Russia has carried out a massive overnight attack on 14 regions of Ukraine, authorities have said, as Kyiv struck Russian oil refineries.
One woman was killed in the southern Zaporizhzhia region and 30 people were injured – including children – according to local officials.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia launched nearly 540 drones and 45 missiles, urging tough new sanctions on Moscow.
Following the attack, Russia’s defence ministry said all “targets of the strike have been achieved” and “designated objects have been hit” – a claim that has not been independently verified.
Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The latest barrage comes amid ongoing international efforts to secure a peace deal between the two warring nations – and days after the Ukrainian capital Kyiv faced the second largest aerial attack of the war so far, with at least 25 killed.
In the south-eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, top official Serhiy Lysak reported a number of strikes on infrastructure facilities and after a “massive” drone and missile overnight attack.
In the regional capital Dnipro, a residential house was completely destroyed and a shopping centre was damaged, Lysak said.
No casualties were reported in the overnight strikes, but Lysak later said four people were injured in a Russian drone attack on Saturday afternoon.
It is the second successive night Dnipropetrovsk has been targeted. Earlier this week, Kyiv acknowledged that Russia’s military had entered the region and was trying to establish a foothold.
Railway infrastructure was damaged near the capital, Kyiv, but it was central and south-eastern Ukraine that bore the brunt of the latest strikes.
Emergency services were seen putting out fires in Zaporizhzhia, while explosions were heard in the central eastern regions.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s military said its drones hit oil refineries in Krasnodar and Syzran in Russia overnight. Both refineries have been targeted before.
The Ukrainian military said there had been “numerous” explosions and fires recorded at the facility in Krasnodar, which Kyiv said produces three million tons of petroleum products per year.
The military also reported a fire at the Syzran facility, which it said produced eight-and-a-half million tons of petroleum products annually.
Russian authorities in Krasnodar acknowledged the drone strikes had hit its oil refinery. They said one of the process units was damaged and a fire occurred in the area, adding that there had been no casualties.
The Russian defence ministry said it had shot down 20 Ukrainian drones overnight, including 18 over the Crimean Peninsula in southern Ukraine, which Moscow annexed in 2014.
The Russian military also said it captured Komyshevakha, a rural settlement in the eastern Donetsk region, on Saturday morning. Ukraine has not confirmed this.
In recent months, Russian troops have continued their slow advance in eastern Ukraine, despite heavy combat casualties being reported.
The chief of Russia’s general staff, Valery Gerasimov, said on Saturday that his forces were continuing “their non-stop offensive along almost the entire line of contact”.
Friday night’s aerial exchange follows US-led diplomatic efforts aimed at ending the war, which so far remain at a standstill.
Zelensky said the latest attacks showed Russia’s “disregard for words”, adding that the only way to deal with Russia was to impose sanctions.
“We expect action from the US, Europe and the entire world,” he said.
European foreign affairs ministers are in Denmark this weekend to discuss international developments – including the war in Ukraine.
One of the key issues on the table is the possibility of freezing approximately €210bn (£182bn; $245bn) worth of Russian assets.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, who is at the gathering, said it was clear “Russia does not want peace” despite diplomatic efforts.
France would use the gathering to table new proposals for sanctions against Russia, with the aim of depleting “the resources that Russia is investing in this war” – Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot was quoted by Russia’s state-owned news agency Tass as saying.
