Russia and Ukraine exchange deadly strikes as aerial war intensifies

The central market was damaged in a Russian strike on Zaporizhzhia (AP)

Russian attacks have killed four people across Ukraine, officials said, as the aerial war between Moscow and Kyiv intensifies.

Moscow has hammered Ukraine with cruise and ballistic missiles, powerful glide bombs and jet-powered drones while front-line progress has slowed, some four-and-a-half years after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of its neighbour.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on Saturday morning: “It is essential that our partners not forget: Russia is escalating every single day.

“If the Russians have chosen to make their strikes even more brutal, the world must choose stronger responses to keep the war from spreading further.”

He listed “numerous strikes on residential homes” in the cities of Kyiv and Zaporizhzhia, and the Odesa, Sumy, and Kharkiv regions.

Two women in Zaporizhzhia died when they were trapped beneath the rubble of their destroyed home, the regional military administration said. A separate Russian attack on the city of Sumy also killed two people, local officials said.

At the United Nations earlier this week, Mr Zelensky appealed to countries to starve Russia of revenue through sanctions and trade bans, denying Moscow the money it needs to prolong the war.

But despite years of diplomatic efforts, there is no sign of a breakthrough in ending the war.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s long-range drones have targeted Russian oil refineries and businesses. A Ukrainian drone attack on the southern Krasnodar region killed three people and wounded two others, local officials said.

Writing on Telegram, regional governor Veniamin Kondratyev said that a Ukrainian attack sparked fires at two industrial sites, but did not give further details. Russian media outlets later reported that a local oil refinery was targeted in the strike.

Elsewhere in Ukraine, two people were injured in the Kyiv region overnight after a Russian drone attack caused a fire at a warehouse in the Boryspil district.

Russian drones also hit several districts in the Ukrainian capital itself, injuring four and damaging residential and office buildings, officials said.

Russia’s ministry of defence said its attack on Kyiv had damaged a data centre that supported both mobile phone internet services and Starlink satellite communication systems.