The Ukraine Air Force said that Russia had introduced around 46 missiles and 123 drones in several regions on Saturday a night attack.
Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said Russia had arrived at a residential construction in the city of Poltava, which is about 120 kilometers (nearly 75 miles) from the Russian border.
Ukrainian officials later said 11 people were killed in Poltava.
The ministry has images on Telegram that show the floors of damaged construction and smoke when climbing.
Poltava region’s acting governor said some 21 people were rescued from the building and firefighters remain at the site. Other buildings were damaged too.
Ukrainian officials added there was damage in the city of Zaporizhzhia in the southeast, Kharkiv and Sumy regions in the northeast, and Khmelnytskyi in the west.
Four people were reported killed in Kharkiv and Sumy.
“Last night, Russia attacked our cities using various types of weapons: missiles, attack drones, and aerial bombs,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, adding damage was caused in six regions.
“Each of these terrorist attacks shows that we want more to protect ourselves from Russian terrorism. Every air defense system, every anti-missile weapon, saves lives,” he wrote on Telegram.
A Russian missile attack on the center of southern Ukraine’s port city of Odesa, a UNESCO world heritage site, on Friday, also seriously damaged several buildings.
The mayor of Odessa said Saturday that the attack on the entrance, windows and interior of the Historical Philharmonic Hall.
Meanwhile, Russia said it captured the strategic hilltop city of Toretsk in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region after heavy fighting there for about two months.
The fall of the city occurs after the Russian forces took several cities and towns in the region in recent months.
Analysts say Moscow has been advancing in Donetsk at its fastest pace since 2022, rapidly capturing more ground by breaking through Ukrainian positions weakened by troop shortages.
RM / WD (Reuters, AP)