VLADIMIR Putin’s forces unleashed their biggest drone assault yet on Ukraine’s second largest city – killing at least three and injuring 21 others.
During the night, Kharkiv experienced a disturbing incident when 48 kamikaze drones, as well as two missiles and four gliding bombs, hit residential areas, as reported by the city’s mayor.
“We have a lot of damage,” Ihor Terekhov said.
In the latest terror strikes on civilians, 18 multi-story buildings and 13 private houses were hit and damaged.
In Kyiv, a harrowing video taken by a resident from a tower block captured the horror caused by another attack by Putin targeting civilians, with flames shooting up around 80ft up the building from the exploding drone.
Three were killed and at least 21 wounded, including a six-weeks-old baby, and a 14-year-old girl.
A woman, 26, trapped under a slab of concrete was eventually freed three hours after the strike, and was seen being stretchered to an ambulance.
The State Emergency Service of Ukraine stated: “One of the strikes struck a nine-story residential building, resulting in the upper-floor apartments catching fire.
“Rescuers pulled out a woman from under the rubble.
“The shelling also damaged the private sector, a civilian enterprise and other facilities.”
The carnage is a part of a wider Russian revenge blitz that’s pummelling cities across Ukraine following its daring Operation Spiderweb.
The bold Ukrainian drone raid crippled several Russian warplanes at four airbases deep inside enemy territory.
Ukraine said 117 drones were smuggled into Russia, hidden in wooden cabins on trucks with detachable roofs, and launched remotely near the bases.
The operation, 18 months in the making, reportedly destroyed at least 40 aircraft.
Moscow has since been hitting back hard.
Over the past 48 hours, Russia has fired more than 400 drones and 45 missiles across Ukraine, killing at least six and injuring 80 nationwide.
The Russian defence ministry called it a “massive” strike in response to what it labelled “terrorist acts by the Kyiv regime,” The Kyiv Post reports.
In a chilling statement Friday, Putin mouthpiece Dmitry Peskov said the war had become “an existential issue” for Russia and insisted it was about “the future of our children, of our country.”
The blitz came just days after Ukraine destroyed a third of Russia’s strategic nuclear bombers in a stunning sabotage strike.
Speaking to reporters, US President Donald Trump heaped praise on Ukraine for the calculated attack, but warned they had given Putin “a reason to go in and bomb the hell out of them last night.”
Air raid sirens wailed through Kyiv as explosions rocked the capital.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia struck nine regions in total, including western areas near the Polish border.
In Lutsk, emergency crews pulled a man’s body from the rubble of a flattened apartment block.
Three first responders were also killed in Kyiv.
Despite recent rounds of stalled peace talks, the Kremlin continues to make sweeping demands — including a total Ukrainian withdrawal from occupied regions and a NATO ban — while ramping up its assault.
Ukraine has rejected those terms as non-starters.
As tensions soar, Ukraine claimed fresh drone hits on Russian airfields and military-linked oil depots.
Moscow said it shot down 174 drones overnight, including ten headed for the capital.
But that wasn’t enough to prevent a huge explosion ripping through Bryansk airport.
Russian bloggers speculated a German-made Taurus missile may have been used.
A fuel depot in Engels, a key supply site for Russia’s long-range bomber base, was also hit, with flames seen billowing into the sky.
