Nine killed in Russian attack on Ternopil in western Ukraine, Zelensky says

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that nine people were killed and dozens were injured in Russia’s attack on the western city of Ternopil.

Zelensky said Russia carried out a “brazen attack” by launching more than 470 unmanned aerial vehicles and 47 missiles into Ukraine overnight.

All three districts of Ukraine’s second city, Kharkiv, were hit by a massive drone strike, injuring more than 30 people, including children. Photos posted online showed buildings and cars in flames.

Ukraine’s Ministry of Energy said power outages affected many regions across the country.

The attack early Wednesday was one of the deadliest attacks on western Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion that began in February 2022.

Zelensky said that there was “significant destruction” in Ternopil and that people could be trapped under the rubble.

Elsewhere in western Ukraine, energy facilities, transport and civil infrastructure were damaged.

The energy sector in the Ivano-Frankivsk region was also attacked, and two of the three injured were children.

While Zelensky said that critical infrastructure and energy were hit in the Lviv region, the regional president said that an energy facility was hit.

Zelensky, who was in Türkiye to meet his counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, called for help from Ukraine’s allies and wrote: “Every brazen attack on ordinary life shows that the pressure on Russia is insufficient. Effective sanctions and aid to Ukraine can change this.”

Ukraine’s president said he wanted to “intensify” peace talks ahead of the meeting in Ankara, but the Kremlin said no Russian representatives would attend.