Russia launched one of its biggest aerial attacks of the year on Ukraine, firing 574 drones and 40 ballistic and cruise missiles overnight, the Ukrainian Air Force said on Thursday, while a recent diplomatic push to stop the three-year war is trying to gain momentum.
The attack mostly targeted western regions of the country, the air force said, where much of the military aid provided by Ukraine’s western allies is believed to be delivered and stored. The strikes killed at least one person and injured 15 others, according to officials.
It was Russia’s third largest aerial attack this year in terms of the number of drones fired and the eighth-largest in terms of missiles, according to official figures. Most such Russian attacks have hit civilian areas.
The strikes occurred during a renewed US-led effort to reach a peace settlement following Russia’s February 2022 invasion of its neighbour.
US President Donald Trump discussed the war with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska last week, and at the start of this week hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders at the White House.
Russia has fired nearly 1,000 long-range drones and missiles at Ukraine since the White House talks.
Ukraine, meanwhile, has kept up its attacks with domestically produced long-range drones on infrastructure inside Russia that supports
Moscow’s war effort. Among other targets, it has hit oil refineries, and Russian wholesale petrol prices have reached record highs in recent days.
Almost all the overnight missiles were fired from inside Russia.
They reached deep into western Ukraine, near the border with Hungary.
Western parts of Ukraine are far from the battlefield’s front line in the east and south of the country, where a grinding war of attrition has killed tens of thousands of soldiers on both sides.
In the western city of Lviv, one person was killed and three were injured as the attack damaged 26 residential buildings, a kindergarten and administrative buildings, regional head Maksym Kozytskyi wrote on Telegram.
The regional prosecutor’s Office said three Russian cruise missiles with cluster munitions struck the city.
New York Times News Service