Russia launches large-scale drone attack on Ukraine

Russia sent waves of drones and missiles in an attack on two Ukrainian cities early Tuesday that killed three people and wounded at least thirteen others, Ukrainian officials said. The attack struck the capital, Kyiv, and the southern port city of Odesa. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in an online statement called the attack on Kyiv “one of the biggest” in the war that has raged for over three years, and said that Moscow’s forces had fired over 315 drones, mostly Shaheds, and seven missiles at Ukraine overnight. “Russian missile and Shahed strikes are louder than the efforts of the United States and others around the world to force Russia into peace,” Zelenskyy wrote, urging “concrete action” from the US and Europe in response to the attack. A maternity hospital and residential buildings in the centre of the southern port city of Odesa were damaged in the attack, regional head Oleh Kiper said. Two people were killed and nine injured in the city, according to a statement from the regional prosecutor’s office. An additional victim was found in Kyiv’s Obolon district, regional head Tymur Tkachenko wrote on Telegram. “Russian strikes are once again hitting not military targets but the lives of ordinary people. This once again shows the true nature of what we are dealing with,” Tkachenko said. Associated Press journalists heard explosions and the buzzing of drones around the city for hours. Attacks continue despite talks The fresh attacks came a day after Moscow launched almost 500 drones at Ukraine in the biggest overnight drone bombardment in the three-year war. Ukrainian and Western officials have been anticipating a Russian response to Ukraine’s audacious June 1 drone attack on distant Russian air bases.