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Russia hammered Ukraine with missiles and drones on Saturday, killing six people and inflicting damage across several regions of the country, Ukrainian officials said.<\/p>\n
Five of the dead were in Kyiv region outside the capital, where President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian forces targeted energy infrastructure, but also damaged residential buildings, schools and businesses. Fifteen people were injured.<\/p>\n
Zelensky said the Sumy, Kharkiv, Dnipro and Mykolaiv regions were also targeted in an attack that included around 430 drones and 68 missiles, most of which were downed by air defences.<\/p>\n
Later in the day, the governor of the southeastern region of Zaporizhzhia, Ivan Fedorov, said a residential area of the city of Zaporizhzhia had been hit by Russian-guided bombs, killing one person and injuring three.<\/p>\n
Reuters Television footage showed emergency crews at work amid piles of rubble and twisted metal. Windows and frames on balconies were smashed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe second attack was strong. The kitchen window flew out, as did those in the living room and bedroom, everything went into a roar. I ran and got slightly injured,\u201d Olha Kiyashko, 65, told Reuters.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got no strength left. They took away our pension years \u2014 the years we could have lived on, the years we\u2019d planned and counted on. All our health is gone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Saturday\u2019s strikes come as the Iran conflict has distracted international attention from a U.S.-backed peace push in the four-year war, which Kyiv says Moscow has no interest in ending.<\/p>\n
\u201cRussia will try to exploit the war in the Middle East to cause even greater destruction here in Europe, in Ukraine,\u201d Zelensky wrote on X.<\/p>\n
He repeated his call for Kyiv\u2019s partners to boost production of air-defense weapons, stocks of which have been diminishing as the U.S. and its allies in the Gulf have fended off Iranian strikes.<\/p>\n
Russia\u2019s winter attacks on Ukraine have left swathes of major cities without power or heating, part of a campaign to weaken resolve as Moscow\u2019s troops press a battlefield offensive and demand Kyiv cede more territory in the east.<\/p>\n
Ukraine\u2019s forces have targeted Russian strategic infrastructure such as oil refineries, depots and terminals in long-range strikes.<\/p>\n
Ukraine\u2019s Energy Ministry said on Saturday that consumers in six regions were without electricity after the overnight strikes and Russian shelling of frontline areas.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no way Russia will stop,\u201d said local resident Natalia Fetko, 57, whose building was damaged in the strike. \u201cNothing is enough for them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Damage was recorded in four districts outside the capital, according to regional military administrator Mykola Kalashnyk.<\/p>\n
Saturday\u2019s attack also prompted NATO member Poland to scramble jets to protect its airspace, but no violations were observed, Warsaw\u2019s military said.<\/p>\n
In Moldova, on Ukraine\u2019s western border, the Foreign Ministry denounced what it said was an intrusion by a Russian drone into its airspace in a border district, saying Moscow\u2019s actions undermined regional security and posed a danger to its citizens.<\/p>\n
(Additional reporting by Yurii Kovalenko, Serhiy Chaliy and Alexander Tanas; Editing by Toby Chopra, Gareth Jones, Rod Nickel, Ron Popeski and Diane Craft)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n