At least six Ukrainian civilians were killed and 11 others wounded, including a child, in Russian air strikes that targeted the highly coveted Donetsk region overnight, regional authorities said Saturday.
Drones struck eight different locations, and downed wreckage fell in four other areas across the country.
Hardest hit was Donetsk, where four people lost their lives, according to Gov. Vadym Filashkin.
Donetsk, one of the partly Russian-occupied territories near the border between the warring countries, has seen some of the most brutal fighting of the conflict over the last few weeks — as Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin focuses in on the region at the center of international peace talks.
Negotiations over the fate of Donetsk have been described as “the ball game,” with Putin demanding Kyiv cede the entire territory to the Kremlin. Russian troops currently occupy about 70% of the region.
Intelligence reports estimate that close to 700,000 Russian troops are deployed across Ukraine, with the bulk believed to be in Donetsk — “which shows Russia’s priorities” military intelligence spokesperson Andrii Yusov said Friday on Ukrainian television.
Medical facilities, schools, apartment buildings, houses and storefronts were badly damaged in the overnight blasts, The Kyiv Independent reported.
Moscow also attacked railway infrastructure and utility lines, resulting in power outages, the outlet added.
The month has gotten off to a brutal start in the nearly four-year-old war.
Since the beginning of September, the Kremlin has launched more than 1,300 drones, nearly 900 guided aerial bombs, and up to 50 missiles, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday.
“During the first week of September … explosions were heard in almost all regions of Ukraine,” Zelensky wrote on X.
“Russia continues to prolong this war, attempting to turn diplomacy into an outright farce. There must be a collective response to this: to the shelling and destruction, to the disregard for diplomatic efforts and civilized dialogue. President Trump is absolutely right: to unblock diplomacy, effective restrictions on Russian oil and gas trade are needed.”
The attacks come as Putin continues to stall negotiations toward a lasting peace deal.
The strongman warned the world Friday that any Western soldiers deployed to Ukraine would be considered “legitimate targets.”
The comments came a day after French President Emmanuel Macron said 26 European countries pledged to deploy troops for a post-war “reassurance force” in Ukraine during a meeting of the “coalition of the willing.”
Putin mouthpiece Dmitry Medvedev blasted the West’s discussions of security guarantees, calling the talks “bulls–t.”
“What they’re doing is utter nonsense,” the deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council said in a video he posted to X.
“They get together and discuss what sort of guarantee to offer Ukraine. But really, they’re just making things up, pulling ideas out of various orifices and then presenting them as guarantees.
“It will lead nowhere.”
