One person killed and eight others injured in overnight Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities

One person was killed and eight others injured after Russia launched a fresh attack targeting Ukrainian cities overnight on Sunday.

Kyiv says Moscow fired 54 Iranian-designed Shahed drones and waves of decoy drones overnight into Sunday, targeting at least eight locations. Ukraine’s Air Forces say the country’s air defences had successfully intercepted 33 drones, confirming that the remaining 21 did strike their targets.

Donetsk Governor Vadym Filashkin says one civilian was killed in Pokrovsk in the overnight attacks, as Russia continues to target the eastern Ukrainian region in an effort to deepen its foothold in the Donbas region.

Officials in Chernihiv also announced that one man was injured in Russian shelling of the city in the early hours of Sunday. The attack targeted some of the city’s critical infrastructure, sparking a fire.

Ukraine’s State Emergency Service says the Kremlin also carried out a second strike on the northern region, hitting firefighters as they worked to contain the blaze and injuring at least two.

In Zaporizhzhia, three people were injured after a large Russian aerial campaign targeted the city on Saturday. Governor Ivan Fedorov noted that the city had been subjected to 523 strikes across 13 settlements, adding that attacks continued into Sunday.

Russian attacks have drastically intensified recently despite growing global pressure on the Kremlin and President Vladimir Putin to de-escalate and engage in peace talks.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a post on X on Sunday that Moscow had fired over 1,500 drones, 1,280 guided aerial bombs and 50 missiles of various types against Ukrainian cities over the past week alone.

The Ukrainian leader also noted that a lot of these Russian projectiles featured components produced by European countries and other allies.

“Thousands of foreign components have been found in this weaponry – more than 132,000 items – from many countries: Europe, the United States, China, Japan, and dozens of others,” wrote Zelenskyy.

Zelenskyy noted that this foreign support has helped Russia create weapons on a large scale for “the sake of terror against our people”. He also warned that if Russia is not stopped, this threat will “surely” expand to European and Indo-Pacific countries.

“Strong sanctions are an instrument that will help stop this. We must cut off all possible supply routes and means of evading sanctions, and exert pressure on the countries and individual companies that aid them.”

He also called for further pressure on Russia to force it to the negotiating table and end its full-scale invasion, well into its fourth year.

“We count on the 19th EU sanctions package to be truly painful, and on the United States to join the Europeans,” he added.

Meanwhile, Ukraine has also shared that it has been achieving significant success militarily on the ground. The country’s military intelligence, HUR, announced on Sunday that it had destroyed three Russian Mi-8 helicopters in the occupied Crimean peninsula.

Russia widely uses the Mi-8 for transport, combat support and reconnaissance missions.

They also shared that a radar station in Crimea, a mobile early warning system used by Russia for early detection of stealth aircraft and cruise missiles at long ranges, was destroyed in a separate attack.