Russia unleashes ‘one of the biggest’ strikes on Ukraine

Russia launched fresh drone and missile attacks on the Ukraine killing three and hitting a maternity hospital.

People stand near a damaged building following Russian drone strikes on Ukraine's capital Kyiv Tuesday. Picture: AFP

Russia attacked two Ukrainian cities with waves of drones and missiles on Tuesday, killing three people and wounding at least 13 in what President Volodymyr Zelensky called “one of the biggest” strikes in the three-year-old war.

In an online statement, Mr Zelensky said that Moscow’s forces fired over 315 drones, most of them Shaheds, and seven missiles overnight, striking Kyiv and the southern port city of Odessa.

“Russian missile and Shahed strikes are louder than the efforts of the United States and others around the world to force Russia into peace,” Mr Zelensky wrote, urging “concrete action” from the US and Europe in response.

A woman walks past a destroyed building following a drone attack in Odessa. Picture: AFP

A maternity hospital and residential buildings in the southern port of Odessa were damaged in the attack, regional head Oleh Kiper said. Two people were killed and nine injured, according to the regional prosecutor’s office.

Another person was killed in Kyiv’s Obolonskyi district, regional head Tymur Tkachenko wrote on Telegram.

“Russian strikes are once again hitting not military targets but the lives of ordinary people. This once again shows the true nature of what we are dealing with,” he said.

Explosions and the buzzing of drones were heard around the city for hours.

Ukrainian soldiers react after returning from captivity during a prisoners' exchange between Russia and Ukraine. Picture: Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP

The fresh attacks came a day after Moscow launched almost 500 drones at Ukraine in the biggest overnight drone bombardment of the war. Ukrainian and Western officials have been anticipating Moscow’s response to Kyiv’s audacious June 1 drone attack on distant Russian air bases.

Russia has been launching a record number of drones and missiles in recent days, despite both sides trading memorandums at direct peace talks in Istanbul on June 2 that set out conditions for a potential ceasefire. However, the inclusion of clauses that both sides see as nonstarters make any quick deal unlikely, and a ceasefire, long sought by Kyiv, remains elusive.

The only tangible outcome of the talks has been the exchange of prisoners of war, with a swap that began Monday for soldiers aged between 18 and 25.

A second group was exchanged Tuesday, focusing on seriously wounded and sick Ukrainian service members, Zelensky said on Telegram.

“Exchanges must continue. We are doing everything to find and return everyone who is in captivity,” he said.

AP