Russia and Ukraine have traded accusations concerning overnight airstrikes that killed five people and injured over 20 others.
“Five people were injured in a hostile overnight drone attack. Casualties include one person in Taganrog and four in Azov — among them a child — following the impact of drones on residential buildings,” said Yury Slyusar, governor of Russia’s southern Rostov region, on Telegram on Saturday.
Slyusar said all of those injured had been hospitalised. He claimed that more than 30 drones were downed by air defences over multiple cities in the region, including the city of Rostov-on-Don, as well as over the Azovsky, Myasnikovsky and Neklinovsky districts.
In the city of Azov, falling drones damaged apartment buildings, private homes, industrial facilities, a school, a cultural center and vehicles, Slyusar stated.
Veniamin Kondratyev, governor of the neighboring Krasnodar region, said a drone attack in Seversky district damaged a residential building and caused fires at two industrial facilities in the area.
The operational headquarters of the Krasnodar region later reported that three people were killed and two others injured in the region, adding that the fires at industrial facilities have been extinguished and that about 26,000 residents are currently without electricity.
Ukraine's General Staff claimed that it launched an overnight attack on the Ilsky oil refinery, situated in the Seversky district.
The Russian Defence Ministry claimed it downed 645 Ukrainian drones over 13 regions, as well as over the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov and Crimea, which Moscow annexed in 2014.
The ministry further claimed that overnight Russian strikes in Ukraine hit a data centre that “facilitated mobile internet operations and supported Starlink satellite communication systems for the Ukrainian Armed Forces” in the capital Kiev.
It also claimed hitting a port facility, a road bridge, and a logistics centre in Ukraine’s southern Odesa region, as well as a dry-cargo vessel “transporting military supplies” in the Black Sea.
Strikes in Ukraine
In the Ukrainian capital, the Kiev City Military Administration said a drone struck between a five-story residential building and a commercial establishment in the city’s Solomianskyi district, where an office building was also damaged.
Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko said five people had been injured, adding that search and rescue efforts in the area were ongoing.
He later said a fire broke out near warehouse buildings in the Darnytskyi district, while another fire occurred at a store after a drone fell on the territory of a shopping centre in the Sviatoshynskyi district.
In the broader Kiev region, two people were injured in the Boryspil district, where a fire broke out in a warehouse building, according to Ukraine's State Emergency Service.
Meanwhile, Odesa Governor Oleh Kiper said a “massive” attack took place on the region’s civilian infrastructure, damaging the facades and windows of more than 10 private homes and apartment buildings, a hotel and restaurant complex, and administrative buildings at a business facility in the southern part of the region.
Elsewhere, in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, two people were killed and seven others injured in the regional capital, according to local authorities.
"We ask (US) President (Donald) Trump to implement the Lindsey Graham Act against Russia and everyone who props up its war financially," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on X, commenting on the overnight strikes. He further called on European leaders to impose additional sanctions on Moscow.
Ukraine’s Air Force claimed that the country’s air defences shot down 134 of 173 drones launched by Russia overnight.
Independent verification of the claims is difficult due to the ongoing war.
Moscow and Kiev have ramped up strikes in recent months, targeting each other’s logistics centres, ports and energy infrastructure.
Both sides deny deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure, maintaining the strikes are directed at military targets or facilities linked to military activities.
