At least 14 people killed in overnight attacks in eastern Ukraine

At least 14 people killed in overnight attacks in eastern Ukraine

Ukrainian officials say Russian attacks hit the Donetsk and Kharkiv regions, damaging buildings and vehicles.

Soldiers of the Alcatraz Battalion participate in tactical infantry training at an undisclosed location in Donetsk region, Ukraine, March 7, 2025 [Maria Senovilla/EPA]

Published On 8 Mar 20258 Mar 2025

At least 14 people have been killed in overnight attacks on Ukraine’s eastern region.

Ukraine’s emergency service said on Saturday that Russian forces hit the town of Dobropillia in the eastern Donetsk region on Friday night, killing 11 people and wounding 30.

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Emergency services added that eight five-storey apartment buildings, an administrative building, and 30 cars were damaged.

At least three people were killed and seven injured after a Russian drone attack on a civilian building in Bogodukhiv, Kharkiv, in eastern Ukraine, the governor of Kharkiv, Oleh Synehubov, wrote on Telegram.

In Odesa, a drone attack resulted in several fires, which affected a hangar with agricultural equipment, a service station building, an auto parts store, solar panels held in an open area and a four-storey industrial building.

At the same time, Alexander Drozdenko, governor of the Leningrad region, said on Saturday that a tank at the Kirishi refinery, one of Russia’s largest, was damaged by falling debris after a Ukrainian drone was shot down.

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The overnight attacks came as Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he was working with the United States to “accelerate peace”.

“We will do a lot of work here in Europe, with the US, and in Saudi Arabia – we are preparing a meeting to accelerate peace and strengthen the foundations of security,” he wrote on X on Friday night.

“Today, intense work with President Trump’s team has been ongoing at various levels – numerous calls. The topic is clear – peace as soon as possible, security as reliably as possible. Ukraine is fully committed to a constructive approach.”

On Friday, Trump told reporters that it was “easier” to deal with Russia to secure an end to the three-year-long war than Ukraine, but he had said earlier that he was “strongly considering” sanctions on Russia due to its attacks.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha spoke to his US counterpart, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, before the planned Ukraine-US negotiations in Saudi Arabia.

During the call, Sybiha wrote on X on Friday that the two officials discussed the upcoming meeting and ways to “advance our bilateral cooperation”.

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Zelenskyy is expected to arrive in Saudi Arabia on Monday to talk to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

On Tuesday, Ukrainian officials are expected to hold new talks with their US counterparts in the country following a tense televised dispute between Trump and Zelenskyy at the end of February.

Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies