By Max Hunder and Serhiy Chalyi
DNIPRO/KYIV, April 25 (Reuters) – A major Russian overnight attack on Ukraine killed seven people and injured dozens more as Moscow launched over 660 drones and missiles in a barrage that targeted the city of Dnipro in southeastern Ukraine, and hit several other regions.
A large chunk of an apartment building in Dnipro collapsed after being hit during the attack. Four corpses were recovered from the rubble, regional governor Oleksandr Hanzha said.
The site was struck again in a daytime attack, authorities said, while rescuers were working there. The second attack killed one person and injured seven.
Moscow has been launching smaller barrages of dozens of drones every night at Ukraine, interspersing them with occasional large-scale attacks that use hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles.
Thick columns of black smoke could be seen streaming into the sky on Saturday morning, as local media warned residents in the city about worsening air quality.
A Reuters reporter saw a Russian drone being destroyed in the sky over the ruined apartment block as rescuers were working in the rubble. In total, over 30 people in the city were wounded, officials said.
GRIEF-STRICKEN RESIDENTS
“Russia is deliberately prolonging its terror against our people, continuing to target critical infrastructure and residential buildings,” Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said.
At the destroyed apartment block in Dnipro, which had a pre-war population of nearly a million and has experienced many lethal bombardments over the last four years, residents were stricken with grief and rage.
“May their children sleep in their warm beds in Russia, and may everything be all right for them. Let them watch as Russia ‘liberates’ us of our apartments and houses,” said 37-year-old Aliona Katrushova, who lives in the building opposite.
She looked on in her dressing gown as survivors were hauled out from the rubble. Saturday is her husband Oleh’s birthday.
“It’s like being given a second life,” he said after surviving the attack, although the couple’s apartment was damaged.
In the northern region of Chernihiv, missile and drone attacks killed two people and wounded seven others, the governor there said.
“Every strike like this must remind our partners that the situation needs immediate and firm action, rapid strengthening of our air defences,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said.
Drone fragments damaged an electricity pole and household annex in NATO member Romania, which borders Ukraine, authorities there said, although there were no casualties.
Ukraine has recently stepped up its own drone attacks hitting Russian territory. Authorities in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg said on Saturday a Ukrainian drone crashed into an apartment building there, causing minor injuries.
UKRAINIAN AIR DEFENCE EXPERTISE
The Ukrainian leader was visiting Azerbaijan on Saturday to sign agreements on defence and energy co-operation.
Kyiv is seeking to strengthen its diplomatic and security alliances by leveraging wartime experience in countering vast aerial attacks, particularly its experience in downing hundreds of drones with low-cost methods.
Zelenskiy posted a picture of him meeting Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, and said he also met a Ukrainian military team “which is sharing Ukraine’s experience in protecting the skies.”
Azerbaijan has a long border with Iran, with which it has tense relations. Azerbaijan has also fought multiple wars with its other neighbour Armenia since 1991.
Since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran earlier this year, triggering a war in the Middle East, Kyiv has worked hard to build security co-operation with Middle Eastern nations concerned about Iranian drone and missile bombardment.
Russia’s overnight attack on Saturday used 619 drones and 47 missiles, Ukraine’s air force said in a statement on Telegram, adding that it downed 580 drones and 30 missiles.
Russia’s defence ministry said it had hit military-industrial and energy targets in Ukraine overnight. It did not comment on the strike on the apartment block in Dnipro.
(Reporting by Max Hunder in Kyiv and Serhiy Chalyi in Dnipro, additional reporting by Daria Smetanko; Editing by Susan Fenton and Aidan Lewis)
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