Russian missile and drone strikes overnight from Friday to Saturday have killed at least four people in Ukraine, including three in the city of Poltava, local authorities reported.
In a message on Telegram, Ukrainian emergency services stated that the death toll from a “missile strike on a residential building” in Poltava has risen to three, with ten others injured, including a child. They released images showing firefighters sifting through the smoking ruins of the heavily damaged building.
In Kharkiv, a major city in the northeast, a Russian drone shot down by air defences crashed in a residential area, killing a woman and injuring four others, announced the regional governor Oleg Synegubov on Telegram.
The incident occurred around 07:40 local time (05:40 GMT) in the Kholodnogirsky district of western Kharkiv. Two of the injured, a man and a 64-year-old woman, have been hospitalised.
“The last night, Russia attacked our cities with various types of weapons: missiles, drones, aerial bombs,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated on Telegram. “Each of these terrorist attacks proves that we need more support to defend ourselves against Russian terror. Every air defence and missile defence system saves lives,” he added, urging Kyiv’s “partners” to take action.
This attack comes just days after Kyiv launched one of its most significant drone offensives against Russian territory overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday, reportedly killing a mother and her child and setting a refinery on fire.
As the Russian invasion approaches its fourth year in February, the Russian army continues to make advances in the east of the country, with Kyiv’s forces unable to halt their progress.
