Deadly Russian drone attack in Ukraine precedes US talks in Saudi Arabia
A Russian drone attack on the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia has killed at least three people and wounded 12 others, according to local officials.
Regional Governor Ivan Fedorov said on Saturday the previous night’s attack set ablaze residential buildings, cars and communal buildings. Photos showed emergency services scouring the rubble for survivors, News.Az reports citing foreign media.
The attack came as delegations from Russia and Ukraine are set to hold separate meetings with US officials in Saudi Arabia on Monday in an ongoing bid to halt the three-year war.
Ukraine and Russia agreed this week in principle to a limited ceasefire after US President Donald Trump held separate calls on consecutive days with the countries’ leaders, but what actual targets would be off limits to attack remains contentious.
The three sides appeared to hold starkly different views about what the limited truce covered. While the White House said “energy and infrastructure” would be part of the agreement, the Kremlin declared that the agreement referred more narrowly to “energy infrastructure”. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he would also like railways and ports to be protected.
The dead in Zaporizhzhia included three members of one family. The bodies of the daughter and father were pulled out from under the rubble while doctors unsuccessfully fought for the mother’s life for more than 10 hours, Fedorov wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
The Ukrainian air force reported that Russia fired 179 drones and decoys in the latest wave of attacks overnight into Saturday. It said 100 were intercepted and another 63 lost, likely having been electronically jammed.
Officials in the Kyiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions also reported fires breaking out due to falling debris from intercepted drones.
Russia’s Ministry of Defence, meanwhile, said its air defence systems shot down 47 Ukrainian drones. Russian officials also said Moscow reserves the right to a “symmetrical response” as both sides accused each other on Friday of blowing up a Russian gas pumping station in a border area where Ukrainian troops have been retreating.
“As in 2022, provocations are being used again with the aim of disrupting the negotiation process. We are clearly warning that if the Kyiv regime continues its destructive line, the Russian Federation reserves the right to respond, including with a symmetrical response,” the ministry said.
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