KYIV — At least five people were killed and 36 wounded in Russian drone and missile strikes across Ukraine overnight on Friday, authorities here said, and “close to 20” animals died at a veterinary clinic set ablaze in the barrage.
Ukraine’s Emergency Services posted photos and a video of rescue workers putting out the fire and trying to save the animals — in one instance administering CPR to a dog — at the Dr. Buryak clinic in Chabany, 13 miles south of the capital.
“Rescuers fought for every life: They carried out an emergency evacuation of four-legged animals from the damaged building, administered oxygen to injured animals, and tried to stabilize the condition of wounded patients,” the agency wrote.
But “all the animals were killed — the strike hit the inpatient ward and the intensive care unit,” a veterinarian at the clinic told the animal rights organization UAnimals.
Such barrages have been common in recent months as the Kremlin targets Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure and energy facilities. But now, with peace negotiations stalled and international attention focused on the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, the assaults have lasted longer. Last week, Russia unleashed roughly 1,000 drones on Ukraine in a 24-hour period, the largest single-day attack since the Kremlin launched its full-scale invasion more than four years ago, according to Ukraine’s Defense Ministry.
The Russian Defense Ministry said Friday that it had executed “a massive strike” using “high-precision long-range air- and ground-based weapons” and “strike drones” against “targets within Ukraine’s military-industrial complex and energy sector that support their operations.” The attack was a “response to Ukraine’s terrorist attacks on civilian targets,” the ministry said.
Ukrainian forces in recent weeks have attacked Russian oil and gas facilities, a key source of revenue for the Russian military. They have hit Ust-Luga, one of Russia’s main ports on the Baltic Sea, five times since Tuesday, Kyiv says. Reuters estimated last week that the attacks, damage to pipelines and sanctions against Russia’s shadow fleet have caused a 40 percent drop in Russian oil exports.
The attack on Ukraine started at 6 p.m. Thursday and continued into Friday morning, authorities here said. The assault came “in waves,” President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on Telegram; one strike hit as he was speaking by telephone to Pope Leo XIV.
“Not a single hour of peace for our people, and this is Russia’s response to our proposal for an Easter ceasefire,” Zelensky said. “Russians have only intensified their strikes, turning what should have been silence in the skies into an Easter escalation.”
Ukraine’s air defenses shot down 26 of 37 missiles and 515 of 542 drones, the Ukrainian air force said.
One person in Kyiv, two in the northeastern city of Sumy and one in the western city of Zhytomyr were killed, authorities said. Nine people in the southern city of Kherson were wounded when a minibus there was hit.
Attacks in the eastern city of Kharkiv have lasted two days and have been among the heaviest during the war, authorities there said. One person there has been killed and seven wounded.
Abbakumova reported from Riga, Latvia.
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