At least 25 people, including three children, were killed and 73 others injured when Russian drones and missiles struck two residential buildings in the western Ukrainian city of Ternopil.
The attack, one of the deadliest on western Ukraine since the full-scale invasion began in 2022, destroyed sections of a multistorey block between the third and ninth floors and caused significant damage to another.
Russia launched more than 470 drones and 48 missiles overnight, with Ukraine’s air force shooting down 442 drones and 41 missiles, including 10 cruise missiles downed by F-16 and Mirage 2000 jets.
The barrages also struck Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk regions, damaging energy facilities and causing emergency power outages nationwide.
In Kharkiv, at least 36 people were injured and more than 10 apartment buildings, a school, a supermarket and an ambulance substation were hit.
Russia’s defence ministry described the operation as a “massive strike using long-range precision weapons” targeting Ukraine’s military-industrial complex and energy sector.
Ukraine fired four US-made ATACMS missiles at Russia’s southern city of Voronezh; Moscow said all were intercepted by S-400 and Pantsir systems, with falling debris damaging a retirement home, an orphanage and one house but causing no casualties.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, on a visit to Ankara to revive peace talks, stated that each attack on civilian life demonstrates insufficient pressure on Russia and renewed calls for additional air defence systems from allies.
Poland and Romania scrambled jets and briefly closed airports in response to the strikes and reported drone incursions.