BSS
  04 Apr 2025, 08:54

3 dead, dozens injured in Russia drone strikes on Kharkiv

KYIV, Ukraine, April 4, 2025 (BSS/ AFP) - Russian drone strikes killed at least three people and injured dozens in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, Kyiv authorities said Friday.

Russia and Ukraine have stepped up aerial attacks even as US President Donald Trump pushes them to agree to a ceasefire after more than three years of costly fighting.

The attack late Thursday targeted residential and office buildings in Kharkiv, causing several fires and leaving 32 people injured including a child, Ukraine's state emergency service said on Telegram.

"Russian drones attacked one of the districts of Kharkiv. As a result of strikes at residential buildings and an administrative building, four fires broke out," the emergency service said.

"The bodies of three dead have been recovered from the rubble."

Five other people were injured in the Ukrainian regions of Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia and Kyiv, according to local authorities who blamed Moscow.

An attack by Ukrainian drones in a Russian village in Bryansk killed one and left another injured, the region's governor Aleksandr Bogomaz said in a Telegram post on Friday.

"As a result of the attack by Ukrainian drones, two residents of the village received shrapnel wounds. Unfortunately, one man died," he wrote.

The attacks came as Russia's top economic negotiator visited Washington for talks on improving ties.

Trump is pushing for warmer relations with Moscow, reaching out to President Vladimir Putin and Russian officials in the hope of brokering a ceasefire in the three-year Ukraine war.

Washington had said last month that both Kyiv and Moscow agreed separately to "develop measures for implementing" a halt on strikes on energy infrastructure.

But attacks have continued and both sides have complained to the United States about strikes hitting their energy sites.

Kyiv called on Washington to strengthen sanctions on Moscow for "violating" agreements made at talks in Saudi Arabia last month.

Zelensky on Wednesday said Russia was intentionally attacking Ukrainian energy infrastructure.

Later that day a Russian ballistic missile strike killed at least four people in Zelensky's home city of Kryvyi Rig.