Russian bombardments in eastern Ukraine ramped up overnight, killing two people, as Ukraine hit Russia’s Engels military airfield in the country’s southwest region of Saratov with drones.
Both Russia and Ukraine stepped up aerial attacks in the early hours of Thursday as United States President Donald Trump pushes both sides to agree to a ceasefire after more than three years of fighting.
Ukrainian officials in the northeastern Sumy and Kharkiv regions said two people were killed and several others injured after Russia dropped more than three dozen glide bombs on the towns in the border regions.
Russian drone attacks on the town of Kropyvnytskyi, hundreds of kilometres from the front line, wounded 14 people and damaged rail infrastructure.
“Kropyvnytskyi underwent the most massive enemy attack. Peaceful residential buildings were destroyed,” regional governor Andriy Raikovych said.
The Ukrainian Air Force said that the Russian barrage, including on Kropyvnytskyi, consisted of 171 drones, of which 75 were shot down. Another 63 were downed by electronic jamming systems or were lost.
Elsewhere, Ukraine struck Russia’s Engels airbase in the Saratov region with attack drones overnight, causing a fire and explosions in the area, the Ukrainian military said on Thursday.
The airbase hosts Russian strategic bombers that are used to attack Ukraine and also has a warehouse holding cruise missiles and glide bombs, an official at the Security Service of Ukraine said.
“It is significant because … the city is home to Russia’s strategic bomber fleet,” said Al Jazeera’s Dorsa Jabbari, reporting from Moscow. “This is not the first time this area has been targeted, but this is the biggest attack seen so far [since the start of the war in February 2022]. A state of emergency has been declared.”
Regional authorities said 10 people were injured in the attack. Jabbari also noted that 30 civilian homes and the city’s main hospital sustained damage.
“According to Russia’s defence ministry, this is another sign that Ukraine is not serious about a peace settlement,” she said.
This latest wave of tit-for-tat attacks follows Russian President Vladimir Putin’s commitment to a 30-day halt of strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure. He did not, however, agree to a full ceasefire.
“It’s only a partial ceasefire, concerning the energy infrastructure of each country. And it hasn’t yet been implemented. The details will be fleshed out when negotiations take place in Saudi Arabia [in the coming days],” said Al Jazeera’s Assed Baig, reporting from Kyiv.
“For now, fighting continues,” he added. “The red line for Ukraine is that they will not recognise occupied Ukrainian territories as part of the Russian Federation. So, we are still some way off until the end of the war.”
Peace talks expected soon
On Thursday, the Kremlin said that more US-Russia talks could take place on Sunday or early next week, as Washington is also due to hold talks with Kyiv in Saudi Arabia in the coming days.
Meanwhile, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that Europe must continue to give strong backing to Ukraine regardless of any talks between Washington and Moscow.
“We must continue our support with a clear position that a just peace must be possible for Ukraine,” the outgoing chancellor said as he headed to a summit of European Union leaders on Thursday.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, in turn, accused European countries of planning to “militarise” themselves rather than seeking a resolution to the conflict.
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