Three killed in Russia massive drone attack on Kyiv, Ukraine captures first village in Luhansk in three years

Nearly 150 Russian drones descended on Ukraine early Sunday, rattling Kyiv awake just after midnight to the boom of explosions, which killed three people and injured 10 — deepening tensions ahead of ceasefire talks continuing this week in Saudi Arabia.

Among the victims were a father and his 5-year-old daughter, and an 80-year-old woman who neighbors said could be heard screaming for help after her ninth-floor apartment caught fire. The fatalities were the first in Kyiv in more than two months, and on Sunday, the Ukrainian flag atop the 335-foot Motherland Monument was lowered to half-staff as a symbol of mourning.

Mayor Vitali Klitschko, in a post on the Telegram messaging app, called it “a massive enemy drone attack on Kyiv” and said emergency services had been dispatched to several districts of the city to respond to reports of fires and damage.

Ukraine’s air force said Russia had launched 147 drones overnight targeting several parts of the country. The military said air defence units had destroyed 97 of the drones, with 25 failing to reach their targets.

The drone strikes come hours ahead of planned talks in Saudi Arabia, as diplomatic efforts to end the three-year-old war intensify. Experts and officials from Ukraine, the U.S. and Russia are due to discuss ways to ensure the safety of shipping in the Black Sea.

The United States is pushing for a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia, and hopes to reach a broad ceasefire in the war by April 20, Bloomberg News reported on Sunday, citing people familiar with the planning.

But despite the peace push, both sides have been reporting continued strikes.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russian forces had used more than 1,580 guided aerial bombs, nearly 1,100 attack drones and 15 missiles against Ukraine over the past week.

“We need new solutions, new pressure on Moscow to stop such strikes and this war,” Zelenskiy said on Telegram.

AIR RAID ALERTS

Ukraine’s state emergency service said the bodies of the child and a man had been found as rubble was clearer in Kyiv’s Holosiivskyi district.

A woman died after drone debris caused a fire in a high-rise residential building in Dniprovskyi district, the service said.

Another eight people were injured in the city as a result of the overnight drone strikes, according to the Interior Ministry.

Photos published later by the emergency service showed a burnt-out apartment in a multi-storey building, the ceiling of one of the rooms was punctured, with the charred remains of furniture left scattered about.

Two people were also injured and several houses were damaged in the region surrounding the capital, regional Governor Mykola Kalashnik said on Telegram.

There was no immediate comment from Russia. Both sides deny targeting civilians in the war that Russia started with its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Kyiv, its surrounding region and the eastern half of Ukraine were under air raid alerts for more than five hours starting late on Saturday, according to Ukraine air force maps.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s army has recaptured a small village in the eastern region of Luhansk – a rare success for its forces in an area almost completely held by Russia since its 2022 invasion of the country.

Kyiv officials said troops had “liberated the village of Nadia” following a 30-hour operation, during which its soldiers retook one square mile of territory.

Its military did not provide details about casualties or the strategic significance of the village.

Ukraine’s forces have made small gains across the war’s eastern front in recent weeks, while a Russian offensive has stalled – blamed by experts on a mix of poor weather and troop exhaustion.