Russia Pounds Ukraine With 289 Drones, 17 Ballistic Missiles in Deadly Overnight Barrage
Ukraine says Russia launched 289 drones, 17 ballistic missiles and 59 cruise missiles overnight, striking energy sites and a Kharkiv hospital as rescuers continued searching an aid site hit Monday.
Russia launched 289 attack drones, 17 ballistic missiles and 59 cruise missiles at Ukraine overnight, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday, as strikes hit energy infrastructure and a hospital in Kharkiv. The barrage came while rescuers were still searching for victims of a separate attack on a humanitarian-aid site in the Zaporizhzhia region Monday.
At least 73 people were wounded at the Kharkiv hospital, Zelenskyy said in comments reported by Reuters. He said the cardiology department was damaged. Mayor Ihor Terekhov said more than 1,000 windows were shattered. An earlier Euronews report said around 200 patients had been evacuated from a medical facility in the city.
Zelenskyy said power-generation facilities and substations across several regions were the main targets of the overnight attack. Ukrainian officials reported damage to critical infrastructure in Dnipro and Kryvyi Rih. More than 180,000 people were without electricity in the Zhytomyr region Tuesday morning, according to its governor, while Odesa introduced scheduled outages, Reuters reported.
The hospital and energy strikes followed Monday's attack on a humanitarian-aid distribution site in Komyshuvakha, in the Zaporizhzhia region. Zelenskyy put the death toll there at 29 early Tuesday, with people still under the rubble. Later accounts reported higher totals. Regional officials said civilians had gathered to receive aid. That toll is separate from the overnight hospital injuries.
Russia's Defense Ministry said its latest strikes targeted energy facilities that supplied the Ukrainian military and military factories. In Russia, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said nearly 500 drones heading toward the capital region had been destroyed, according to Euronews. Those Russian accounts were not independently verified for this report.
The attacks followed the end Sunday of a local humanitarian truce in the Kherson region that allowed an evacuation mission in Russian-occupied Oleshky. U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff said Washington-led talks between Russia and Ukraine would resume next week in Abu Dhabi. Previous diplomatic efforts have not produced a settlement to the war.