Russian strikes killed 14 of us in Ukraine on Friday (April 3, 2026), officials said, as Moscow launched the most recent in an rising sequence of daytime barrages.
Moscow has been firing aerial broadsides at Ukraine throughout its better than four-yr invasion, largely at evening, but in most recent weeks it has stepped up daytime attacks.
The Russian militia veteran better than 500 drones and dozens of missiles in its salvo on Friday (April 3), in step with the Ukrainian air force.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of intensifying attacks forward of Catholic Easter on Sunday (April 5), “turning what should have been silence in the skies into an Easter escalation”.
Images from Ukrainian emergency products and companies showed damaged residential structures, with a block of residences ripped delivery and rubble strewn on a toll road.
The attack killed one particular person and left eight wounded in the capital space of Kyiv, said regional Governor Mykola Kalashnyk.
“Unfortunately, animals were also affected by the attack — approximately 20 animals died due to damage to a veterinary clinic,” Mr. Kalashnyk added.
Some residents of the capital sheltered in the metro or in basements, AFP reporters saw, but many of us sat in cafes unfazed by the attacks and despite blaring air raid sirens.
In the Kyiv space, “a drone struck a residential building in Obukhiv, and another attack occurred between a kindergarten and a school in Vyshneve, damaging homes,” said Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko.
Three of us were killed in Ukraine’s northern Sumy space, whereas attacks on the northwestern Zhytomyr space and central Dnipropetrovsk areas killed two others, in step with the authorities.
Russian strikes on the frontline areas of Kharkiv, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia killed eight of us, native officials said.
Easter truce?
The barrage prompted emergency power outages in several areas, operator Ukrenergo said. “This is how Moscow responds to Ukraine’s Easter ceasefire proposals — with brutal attacks,” said Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga.
Zelensky said earlier this week he changed into as soon as ready for a truce over the Easter holidays, but the Kremlin said it had now not bought “clearly formulated” proposals.
Ukraine has accused Russia of prolonging the battle to capture extra territory, and says Moscow is now not in peace.
Russia denies concentrating on civilians. Talks between the 2 opponents, mediated by america, maintain been stalled by the battle in the Center East.
In feedback to reporters, along with from AFP, printed on Friday (April 4), Zelensky said he had invited an American delegation to Ukraine to relaunch negotiations with Moscow.
“The delegation will do everything possible in the current conditions — during the war with Iran — to come to Kyiv,” Zelensky said.
“The American group can come to us and, after us, go to Moscow. If it does not work out with three parties, let’s do it this way,” he added.
US President Donald Trump’s envoys maintain been engaged in three-system shuttle diplomacy with Ukrainian and Russian teams in a uncover to total the battle. But these maintain stalled as Washington has been alive to about the aerial advertising and marketing campaign on Iran it launched in leisurely February.
Amid the Center East battle, Ukraine has sought to leverage its expertise in struggling with off Russian drones equivalent to those Iran has been using in retaliatory attacks across Gulf countries.
Final week, Zelensky visited several Center Jap countries and signed defence agreements with Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
He moreover rapid Ukraine might possibly presumably aid unblock the Strait of Hormuz, whose efficient closure by Iran has rattled the world economic system.
He didn’t specify how Ukraine might possibly presumably contribute, but cited Kyiv’s expertise in restoring passage by intention of the Dusky Sea, which Russia had blocked at the starting of its invasion.
