VLADIMIR Putin’s forces unleashed their biggest drone assault yet on Ukraine’s second largest city – killing at least three and injuring 17 others.

Kharkiv faced severe damage overnight as 48 Russian drones, accompanied by two missiles and four gliding bombs, struck its residential areas, the city’s mayor reported.

“We have a lot of damage,” Ihor Terekhov said.

Three high-rise residential buildings were hit, with dramatic footage showing several storeys of one engulfed in flames.

The carnage is a part of a wider Russian revenge blitz that’s pummelling cities across Ukraine following its daring Operation Spiderweb.

The bold Ukrainian drone raid crippled several Russian warplanes at four airbases deep inside enemy territory.

Ukraine said 117 drones were smuggled into Russia, hidden in wooden cabins on trucks with detachable roofs, and launched remotely near the bases.

The operation, 18 months in the making, reportedly destroyed at least 40 aircraft.

Moscow has since been hitting back hard.

Over the past 48 hours, Russia has fired more than 400 drones and 45 missiles across Ukraine, killing at least six and injuring 80 nationwide.

The Russian defence ministry called it a “massive” strike in response to what it labelled “terrorist acts by the Kyiv regime,” The Kyiv Post reports.

On Friday, Dmitry Peskov, a spokesperson for the Kremlin, alarmingly described the conflict as “an existential issue” for Russia, emphasizing its connection to “the future of our children, of our country.”

The blitz came just days after Ukraine destroyed a third of Russia’s strategic nuclear bombers in a stunning sabotage strike.

During a press briefing, US President Donald Trump commended Ukraine for the strategic attack, but cautioned that it had given Putin “a reason to go in and bomb the hell out of them last night.”

Air raid sirens wailed through Kyiv as explosions rocked the capital.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia struck nine regions in total, including western areas near the Polish border.

In Lutsk, emergency crews pulled a man’s body from the rubble of a flattened apartment block.

Three first responders were also killed in Kyiv.

Despite recent rounds of stalled peace talks, the Kremlin continues to make sweeping demands — including a total Ukrainian withdrawal from occupied regions and a NATO ban — while ramping up its assault.

Ukraine has rejected those terms as non-starters.

As tensions soar, Ukraine claimed fresh drone hits on Russian airfields and military-linked oil depots.

Moscow said it shot down 174 drones overnight, including ten headed for the capital.

But that wasn’t enough to prevent a huge explosion ripping through Bryansk airport.

Russian bloggers speculated a German-made Taurus missile may have been used.

A fuel depot in Engels, a key supply site for Russia’s long-range bomber base, was also hit, with flames seen billowing into the sky.