Russia has fired more than 500 aerial weapons at Ukraine overnight, in a barrage that Kyiv described as the biggest air attack so far of the three-year war.
Ukraine’s air force said on Sunday that Russia fired 477 drones and decoys as well as 60 missiles overnight. While 475 of these were shot down or lost, the onslaught marked the “most massive airstrike” on the country since Russia began its full-scale invasion in February 2022, Yuriy Ihnat, head of communications for Ukraine’s air force, told The Associated Press.
The bombing appeared to target several regions that are far from the frontline, he said, including in western Ukraine. The Russian army said on Sunday its overnight attack hit Ukrainian military-industrial complex sites and oil refineries, and that it had intercepted three Ukrainian drones overnight.
The scale of the attacks called into question comments made on Friday by Vladimir Putin, in which the Russian president said that Moscow is ready for a fresh round of direct peace talks in Istanbul.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said on Sunday that the barrage of bombs in fact showed that Putin had decided to pursue war. “Moscow will not stop as long as it has the capability to launch massive strikes,” Zelenskyy wrote on social media.
In the past week alone, Russia attacked Ukraine with more than 114 missiles, more than 1,270 drones and nearly 1,100 glide bombs, he said.
“This war must be brought to an end – pressure on the aggressor is needed, and so is protection,” he added. “Ukraine needs to strengthen its air defence – the thing that best protects lives.”
He reiterated Ukraine’s willingness to buy US air defence systems, adding that his country counts on the “leadership, political will, and support of the United States, Europe and all our partners”.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s air force said an F-16 warplane supplied by its western partners had crashed after sustaining damage while shooting down air targets, killing the pilot. “The pilot used all of his onboard weapons and shot down seven air targets. While shooting down the last one, his aircraft was damaged and began to lose altitude,” the air force said on Telegram.
The pilot did not have time to eject, it added.
Local officials in Ukraine said the strikes killed two people and injured at least 12, including two children. As air raid sirens rang out across the country, residents in Kyiv took refuge in bomb shelters and metro stations, while in the city of Drohobych, in the western Lviv region, a large fire broke out at an industrial facility after a drone attack that cut electricity to parts of the city.
Explosions were heard in Kyiv, Lviv, Poltava, Mykolaiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Cherkasy and the Ivano-Frankivsk regions, witnesses and regional governors told Reuters.
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Russia’s escalating campaign comes as talks on ending the fighting remain largely at an impasse. Two recent rounds between Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Istanbul yielded no progress.
On Sunday, Ukraine’s presidential website said the country had begun the process of withdrawing from the international treaty banning antipersonnel landmines.
A senior Ukrainian lawmaker, Roman Kostenko, said on social media that parliamentary approval was still needed. “This is a step that the reality of war has long demanded,” he said.
“Russia is not a party to this convention and is massively using mines against our military and civilians,” he added. “We cannot remain tied down in an environment where the enemy has no restrictions.”
In recent months, and to an outcry from anti-mine campaigners, five European countries have announced similar plans to withdraw from the 1997 landmark mine ban treaty, citing concerns about the growing threat of Russia.
