In the night from Thursday to Friday, a sweeping barrage of kamikaze drones and missiles struck Dnipro, a city with about one million residents along the river of the same name. Until now, the city had largely avoided bombardments. Ukrainian air defenses managed to neutralize a large portion of the missiles and shells, but one strike hit a clinic, causing two deaths and injuring about thirty people.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the attack, calling it a grave crime against humanity in a post on social media. He stated that the assault also harmed a psychological clinic and another veterinary facility. Zelensky insisted that hospitals are off limits to warfare and branded the strikes as pure terror from Russia, noting that the casualties included an elderly man who died at the scene and another man whose body was later recovered from the rubble.
Dozens of injured
The regional governor reported that thirty people were injured, including two children, and that contact with three others believed to be inside the building remained lost. Nighttime bombardments also reached the capital, Kiev, where cruise missiles launched by Tupolev Tu-95 strategic bombers deployed over the Caspian Sea were intercepted. According to preliminary information, city defenses detected and neutralized all airborne targets over Kiev, according to the mayor.
Authorities indicated there have been fifty-five Russian attacks on Ukrainian targets in the past hours, including a dam in the Donetsk region that raised fears of potential flooding. Moscow again asserted that its operations were aimed at ammunition depots and denied targeting civilians, while the defense ministry claimed all targets had been hit and that no civilian infrastructure was intentionally struck.
Meanwhile, the Belgorod region along the Ukraine border has become a frontline, with ongoing Ukrainian bombings transforming the border area into a continuous battleground. Dozens of shells hit the town of Kozinka, primarily causing property damage. Across towns situated tens of kilometers from the border, including Belgorod and even Krasnodar, drones have inflicted considerable property damage. In the first town, a blast damaged a government building and shattered windows, underscoring the reach of the conflict beyond front lines.