Russian strikes across Ukraine killed at least four people overnight into Sunday, according to Ukrainian officials, as Moscow rejected German calls to ease its escalation towards Nato.
The attacks came hours after Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met his German counterpart, Johann Wadephul, during the annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly. The meeting was believed to be the first tête-à-tête between the two foreign ministers since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The discussions took place as the aerial war between Russia and Ukraine showed no sign of slowing. Front-line positions have remained largely unchanged since last year, while Moscow has used cruise and ballistic missiles, glide bombs and jet-powered drones against Ukraine in recent months. Kyiv, meanwhile, has used long-range drones to target Russian oil refineries and businesses.
In Kyiv, Ukraine’s emergency service said a man was found dead after a Russian drone struck a non-residential building overnight. Later on Sunday, local administration head Tymur Tkachenko said Russian drone strikes on the outskirts of the capital killed one person and wounded at least five others.
In Vyshneve, one person died and four were injured after a drone damaged five vehicles and caused a fire, according to the account. A security guard at a window manufacturing facility was also injured near the town of Fastiv. Another drone hit a single-storey vehicle repair shop, where firefighters continued battling the blaze into Sunday, the emergency service said.
Russian forces also struck Ukraine’s southern Odesa region, which surrounds the country’s main Black Sea port, multiple times overnight. Oleh Kiper, head of the local military administration, said one person was killed and two others were injured.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky separately said Russia struck a data centre in Kyiv twice on Sunday morning, injuring two children and an adult. Russia’s Defence Ministry said the facility was providing internet services to Ukraine’s armed forces.
In Russian-occupied Ukraine, a strike attributed to Kyiv’s forces killed a civilian woman in Enerhodar, the town that houses Europe’s largest nuclear plant, according to its Kremlin-installed mayor, Maxim Pukhov. He said Ukrainian drones also injured two other people.
Russia and Ukraine have repeatedly blamed each other for damage to power lines supplying the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which Moscow captured early in the war. The plant is not operating, but it requires power to run cooling systems and maintain safety.
The latest attacks followed the meeting between Lavrov and Wadephul in New York, which was held at the German foreign minister’s request. Lavrov dismissed the encounter, saying Wadephul “simply reiterated his official position condemning Russia”.
“You can judge for yourself whether that counts as dialogue or not,” Lavrov said.
Wadephul expressed openness to improving relations but said that would require a genuine willingness from Russia’s leadership to end the war in Ukraine, according to a German delegation official.
Relations between Russia and Germany have deteriorated further in recent weeks after an attempted drone attack at Leipzig airport last month. Berlin blamed the Kremlin for the incident.
An overwhelming majority of UN member nations have repeatedly condemned Moscow’s invasion. The Kremlin describes the conflict as a “special military operation” intended to ensure Russia’s security and protect the rights of Russian speakers.
