Russia ‘launches missile strikes across Ukraine’ after second drone attack

Air raid alerts were heard in Kyiv and Zaporizhzhia while a blood transfusion centre in Kharkiv was reportedly targeted

A wave of Russian missile strikes have hit Ukraine this evening, several sources report, following a second drone attack on a Russian tanker in the Black Sea overnight.

Air raid alerts were heard in both Kyiv and Zaporizhzhia on Saturday, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s spokeswoman Iuliia Mendel wrote on Twitter: “The missile attack is at Kyiv, Vinnutsia, Zhytomyr, Cherkasy regions. But the alert is all over Ukraine.”

Ukraine’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba wrote on Twitter: “Russia unleashed another salvo of missiles on Ukraine this Saturday.

“Russia will not stop until it is stopped. The global community must focus on enforcing a just and lasting peace: arming Ukraine, including with F-16s to close the sky, and implementing Ukraine’s Peace Formula.”

Meanwhile governor of the Zaporizhzhia region, Yuriy Malashko, confirmed on Telegram that a missile attack had hit the outskirts of the city, with teams working to extinguish the fire and locate any victims.

President Zelensky said a blood transfusion centre in the Kharkiv region was targeted on Saturday evening.

“Dead and wounded are reported,” he wrote on Twitter.

“My condolences! Our rescuers are extinguishing the fire.”

The reports come as President Zelensky attended peace talks in Saudia Arabia alongside senior officials from 40 other countries, including the US, China and India.

Ukraine and its allies hope the talks will lead to agreement on key principles for a peaceful end to Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The two-day meeting is part of a diplomatic push by Ukraine to build support beyond its core Western backers by reaching out to Global South countries that have been reluctant to take sides in a conflict that has hit the global economy.

President Zelensky, who hopes to agree principles for a summit of global leaders that he is seeking on the issue in the autumn, said it would be important to hold bilateral talks on the sidelines of the Jeddah meeting.

Speaking on Saturday, he acknowledged there were differences among the countries attending, but said the rules-based international order must be restored.

“Different continents, different political approaches to world affairs. But all are united by the priority of international law,” he said.

Russia is not attending, though the Kremlin has said it will keep an eye on the talks.

Overnight the Russian tanker with eleven crew members on board was damaged but no injuries were reported.

The Crimean Bridge and ferry transport were suspended for several hours, Russian officials said.

“The SIG tanker... received a hole in the engine room near the waterline on the starboard side, preliminarily as a result of a sea drone attack,” Russia’s Federal Marine and River Transport agency said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.

The tanker had been approaching the Kerch Strait - which links the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov - when it was hit by an Ukrainian drone, Russia said.

Moscow strongly condemned what it saw as a Ukrainian “terrorist attack” on a civilian vessel in the Kerch Strait, said Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova.

Ukrainian sources told Interfax agency that the attack was conducted by Ukraine’s security and naval forces with sea drones in its territorial waters.

Ukraine almost never publicly claims responsibility for attacks inside Russia or on Russian-controlled territory in Ukraine.

On Friday a Russian warship was seriously damaged in a Ukrainian naval drone attack on Russia’s navy base at Novorossiysk, the first time the Ukrainian navy has projected its power so far from the country’s shores.

Moscow-installed officials in Crimea said the Crimean Bridge, which was completed by Russia in 2018 and has come under serious attack twice in the war, was not targeted in the tanker attack.

“Once again, there was no direct attack on the Crimea Bridge and there was no explosion in the immediate vicinity,” Oleg Kryuchkov, an adviser to the Russia-installed governor of Crimea, said on his Telegram channel.

Ukraine’s UNIAN news agency said three explosions had been reported in the area.

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