Russia Ukraine war latest: Putin’s forces launch 81 drones in aerial assault as Sumy apartment strike kills 4

A Russian drone struck a multi-storey apartment building in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Sumy early on Thursday, killing four people and injuring nine, including a child, the regional authorities said.

“This is a terrible tragedy, a terrible Russian crime. It is very important that the world does not stop putting pressure on Russia for this terror,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said via the Telegram messaging app.

Russia launched 81 drones at Ukraine overnight, damaging businesses and homes around the country, the Ukrainian military said on Thursday.

The air force shot down 37 drones, 39 others did not reach their targets. It did not specify what happened to the five remaining drones.

Sumy Governor Volodymyr Artyukh, shown in a video on Telegram in front of a crane and piles of rubble, said emergency services were pulling residents out from parts of the building.

The attack ruined five apartments and damaged over 20 cars, authorities said. Work on site continued into Thursday morning, with emergency services sharing pictures of rescuers sifting through the rubble.

The region borders Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukraine launched an incursion in August 2024, and has been regularly attacked by Russian drones.

Russia launched 81 drones at Ukraine during an overnight attack, the Ukrainian military said this morning.

The Ukrainian air force shot down 37 drones and 39 others did not reach their targets. It did not specify what happened to the five remaining drones.

Russia has now lost more than 834,000 troops in its invasion of Ukraine, according to Ukrainian military officials.

The General Staff of the Ukraine Armed Forces said today that Russia had seen a total of 834,670 troops killed or injured, and of these 1,670 casualties were reported in the past 24 hours.

The latest Russian losses also include 9,876 tanks, 20,573 armoured fighting vehicles, 35,269 vehicles and fuel tanks, 22,366 artillery systems, 1,263 multiple launch rocket systems, 1,050 air defence systems, 369 airplanes, 331 helicopters, 23,399 drones, 28 ships and boats, and one submarine.

Ukrainian investigators have opened a criminal case involving defence minister Rustem Umerov, a move likely to deepen a standoff in his ministry over arms procurement that could strain Kyiv’s ties with important Western allies.

The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) told Reuters in a statement that its investigation, requested by a corruption watchdog, would examine whether there had been an abuse of authority by Mr Umerov but gave few other details.

The watchdog, the Anti-Corruption Action Centre, has accused Mr Umerov of acting illegally by sidelining the head of the defence procurement agency, whose contract

Mr Umerov is refusing to renew after criticising the agency’s work.

Mr Umerov said last week that the DPA, which coordinates weapons purchases, had failed to deliver results for Ukrainian forces, comments that brought ministry infighting over arms procurement out into the open.

“Despite the publicised scale of procurement, our defenders on the frontlines have not experienced its tangible impact,” he wrote on Facebook.

The dispute comes at a critical time in the war with Russia as president Donald Trump reviews US support for Ukraine’s military and as Kyiv tries to convince its Western partners that it is winning the battle against endemic corruption.

Weapons supplied by Ukraine’s Western allies including tanks, rockets, missile defences and ammunition are vital to Kyiv’s war effort.

Russian forces are closing in on the strategically important eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk after capturing a string of villages to its south.

Pokrovsk is a road and rail hub in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, which had a pre-war population of some 60,000 people. While most people have fled, Ukraine estimated last month that up to 11,000 still remain in the city.

It lies on a key road used by the Ukrainian military to supply other embattled eastern outposts including the towns of Chasiv Yar and Kostiantynivka in the Donetsk region.

Ukraine’s only mine that produces coking coal – used in its once vast steel industry and vital for the country’s pre-war economy – is just a 20-minute drive to the west of Pokrovsk.

Moscow says it has annexed Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region and sees taking control of Pokrovsk as an important stepping stone to incorporating the entire region into Russia. Kyiv and the West reject Russia’s territorial claims as illegal and accuse Moscow of prosecuting a war of colonial conquest.

Control of the city, which the Russian media call “the gateway to Donetsk”, would allow Moscow to severely disrupt Ukrainian supply lines along the eastern front.