Russian attacks kill 3 across Ukraine, striking Kyiv for second consecutive night

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Three people were killed across Ukraine on Wednesday in overnight Russian drone and missile attacks, including one in Kyiv, where powerful explosions hit for the second night in a row.

Several explosions were heard shortly after midnight in the capital, before authorities issued an air raid alert. It was an unusual sequence of events because warnings typically precede strikes, giving civilians time to find shelter.

In Kharkiv, two people were killed and 20 others were injured in a series of overnight strikes, according to the city’s mayor Ihor Terekhov.

Ukraine’s Air Force says Russia fired 169 long-range strike drones and seven missiles, including five ballistics, at the country last night. Air defenses shot down or jammed 139 drones, and two anti-radar missiles didn’t reach their targets. All five ballistic missiles and 20 drones struck targets at 15 locations, the Air Force said, underscoring the continued strain on Ukraine’s air defenses.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said the military carried out a strike on arms industry facilities in Kyiv overnight, hitting a plant that was manufacturing components for Flamingo cruise missiles and a facility assembling mid- and long-range drones.

Ukrainian long-range strikes hit Russian oil and gas facilities

The ministry also said air defenses downed 415 Ukrainian drones from late Tuesday to early Wednesday. Roman Busargin, governor of Russia’s Saratov region, said a Ukrainian drone attack killed one person, injured several others and damaged unspecified industrial facilities.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukrainian long-range strikes reached Saratov, Tatarstan and Bashkortostan in Russia, about 800 kilometers (500 miles), 1,400 kilometers (870 miles) and 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) from the front line, as well as the Voronezh region, about 300 kilometers (185 miles) from the Ukrainian border.

Zelenskyy said the strikes hit the Saratov oil refinery and another refinery in Tatarstan.

Russia’s Gazprom state-controlled gas company said that Ukrainian drones late Tuesday attacked the Krasnodarskaya compressor station serving the Blue Stream natural gas pipeline to Turkey. It said the attack was intended to derail Russian gas shipments to Turkey, but there was no disruption of supplies.

Commenting on the strike, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described it as another “dangerous” attack against “the critical international energy system” and voiced hope that Turkey and other nations would warn Kyiv against such action.

Nizhhnekamsk Mayor Radmir Belyayev said Ukrainian drones damaged industrial facilities in the city and injured several people. Belyayev didn’t name the facilities that were damaged.

Yuri Slyusar, the governor of the Rostov region, said that Ukrainian drones hit and damaged two oil tankers in Taganrog Bay, injuring two crew members. The crew of one of the ships had to be evacuated.

Slyusar said that there was no oil spill as the oil tankers heading to the port of Rostov-on-Don were empty.

Infrastructure damaged in Ukrainian capital

In Ukraine, the Russian attacks killed one woman and injured two others in Kyiv, according to city administration head Tymur Tkachenko.

Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said the Russian attack on Kyiv damaged several administrative buildings and warehouses, as well as a garage complex and several city trams.

In Zaporizhzhia, Russian guided bomb injured elderly man and a woman last night, regional head Ivan Fedorov said.