Russian Strike Kills 19 as Zelenskyy Heads to Turkey

Photo: Collected

A massive overnight barrage of Russian drones and missiles struck the western Ukrainian city of Ternopil, killing 19 people and injuring at least 66 others, authorities said on Wednesday, as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy travelled to Turkey to seek renewed diplomatic backing against Moscow’s invasion.

Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said two nine-storey apartment blocks were hit, with emergency teams still searching the rubble for survivors. Ternopil, about 200 kilometres from the Polish border, has long been viewed as one of Ukraine’s safer regions.

Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 476 strike and decoy drones and 48 missiles, including 47 cruise missiles, during the night. Air defences shot down all but six cruise missiles, while Western-supplied F-16 and Mirage-2000 jets intercepted at least 10.

“Every brazen attack against ordinary life indicates that the pressure on Russia is insufficient,” Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram.

Zelenskyy said he would meet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan later on Wednesday to intensify diplomatic pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin and focus on securing “a just peace”. He also referred to unspecified “positions and signals” from the United States, ahead of new US sanctions targeting Russia’s oil sector due to take effect on Friday.

A senior Turkish official first indicated that US special envoy Steve Witkoff would join the meeting but later withdrew the statement, confirming the envoy would not attend.

Across Ukraine, nearly 50 more people were injured in strikes on three other regions. Russia’s Defence Ministry said it targeted energy sites, drone depots and military-industrial facilities in retaliation for recent Ukrainian attacks inside Russia.

Romania scrambled two Eurofighter Typhoons and two F-16s after a drone briefly entered its airspace, while Poland deployed military aircraft and temporarily closed Rzeszów and Lublin airports to prioritise military flights.

In Kharkiv, Russian drones injured 46 people, including two children, and damaged homes, a school, an ambulance station and other civilian infrastructure, regional chief Oleh Syniehubov said.

Russia also claimed Ukraine fired four US-supplied ATACMS missiles at the city of Voronezh. Moscow said the missiles were intercepted but debris damaged several buildings, with no casualties reported. Ukraine confirmed launching ATACMS but provided no further details.