Russia and Ukraine exchange attacks, killing and wounding dozens, as Zelenskyy calls for more talks
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian drone and missile attacks on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro killed at least five people and injured 46, officials said Saturday.
The head of the Dnipropetrovsk region, Oleksandr Hanzha, said that the bodies of four people were found among the ruins of a house destroyed in the night attacks.
“Russians have been hitting Dnipro and other cities and communities almost all night long,” Hanzha wrote on Telegram about the attacks, which caused fires to break out in Dnipro and partially destroyed several apartments, businesses and a private house.
A separate Russian attack on Dnipro on Saturday afternoon killed another person in the same residential area hit by the night attacks, according to Hanzha. He said 46 people in total were injured.
In the southwest, 2 people were injured in drone attacks carried out in the Odessa region at night. Residential buildings, port infrastructure and vehicles were damaged in the south of the region, regional head Oleh Kiper said on Saturday.
Local officials said that a woman died and a man was seriously injured in a drone attack in Russia’s Belgorod border region with Ukraine.
Leonid Pasechnik is the governor appointed by Russia to Ukraine’s Luhansk region earlier this month. Said he took full controlThree people were killed in a Ukrainian drone attack on a village overnight, a claim denied by Ukraine, it said on Saturday. Ukraine has not commented on the attack and the claim could not be independently verified by The Associated Press.
Following the night attacks, Romania’s Defense Ministry said on Saturday that the drone parts were found in a residential area of the southeastern city of Galati and on a farm about 30 kilometers (18.5 miles) from Galati, close to the NATO member’s border with Ukraine. There was no loss of life.
There is Romania verified drone parts on their territory multiple times.
The overnight attacks followed Friday’s prisoner swap, in which Russia and Ukraine exchanged 193 soldiers.
Periodic prisoner exchanges have been one of the few positive outcomes of a process that remained fruitless for months. US-brokered negotiations Between Moscow and Kyiv. Negotiations have failed to make progress on key issues that prevent an end to the conflict invasion of Russia Its neighbor is now in its fifth year.
Ukraine is open to resuming peace talks with Russia in Azerbaijan, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on Saturday.
“We have already had such talks with our American partners in Türkiye and Switzerland,” he said. “If Russia is ready for diplomacy, we are ready for the negotiations in Azerbaijan.”
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Morton reported from London. Associated Press writer Stephen McGrath in Leamington Spa, England, contributed to this report.
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This story has been corrected to use Hanzha’s Ukrainian translation.
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