Russia launched a barrage of drones and missiles on Ukraine on Saturday, killing 12 people and damaging dozens of residential buildings as well as energy infrastructure across the country, Ukrainian officials said.
Ukraine's Emergency Services said that a Russian missile struck a residential building in the central city of Poltava, killing eight people. Emergency services had earlier reported 17 injured, including four children.
Pictures posted on the Telegram messaging app showed the building with several top floors smashed and thick columns of smoke rising into the sky. Firefighters and dozens of rescuers were searching through the rubble and carrying the dead out on stretchers.
One person was killed and four were wounded in the city of Kharkiv in the northeast in a drone attack, Reuters quoted the mayor as saying.
Three police officers were killed during the attacks as they patrolled streets in a village in the northeastern region of Sumy, regional officials said.
"Last night Russia attacked our cities using various types of weapons: missiles, attack drones, and aerial bombs," President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, adding damage was caused in six regions.
"Each such terrorist attack proves that we need more support in defending ourselves against Russian terror. Every air defense system, every anti-missile weapon, saves lives," he said on the Telegram app.
The Ukrainian air force said Russian forces launched 123 drones and more than 40 missiles. Its air defense units shot down 56 of the drones and redirected 61, it said. The air force provided no figures on how many missiles were intercepted.
In Poltava, around 120 kilometers (75 miles) from the Russian border, about 18 apartment buildings, a kindergarten, and energy infrastructure were damaged, city authorities said.
Ukrainian officials said that damage was also registered in the city of Zaporizhzhia in the southeast, Kharkiv and Sumy regions in the northeast, and Khmelnytskyi in the west.
Kharkiv Governor Oleh Syniehubov said Russian forces used six missiles and 17 Shahed drones to target gas infrastructure and other facilities.
Russia's Defense Ministry said that its forces had launched attacks aimed at Ukraine's gas and other energy infrastructure and had shot down 108 Ukrainian drones in the last 24 hours, Russian news agencies reported.
Since March 2024, Russia has launched multiple missile and drone attacks on Ukraine's power sector and other energy infrastructure, knocking out about half of the country's available generating capacity and forcing rolling blackouts.
As the war approaches its three-year mark this month and Russian forces make small but steady gains in eastern Ukraine, edging closer to the strategic logistic hub of Pokrovsk, both sides are using drones to hit infrastructure and disrupt military supply lines.
Moscow's strikes early on Saturday followed a Russian missile attack the previous evening which damaged the historic center of the Black Sea port of Odesa.
