Russian forces launched a sweeping aerial assault across Ukraine on Saturday, killing at least four people and wounding more than a dozen in strikes that hit a maternity hospital, residential neighbourhoods, a port, and critical energy infrastructure. The attacks drew a sharp rebuke from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who declared the bombardment served no military purpose and amounted to deliberate terror against civilians.
The southern port city of Odesa bore some of the heaviest damage. Two people died there — one succumbing to injuries in hospital — while at least 13 others were wounded, among them a child. Serhiy Lysak, head of Odesa’s military administration, confirmed that strikes tore through several city districts, shredding the roof of a maternity hospital, shattering windows in high-rise apartment blocks, and reducing sections of residential homes to rubble. Ukrainian emergency services released images showing debris-strewn corridors and blown-out windows inside one of the stricken buildings. A port in the Odesa region was also hit, damage confirmed by Ukraine’s state ports authority.
In Kryvyi Rih, a central industrial hub, a morning strike on an industrial site killed at least one man and wounded two others, triggering fires that emergency crews scrambled to contain. Oleksandr Ganzha, head of the Dnipro regional administration, confirmed the casualties.
The Poltava region suffered a third consecutive day of drone attacks targeting gas production assets. State energy company Naftogaz reported that Russian forces struck three separate gas production facilities overnight and into the morning, killing one person. The sustained campaign against energy infrastructure signals a deliberate effort to degrade Ukraine’s fuel supply ahead of the coming months.
In total, Russia launched 273 drones at Ukraine overnight. The Ukrainian air force reported shooting down 252 of them. Moscow, meanwhile, claimed its own air defences intercepted and destroyed 155 Ukrainian drones over Russian airspace. In Russia’s Yaroslavl region, regional governor Mikhail Evraev confirmed that a child was killed in a Ukrainian drone strike — a development that underscored the war’s expanding toll on civilians on both sides of the front.
Zelenskyy, responding to the carnage, argued that the scale and targeting of the strikes demonstrated that Russia harbours no genuine interest in ending the war. "This is terror," he said, characterising the attacks on hospitals and homes as proof of Moscow’s intentions.
The strikes unfolded against a backdrop of mounting diplomatic friction between Kyiv and Washington. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking in Paris following talks among Group of Seven industrialised nations, accused Zelenskyy of lying over American demands. Zelenskyy had stated publicly that the US was pressing Ukraine to cede the eastern Donbas region to Russia as part of any settlement. Rubio flatly denied that US demands were tied to territorial concessions, but acknowledged that security guarantees for Ukraine would not come into force until the war formally ends — a position critics argue leaves Kyiv exposed.
Rubio, a former hawkish senator, also raised the prospect of redirecting US assistance away from Ukraine following American and Israeli military action against Iran. He stressed that no aid had yet been diverted, but left open the possibility that it could be. No peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine are currently under way, and Saturday’s strikes offered little indication that either side is moving toward the negotiating table.
Russia invaded Ukraine more than four years ago, triggering the largest land war in Europe since the Second World War. The conflict has killed tens of thousands of combatants and civilians and displaced millions. Saturday’s assault — spanning Odesa, Kryvyi Rih, and Poltava in a single morning — illustrated the breadth of Russia’s continued offensive reach even as international pressure mounts for a diplomatic resolution.
