An Indian citizen was among 12 people killed in an overnight Russian missile and drone attack across Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday. Dozens of people were also injured in the strikes, which damaged residential areas and other civilian infrastructure across several regions.
According to Zelensky, Russian forces used a large number of jet-powered drones and ballistic missiles during the overnight assault. The attacks affected Kyiv, Odesa and several other parts of the country.
Seven people were killed in Kyiv after a strike hit a railway depot, Zelensky said. Nearly 350 rescuers were deployed in the capital and surrounding areas to respond to the damage and search for victims.
In Boryspil, a five-storey residential building was damaged. Around 50 people were evacuated from the building following the attack. Zelensky said four people were killed and 13 others injured in the city. Several businesses were also damaged.
Odesa and the surrounding region were also targeted by Russian drones and glide bombs. The strikes disrupted electricity supplies, leaving thousands of families without power. Emergency teams were working to restore electricity and repair damaged infrastructure.
Zelensky said a border checkpoint with Romania and export-related infrastructure were among the facilities damaged in the attacks. The regions of Kherson, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Zhytomyr, Sumy and Dnipropetrovsk were also affected.
The Ukrainian president blamed gaps in the country's air defence system for the scale of the casualties and urged international partners to provide additional air defence equipment, including systems capable of intercepting ballistic missiles.
“Overall, 12 people were killed, including an Indian citizen, and dozens more were wounded,” Zelensky said in a post on X.
The attack came shortly after Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.
Modi and Putin discussed bilateral relations as well as the ongoing Ukraine conflict and other regional and global issues. The meeting took place a day before Modi and other SCO leaders signed the summit declaration.
The identity of the Indian citizen killed in the attack has not been disclosed in the information released so far. Further details about the victim and the circumstances of the death are awaited.
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