump has flirted.
