Ukraine reports Russia launches largest airstrike of the war

KYIV, Ukraine — Russia carried out its largest aerial assault on Ukraine overnight, an official from Ukraine reported Sunday, as part of an escalating bombing operation that has dimmed hopes for a resolution to the conflict that has been ongoing for three years.

The Ukrainian air force stated that Russia unleashed a total of 537 aerial munitions on Ukraine, which included 477 drones and decoys, as well as 60 missiles. Out of these, 249 were successfully intercepted and destroyed, while 226 were lost, likely due to electronic interference.

This assault constituted “the most extensive airstrike” on the nation since the commencement of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, considering both drones and a variety of missiles, as per Yuriy Ihnat, who serves as the head of communications for Ukraine’s air force, in comments to The Associated Press. The attack was directed at several regions, including areas in western Ukraine that are distant from the front line.

Poland and allied countries scrambled aircraft to ensure the safety of Polish airspace, the country’s air force said.

Three people were killed in each of the drone strikes in the Kherson, Kharkiv and the Dnipropetrovsk regions, according to the three governors.

Another person was killed by an airstrike in Kostyantynivka, local officials said. In addition to aerial attacks, a man died when Russian troops shelled the city of Kherson, and the body of a 70-year-old woman was found under the rubble of a nine-story building hit by Russian shelling in the Zaporizhzhia region.

In the far-western Lviv region, a large fire broke out at an industrial facility in the city of Drohobych following a drone attack that also cut electricity to parts of the city.

Ukraine’s air force said one of its F-16 warplanes supplied by its Western partners crashed after sustaining damage while shooting down air targets. The pilot died.

Russian troops reportedly advance in Donetsk

Russia’s Defense Ministry said it had shot down three Ukrainian drones overnight.

Two people were wounded in another Ukrainian drone attack on the city of Bryansk in western Russia, regional Gov. Alexander Bogomaz said Sunday morning, adding that seven more Ukrainian drones had been shot down over the region.

Meanwhile, Russia claimed Sunday that it had taken control of the village of Novoukrainka in the partially Russian-occupied Donetsk region.

Russian forces have been slowly grinding forward at some points on the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line, though their incremental gains have been costly in terms of troop casualties and damaged armor.

In other developments, Russia’s foreign intelligence chief, Sergei Naryshkin, said he had spoken on the phone with his U.S. counterpart, CIA Director John Ratcliffe.

“I had a phone call with my American counterpart and we reserved for each other the possibility to call at any time and discuss issues of interest to us,” Naryshkin said in remarks to state TV reporter Pavel Zarubin, who posted them on his Telegram channel on Sunday.

Sunday’s attacks follow Russian President Vladimir Putin’s comments two days ago that Moscow is ready for a fresh round of direct peace talks in Istanbul. Two recent rounds of talks between Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Istanbul were brief and yielded no progress on reaching a settlement.

Zelenskyy withdraws Ukraine from an anti-land mine pact

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a decree to withdraw Ukraine from the Ottawa Convention banning antipersonnel land mines, a Ukrainian lawmaker said Sunday. The move follows similar recent steps by the Baltic states and Poland.

The 1997 treaty prohibits the use, production, stockpiling and transfer of antipersonnel land mines in an effort to protect civilians from explosives that can maim or kill long after fighting ends.

“This is a step that the reality of war has long demanded,” said Roman Kostenko, secretary of the Ukrainian parliamentary committee on national security, defense and intelligence. He noted that Russia is not a party to the convention “and is massively using mines against our military and civilians.”