The Ukrainian Air Force said Russia launched around 46 missiles and 123 drones on several regions Saturday in an overnight attack.
The Interior Ministry of Ukraine said that Russia had hit a residential construction in the city of Poltava, which is about 120 kilometers (almost 75 miles) from the Russian border.
Later, Ukrainian officials said another 11 people had been killed in Poltava.
The ministry posted pictures on Telegram that show the floors of the building smashed and smoke rising from it.
Poltava region’s acting governor said some 21 people were rescued from the building and firefighters remain at the site. Other buildings were damaged too.
Ukrainian officials added that he had injured in the city of Zaporizhzhia in the southeast, the regions of Kharkiv and Sumy in the Northeast and Khmelnytskyi in the west.
Four other people were killed in Kharkiv and Sumy.
“Last night, Russia attacked our cities using types of weapons: missiles, attack drones and aerial bombs,” said President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, adding that the pain was caused in six regions.
“Each of these terrorist attacks shows that we want to protect ourselves more from Russian terrorism. Every air defense system, every weapon against the mass, saves lives,” he wrote on Telegram.
A Russian missile attack opposite the center of the port city of southern Ukraine, Odesa, a Unesco World Heritage site on Friday, also seriously broke several buildings.
The mayor of Odesa said Saturday that the attack yesterday damaged the entrance, windows and interior of the historic Philharmonic Hall.
Meanwhile, Russia said it captured the strategic hilltop city of Toretsk in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region after heavy fighting there for about two months.
The fall of the city occurs after the Russian forces have taken several cities and towns in the region in recent months.
Analysts say that Moscow has a complex in Donetsk at its fastest speed since 2022, temporarily capturing more floor by violation of weakened Ukrainian positions through the shortage of troops.
rm/wd (Reuters, AP)