Russia unleashed a large-scale drone barrage and airstrikes throughout Ukraine late Saturday into early Sunday, leaving at least four civilians dead, Ukrainian authorities reported. The assault came after U.S. President Donald Trump questioned whether Russian President Vladimir Putin truly has any desire to bring the war to an end.
In Kostyantynivka, located in the Donetsk region, three people were killed and four others sustained injuries Sunday morning due to airstrikes, according to the regional prosecutor’s office. Meanwhile, in Pavlohrad, situated in the Dnipropetrovsk region, a drone attack claimed one life and injured a 14-year-old girl, local Governor Serhii Lysak confirmed. Pavlohrad has now been targeted for the third night in a row.
These strikes followed Russia’s announcement that it had reclaimed control over the last remaining sections of the Kursk region captured by Ukrainian forces during a surprise offensive last August. Ukrainian authorities, however, stated that clashes in the area were still underway.
Speaking on Saturday, Trump expressed doubt about Putin’s intentions, suggesting that hopes for an imminent peace deal may be misplaced. This came just a day after Trump had remarked that Ukraine and Russia were “very close to a deal.”
“There was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days,” Trump wrote in a post on social media while traveling back to the U.S. from the Vatican. He had attended the funeral of Pope Francis, where he also briefly met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump also hinted that additional sanctions targeting Russia could soon be imposed.
The conversation between Trump and Zelenskyy at the Vatican marked the first time the two leaders met in person since their tense confrontation during a heated Oval Office meeting at the White House in late February.
The Ukrainian air force reported that Russia deployed 149 attack drones and decoys overnight. Out of those, air defenses managed to intercept 57 and jam another 67, according to officials.
Drone strikes also injured one person in the Odesa region and another in the city of Zhytomyr, Ukrainian authorities said. In Kherson, a Russian airstrike Sunday morning left four people wounded, local officials reported.
On Sunday, Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed that its air defense systems had downed five Ukrainian drones over the Bryansk region and intercepted three more over Crimea, the territory Russia illegally seized in 2014.
Meanwhile, five individuals were hurt when Ukrainian shelling hit the city of Horlivka in the partially occupied Donetsk region, according to Ivan Prikhodko, the Russian-installed mayor of the city.
{Matzav.com}