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Russia targeted eight regions of Ukraine in its latest overnight drone and missile barrage, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday, with local authorities reporting that the strikes wounded more than two dozen civilians, including three children.
Russian forces fired 524 attack drones and 22 ballistic and cruise missiles, Zelenskyy said.
“Air raid alerts remain in effect across many border and frontline communities, but our services are operating wherever the security situation allows,” Zelenskyy wrote in a post on X.
“Russia relies on ballistic missiles to strike people and that is precisely why we in Europe must do everything possible to ensure reliable protection against this. Europe must have its own anti-ballistic systems and be self-sufficient in the face of these threats.”
Zelenskyy said that the Dnipropetrovsk region bombardment lasted six hours and hit energy facilities and residential buildings. At least 26 people, including two children, were wounded in the region, Ukraine’s emergency service said.
Damage was also reported in Ukraine’s Odesa, Chernihiv and Zaporizhzhia regions.
Meanwhile, Russia’s Defence Ministry said that air defences downed 50 Ukrainian drones from late Sunday through early Monday.
The barrage continued a recent spiral of long-range strikes that have grown in scale following a 9-11 May ceasefire that US President Donald Trump said he asked Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin to observe but which had little impact.
There is no sign a peace deal is taking shape despite US-led diplomatic efforts to end Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Russia hammered Ukraine over several days last week, flattening a Kyiv apartment building where 24 people were killed.
One of Ukraine’s largest drone strikes on Russia killed at least four people, including three near Moscow, and wounded a dozen others, authorities said on Sunday.
In more than four years of war, Ukraine has built up its own long-range capabilities. It has been hitting oil facilities that are one of the Russian economy’s mainstays as well as other targets deep inside Russia, making the Russian public take notice.
That has increased the pressure on Putin, whose army is struggling to make progress on the battlefield and who claimed earlier this month that the war is approaching its end.
On Sunday, the Russian Defence Ministry said that more than 1,000 drones had been shot down or jammed in the previous 24 hours, with around 80 on their way to Moscow.
Zelenskyy claimed a significant shift is taking place.
“Our long-range capabilities are significantly changing the situation and, more broadly, the world’s perception of Russia’s war,” Zelenskyy said on X late on Sunday.
“Many partners are now signalling that they see what is happening and how everything has changed, both in attitudes toward this war and in the reachability of Russian targets on Russian territory.”
Putin is due to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing this week. Cooperation between the two countries has deepened in recent years as many Western countries have sought to isolate the Russian leader.
Additional sources • AP
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