Russia targeted Ukraine overnight with one of its largest drone and missile barrages of the war, killing at least 12 people and injuring dozens in hourslong attacks on cities and villages across the country, Ukrainian officials said on Sunday.
It was the second large-scale attack in two nights, part of a broader escalation by Russia in recent months that has brought a spike in civilian casualties even as the Trump administration pushes for a cease-fire. Ukraine has also stepped up its own air attacks on Russian territory, though on a smaller scale and with far fewer civilian deaths.
Ukraine’s Air Force said that Russia had launched 69 ballistic and cruise missiles along with 298 attack drones, adding that about two-thirds of the missiles and nearly all the drones were shot down. The Air Force spokesman, Yuriy Ihnat, said in an interview that it was the largest bombardment of the war in terms of the number of weapons used. Those numbers could not be independently verified.
Images and videos released by Ukraine’s emergency services captured the scale of the devastation on Sunday morning.
They showed firefighters spraying water on an apartment building in the southern city of Mykolaiv whose roof had been smashed, its shattered beams jutting into the sky like broken ribs. In the Kyiv region, emergency workers walked down a street where the houses on both sides were consumed by fire and debris covered the pavement. In the western Zhytomyr region, photos showed rescuers pulling the bodies of three children from houses that had been reduced to rubble.
In addition to the casualties in Zhytomyr, four people were killed in the Kyiv region, four others in the western Khmelnytsky region and one in Mykolaiv, according to the local authorities.
Ihor Klymenko, Ukraine’s interior minister, said that a total of 13 regions had come under attack and that more than 60 people were injured. He added that more than 80 residential buildings were damaged.
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, who has accused the Kremlin of playing for time in peace negotiations, cited the attacks as further proof that “Russia is dragging out this war and continues to kill every day.” In a post on social media, he called for increased pressure on President Vladimir V. Putin.
“The world may go on a weekend break, but the war continues, regardless of weekends or weekdays,” Mr. Zelensky wrote. “This cannot be ignored. Silence of America, silence of others around the world only encourage Putin.”
There was hope in Ukraine that the cease-fire talks that President Trump initiated in February would at least ease air attacks on civilian areas. Instead, the violence has intensified. Ukrainian civilian deaths have risen each month since February, according to the United Nations, reaching 209 in April — one of the highest monthly tolls in two years.
Russia appears to have been increasingly targeting cities more intensively. Last month, a strike near a playground and another on a crowded city center killed 53 civilians, including several children.
Daria Mitiuk contributed reporting.
Constant Méheut reports on the war in Ukraine, including battlefield developments, attacks on civilian centers and how the war is affecting its people.
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