KYIV, Ukraine (AP) \u2014 Russian strikes killed at least eight people across Ukraine on Friday, including in a \u201cmassive\u201d missile and drone attack near the capital, local authorities reported. <\/p>\n
Ukrainian officials claim the Kremlin is changing its tactics to increase civilian suffering, shifting to daytime barrages and preparing to target more key infrastructure. <\/p>\n
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has signaled Kyiv\u2019s openness to a potential Easter truce<\/a>. The holiday is celebrated on April 12 in Ukraine and Russia. <\/p>\n Zelenskyy also said that Ukraine is preparing for a shift in Russian aerial tactics, with intelligence indicating that future attacks will move beyond energy infrastructure<\/a>. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \n AP AUDIO: Russian strikes on Ukraine kill 8 as Kyiv holds door open for Easter truce\n <\/p>\n AP correspondent Charles de Ledesma reports Russia has launched a daytime attack on Ukraine early in Easter.<\/p>\n Russia\u2019s Defense Ministry said 192 Ukrainian drones were shot down overnight across Russia and occupied Crimea. <\/p>\n \u2018I have no words\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cThe Kyiv region is once again under a massive Russian missile and drone attack,\u201d said Mykola Kalashnyk, head of the regional military administration, in a Telegram post on Friday.<\/p>\n Kalashnyk said one person died and at least eight others were wounded in strikes on three of Kyiv\u2019s satellite towns \u2014 Bucha, Fastiv and Obukhiv. Earlier in the week, residents of Bucha marked the fourth anniversary<\/a> of atrocities committed in the town by Russia\u2019s invading forces. <\/a><\/p>\n Obukhiv resident Lesia Podoriako, 37, told The Associated Press she was at work with her child when she learned her building had been struck. <\/p>\n \u201cI found out about it through Telegram channels. Then all my friends and acquaintances started calling me, telling me that our building was attacked. I have no words. The main thing is that everyone is alive and healthy,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Another person was killed in Ukraine\u2019s northern Sumy region after a Russian guided aerial bomb struck an apartment block, local Gov. Oleh Hryhorov reported. Authorities in the Kherson, Zhytomyr, Kharkiv and Donetsk regions also reported casualties from Friday\u2019s attacks. <\/p>\n Ukrainian officials highlighted what they said were increased daytime attacks by Russia, which they said could lead to more civilian deaths. For months, Moscow pummeled Ukraine with nighttime missile and drone strikes that could involve hundreds of drones at a time. <\/p>\n Ukraine\u2019s Foreign Minister, Andrii Sybiha, said in a post on X that \u201calmost half a thousand drones and cruise missiles\u201d attacked Ukraine overnight.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is how Moscow responds to Ukraine\u2019s Easter ceasefire proposals \u2014 with brutal attacks,\u201d Sybiha said.<\/p>\n Kyiv floats an Easter ceasefire<\/p>\n Zelenskyy on Thursday signaled Kyiv\u2019s continued openness to a potential truce on Easter, which falls next week according to the Julian calendar followed by Orthodox churches in Ukraine and Russia. <\/p>\n Zelenskyy told reporters that the proposal had been communicated to Moscow through U.S. channels. He added that the Kremlin\u2019s response remains unclear.<\/p>\n Zelenskyy has previously offered a ceasefire for the Easter period<\/a> \u2014 but Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said earlier this week that Moscow wants a lasting peace settlement, not a temporary truce. <\/p>\n President Vladimir Putin unilaterally declared<\/a> a 30-hour ceasefire last Easter, but each side accused the other of breaking it.<\/p>\n A change in Russian tactics? <\/p>\n Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials said Russia was increasingly striking the country during the day, an apparent departure from months of nighttime barrages<\/a>. <\/p>\n Andrii Kovalenko, head of the Center for Countering Disinformation within Ukraine\u2019s defense ministry, said that the daytime strikes aimed to \u201cincrease civilian casualties.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cThat is why the combined attack is carried out on a working day, using a large number of drones and missiles,\u201d Kovalenko wrote on Friday in a Telegram post. <\/p>\n Zelenskyy told reporters on Thursday that Ukraine is preparing for Russian aerial attacks that could target water systems, logistics and other critical networks. After months of sustained strikes on power facilities<\/a>, Kyiv now expects increased pressure elsewhere. <\/p>\n \u201cAccording to intelligence documents we have received, the Russians will target logistics \u2013 railways and other infrastructure. They will also target the water supply,\u201d Zelenskyy said at a press briefing. <\/p>\n Around midday on Friday, Russian forces dropped five aerial bombs on the city of Kramatorsk, in eastern Ukraine. At least two people were killed and three were injured, according to a Telegram update by Vadym Filashkin, who heads the regional military administration. <\/p>\n Elsewhere in Ukraine on Friday, a Russian drone strike damaged a bus in the southern city of Kherson, leaving the driver seriously wounded and at least eight passengers hurt, according to regional officials.<\/p>\n Separately, authorities reported sustained attacks on Kharkiv, Ukraine\u2019s second-largest city, beginning on Thursday and continuing into early Friday. Drone strikes near the city center caused several injuries. Two people later died in hospital, local Gov. Oleh Syniehubov wrote in separate Telegram updates. <\/p>\n Bohdan Hladykh, head of Kharkiv\u2019s Department of Emergency Situations, said Russia struck the city at least 20 times during the day on Thursday with explosive drones. <\/p>\n Zelenskyy says battlefield situation has stabilized<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Zelenskyy told reporters that the battlefield situation has stabilized, with recent intelligence assessments pointing to the most favorable conditions for Kyiv in months. While fighting remains intense across eastern sectors<\/a>, Ukrainian forces have disrupted Russian offensives in recent weeks and regained limited ground.<\/p>\n \u201cOn Wednesday I received a report from our intelligence and an analysis from British intelligence. I received MI6\u2019s assessment of the situation at the front: right now, it is the best situation for Ukraine in the past 10 months,\u201d the Ukrainian leader said at a press briefing Thursday.<\/p>\n Zelenskyy added that Ukraine has invited U.S. negotiators to visit Kyiv, as part of ongoing discussions on security guarantees<\/a> and a broader framework for ending the war<\/a>. Recent talks have involved senior American officials as well as NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, with Ukraine seeking clearer commitments on long-term defense support and responses to any future Russian aggression.<\/p>\n Ukrainian drones target Russia <\/p>\n Two people were hospitalized on Friday following a Ukrainian drone strike on Russia\u2019s Leningrad region, over 1,100 kilometers (684 miles) from the border, said regional Gov. Alexander Drozdenko reported, who added that the drones also set fire to an \u201cunoccupied\u201d building within the Morozov industrial zone. <\/p>\n The settlement of Morozov houses a state-owned plant that makes explosives and components for ammunition, including solid fuel used in Topol-M missile systems. The plant was put under U.S., EU and other Western sanctions following Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n Twelve people, including at least three Russian soldiers, were injured in a Ukrainian drone strike late Thursday on Russia\u2019s Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, local Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov reported. <\/p>\n Four drones were downed during the night on the approach to Moscow, mayor Sergei Sobyanin reported Friday. He did not reference any casualties or damage.<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n Associated Press journalists Vasilisa Stepanenko in Obukhiv and Derek Gatopoulos in Kyiv contributed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KYIV, Ukraine (AP) \u2014 Russian strikes killed at least eight people across Ukraine on Friday, including in a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13555,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[6980,61,9206,7947,900,50,8,7536,357,901,9,969,2137,349,9205,7,536,1828,804,1826,6979,226,106],"class_list":{"0":"post-13554","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-stories","8":"tag-alexander-drozdenko","9":"tag-ap-top-news","10":"tag-bohdan-hladykh","11":"tag-dmitry-peskov","12":"tag-drone-surveillance-and-warfare","13":"tag-general-news","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-kyiv","16":"tag-mark-rutte","17":"tag-military-technology","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-religion","20":"tag-russia-government","21":"tag-russia-ukraine-war","22":"tag-sergei-sobyanin","23":"tag-top-stories","24":"tag-ukraine","25":"tag-ukraine-government","26":"tag-vladimir-putin","27":"tag-volodymyr-zelenskyy","28":"tag-vyacheslav-gladkov","29":"tag-war-and-unrest","30":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@news\/116343657141774324","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}