Russia, Ukraine trade drone strikes as attacks kill five, injure more than 20

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - KYIV — Russia and Ukraine traded accusations over a wave of overnight drone and missile strikes Saturday that killed at least five people and injured more than 20 others across both countries.

In Russia’s southern Rostov region, Gov. Yury Slyusar said five people were injured in Ukrainian drone attacks, including one person in Taganrog and four in Azov, among them a child.

All five were hospitalized, Slyusar said on Telegram.

He said Russian air defenses downed more than 30 drones over several locations, including Rostov-on-Don and the Azovsky, Myasnikovsky and Neklinovsky districts.

In Azov, falling drone debris damaged apartment buildings, private homes, industrial facilities, a school, a cultural center and vehicles, according to Slyusar.

In neighboring Krasnodar region, Gov. Veniamin Kondratyev said a drone attack in the Seversky district damaged a residential building and sparked fires at two industrial facilities.

Regional authorities later said three people were killed and two others injured. The fires at the industrial sites were extinguished, while around 26,000 residents were left without electricity.

Ukraine’s General Staff said its forces had targeted the Ilsky oil refinery in the Seversky district overnight.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said its air defenses 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 also said Russian overnight strikes in Ukraine targeted a data center in Kyiv that it claimed facilitated mobile internet operations and supported Starlink satellite communications used by the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

It also claimed to have struck a port facility, a road bridge and a logistics center in the southern Odesa region, as well as a dry-cargo vessel in the Black Sea that it alleged was transporting military supplies.

In Kyiv, the city’s military administration said a drone struck between a five-story residential building and a commercial establishment in the Solomianskyi district, damaging an office building.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said five people were injured and that search and rescue operations were underway.

Klitschko later reported a fire near warehouses in the Darnytskyi district, while another blaze broke out at a store after a drone fell on the grounds of a shopping center in the Sviatoshynskyi district.

In the wider Kyiv region, two people were injured in the Boryspil district, where a warehouse caught fire, according to Ukraine’s State Emergency Service.

Odesa Gov. Oleh Kiper said the region came under a “massive” attack targeting civilian infrastructure. He said the strikes damaged 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.

In the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, two people were killed and seven others injured in the regional capital, local authorities said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on US President Donald Trump to implement what he referred to as the “Lindsey Graham Act” against Russia and those financing its war. He also urged European leaders to impose additional sanctions on Moscow.

Ukraine’s Air Force said its defenses shot down 134 of 173 drones launched by Russia overnight.

The competing battlefield claims could not be independently verified.

Moscow and Kyiv have intensified strikes in recent months, targeting logistics hubs, ports and energy infrastructure in each other’s territory.

Both sides deny deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure, saying their attacks are directed at military targets or facilities linked to military operations.