Deadly night-time Russian barrage hits Ukraine

At least five civilians died (AP)

At least five civilians have died after Russia launched drones, missiles and guided aerial bombs at Ukraine overnight into Sunday, in a major attack that officials there said targeted civilian infrastructure.

Moscow sent more than 50 ballistic missiles and around 500 drones into nine regions across Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday morning.

Burned cars and damaged residential buildings are seen after a Russian strike in Zaporizhzhia (Kateryna Klochko/AP)

Four people, including a 15-year-old, died in a combined drone and missile strike on Lviv, according to regional officials and Ukraine’s emergency service.

It was the largest aerial assault on the historic western city and surrounding region since Russia’s full-scale invasion on February 24 2022, according to Maksym Kozytskyi, the head of the local military administration.

Earlier in the war, Lviv was seen as a haven from the fighting and destruction farther east.

In a Telegram post, Mr Kozytskyi said Russia launched about 140 Shahed drones and 23 ballistic missiles across the region.

A rescuer and a civilian check the debris of a destroyed house (Mykola Tys/AP)

At least six more people were injured, according to a statement by Ukraine’s police force.

The strike left two districts without power and public transport suspended for a few hours early on Sunday, mayor Andriy Sadovyi reported.

He added that a business complex on the outskirts of Lviv was on fire following the strike. It was described as a civilian facility that is not linked to Ukraine’s war effort.

One person was also injured in the Ivano-Frankivsk region south of Lviv, according to regional head Svitlana Onyshchuk.

The Russian bombardment hit Zaporizhzhia overnight (AP)

In the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, a nighttime aerial assault killed a civilian woman and wounded nine other people, including a 16-year-old girl, regional governor Ivan Fedorov reported.

He said Russia attacked with drones and guided aerial bombs.

Mr Fedorov said the strike destroyed residential buildings and left some 73,000 households in Zaporizhzhia and surrounding areas without power.

Russia’s Defence Ministry said the overnight strikes targeted Ukraine’s “military-industrial complex” and energy facilities that supply it.

Separately, six people, including a child, were injured in Sloviansk, a key city in the eastern Donetsk region that remains under Ukrainian control, after a Russian guided aerial bomb slammed into an apartment block, regional prosecutors said Sunday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for Western partners to send additional air defences (Heather Khalifa/AP)

They said Russian airstrikes on Saturday evening damaged more than two dozen residential buildings in Sloviansk, as well as cars, shops and a cafe.

Mr Zelensky reiterated his call for Kyiv’s Western partners to send additional air defences to combat Russia’s “aerial terror”.

“Today, the Russians again targeted our infrastructure, everything that ensures people can live a normal life. We need more protection, a rapid implementation of all defence agreements, especially on air defence, to make this aerial terror pointless,” he said in a Telegram post.

Rescuers search for victims in the debris of a destroyed house following a Russian rocket strike (Mykola Tys/AP)

Ukraine has for months conducted its own long-range strikes on Russia, many of which have targeted Moscow’s oil infrastructure and contributed to persistent fuel shortages.

Russia’s Defence Ministry said its forces shot down 32 Ukrainian drones during the night, with at least 50 more downed during the day over southwestern Russia.

Drones damaged several homes, cars and a power line in the Belgorod region bordering Ukraine, according to local Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov.

Separately, he reported that Ukrainian shelling gravely wounded the deputy head of a border village.