CNN
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Russia sent hundreds of drones towards Ukraine on Wednesday, causing severe attacks in four important regions, and President Volody Mie Zelensky’s hometown to face “large” fire, officials said.
The attack, which includes 400 long-range drones and one missile, was the biggest this week, according to the number of Ukrainian Air Forces.
Multiple cities – the hometowns of Zelensky Kryvyi Rih, Kharkiv, Vinnytsia – and parts of the Odesa area suffered from the heaviest artillery fire. The Air Force said the drone’s 345 has been intercepted or invalidated.
Krivii Li, of central Ukraine, added that “the largest attack since the start of the war…” in the face of the city’s military junta, Oleksandr Bilkul, is involved in ballistic missiles and 28 drones. The onslaught caused several fires and left the city parts without electricity and water, he added.
Zelensky said Russia was targeting the city’s energy infrastructure, where 15 people were injured.
“Russia has not changed its strategy. To effectively counter this fear, we need to systematically strengthen our air defense systems, more interceptors, more decisions,” Zelensky said in a post in X.
Ihol Telekov, mayor of the city of Karkiv in the eastern part, said his city was hit 16 times in just 14 minutes during the assault.
At Vinnytsia, southwest of Kyiv, eight people were injured and two infrastructure facilities sparked a fire during the attack.
Zelensky said response efforts are still underway in some areas covered overnight.
Three deaths have been recorded in Ukraine, officials said.
Russia’s latest wave of attacks on Ukraine comes just days after policy moves from the US administration, making President Donald Trump more and more annoyed by Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
Trump announced Monday that Ukraine will receive patriot missile systems via NATO as part of a new package of US weapons, signaling an economically punitive stance against Moscow, threatening “secondary tariffs” in other countries buying Russian oil.
Complementing Putin, Trump seemed angry that his overture to end the war was largely ignored in Moscow.
“My conversation with him is very enjoyable and the missiles go out at night,” Trump said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday that the threat of Trump’s sanctions was “very serious.”
“The US President’s statement is very serious,” Peskov told journalists during daily conference calls, claiming that Trump had “personally” addressed President Putin in his announcement.
“We certainly need time to analyze what was said in Washington, and if Putin thinks it needs it, he will definitely comment on it,” continued Peskov.
“For now, I can certainly say that such decisions made in person, such as Washington, the NATO countries, and directly appear to be perceived by the Ukrainian side as signals of continuing conflict, rather than signals of peace,” the spokesman said.
Meanwhile, many European foreign ministers welcomed Trump’s announcement on Monday.
“To achieve peace, we need to support Ukraine and put pressure on Russia,” said EU foreign secretary Kaja Karas, who arrived at a meeting of European Union foreign ministers in Brussels on Tuesday.
“We also hope that Americans will move on sanction packages or tariffs, so that if we do so, we will put pressure on Russia to really stop this war,” Karas added.
