The largest known Russian drone attack since the full-scale war began in 2022 claimed the life of a woman in the Kyiv region and left at least three individuals injured, according to Ukrainian authorities early on Sunday. This escalation in strikes came in the wake of peace talks held on Friday.
Russia launched 273 drones by 8 a.m., primarily targeting the central Kyiv region along with the Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk regions situated in the east of the country, as stated by Ukraine’s air force.
According to air force data, this attack marked Russia’s largest drone assault on Ukraine since the war began. On the eve of the third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 23, Moscow had set the previous record, launching 267 drones.
The first direct talks in three years between Russia and Ukraine on Friday failed to broker the temporary ceasefire Kyiv and its allies have been urging.
The 100 minutes of talks in Istanbul yielded an agreement to trade 1,000 prisoners of war on each side.
US President Donald Trump said he would speak to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday.
The sustained overnight Russian drone attack on Sunday killed a 28-year-old woman in the capital region and injured at least three people, including a 4-year-old child, Ukrainian authorities said.
“Unfortunately, as a result of the enemy attack in the Obukhiv district, a woman died from her injuries,” Mykola Kalashnik, governor of the Kyiv region, posted on Telegram.
Kyiv and the region around it as well as the eastern part of Ukraine were under raid warnings for nine straight hours overnight before they were called off at around 9 a.m.
Air defense units were engaged several times trying to repel attacks, the military said on Telegram.
“It’s been a tough night. The Russians have always used war and attacks to intimidate everyone in negotiations,” Andriy Kovalenko, head of Ukraine’s Centre for Countering Disinformation, said on Telegram about Sunday’s attack.
Air defense units destroyed 88 of the drones overnight. The attack also included 128 simulator drones that were lost along the way without hitting anything, Ukraine’s air force said in a statement on Telegram.
On Saturday, a Russian drone attack killed nine civilians after hitting a shuttle bus in the Sumy region in northeastern Ukraine, Kyiv said.
Zelensky called the attack “deliberate” and urged stronger sanctions on Moscow, which said it had attacked a military facility.
All of those injured in the Obukhiv district just south of Kyiv city were hospitalized, Kalashnik said. Several residential buildings were damaged in the area, he added.
In the city of Kyiv, fragments of a destroyed drone damaged the roof of a non-residential building, the city’s military administration said on Telegram. There were no reports of injuries, it added.
Reuters witnesses in and around Kyiv heard blasts that sounded like air defense units in operation. There was no immediate comment from Russia.
Both sides deny targeting civilians in the war, but thousands have been killed in the conflict, the vast majority of them Ukrainian.
