Russia, Ukraine trade drone attacks in renewed escalation

Russia has launched several strikes across Ukraine, killing at least five people and wounding several, in an attack that appeared to target energy infrastructure.
Ukraine also launched a drone attack on Russia’s central region of Saratov, injuring four.
The exchange began around midnight on Sunday and continued beyond daybreak on Monday.
Ukraine’s air force reported multiple groups of Russian drones moving towards its eastern, northern, southern, and central regions, followed by numerous cruise and ballistic missiles.
Authorities in at least six Ukrainian regions said blasts had been heard. Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said more than half of Ukraine’s regions were struck.
“The enemy used various types of weapons: drones, cruise missiles, and Kinzhals [supersonic missiles]. There are wounded and dead,” Shmyhal said on the Telegram messaging app.
The governor of the central Dnipropetrovsk region, Sergiy Lysak, wrote on social media: “There is one dead, a 69-year-old man.”
Zaporizhia Governor Ivan Fedorov said one civilian was killed, without elaborating.
In Lutsk, Russian bombardment killed one person, and damaged an apartment building and an infrastructure facility, Mayor Igor Polishchuk said.
The attack also targeted energy facilities in the Lviv region, Governor Maksym Kozytskyi said on social media, adding: “As a result, there are partial power outages in [the city of] Lviv and the region.”

In the wider region of Kyiv, authorities said Russia attacked energy infrastructure. One person was wounded.
Explosions were also heard in the capital, Kyiv. Power and water supplies in the city have been disrupted by the attack, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged European warplanes to help down drones and missiles over Ukraine in the wake of the bombardment.
“In our various regions of Ukraine, we could do much more to protect lives if the aviation of our European neighbours worked together with our F-16s and together with our air defence,” he said in a post on social media on Monday.
Meanwhile, Russian officials reported four people injured in Saratov, where drones hit residential buildings in two cities.
One drone crashed into a high-rise in Saratov city and another hit a building in Engels, home to a military airfield that had been attacked before, local officials said.
Russia’s Ministry of Defence said a total of 22 Ukrainian drones had been intercepted overnight and in the morning over eight regions, including Saratov and Yaroslavl in central Russia.
“A woman was hospitalised in serious condition,” Busargin said. “Doctors are fighting for her life.”
Russia and Ukraine have denied targeting civilians in their attacks, which they say aim to destroy infrastructure key to war efforts.