Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, endured waves of Russian air strikes on Thursday night and Friday morning as the conflict entered its 1,500th day, Ukrainian officials said. Located about 40 kilometers from the Russian border, Kharkiv was hit by four rocket strikes overnight and at least 20 drones, which damaged homes and offices and wounded five people, including an eight-year-old girl.
Officials said the raids involved Iranian-built Shahed drones fitted with jet engines that can cross the short distance from Russia to Kharkiv so quickly they are hard to intercept. An apartment building in Kharkiv was struck on Thursday, according to Reuters images.
Large daytime missile and drone strikes also struck Kyiv and surrounding areas, with the head of the local military administration, Mykola Kalashnyk, reporting at least one death in the capital region. Local officials reported three more fatalities in the northern Sumy region, one in Zhytomyr, and another in Kharkiv.
The Ukrainian Air Force said Russia launched 542 drones and 37 missiles since Thursday night targeting critical infrastructure; air defense units reportedly downed 515 drones and 26 missiles.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of an “Easter escalation,” saying he spoke by phone with Pope Leo XIV while the attacks were under way and that the strikes had intensified rather than paused for the holiday. Zelenskyy had earlier said Kyiv was prepared for an Easter truce, but the Kremlin said it had received no proposals. Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha called Russia’s actions a rejection of diplomacy and demanded strong responses.
Peace talks brokered by the US have stalled in recent weeks amid the war in the Middle East, which has also created uncertainty about future arms supplies to Ukraine. Zelenskyy said he invited US negotiators to Kyiv as an alternative to a trilateral technical-team meeting and that the delegation would work under current circumstances.
A Ukrainian Air Force spokesman said Russian forces are trying new routes, deploying modernized drones and using fresh tactics, noting repeated patterns of overnight drone barrages followed by heavy daytime strikes as Moscow probes Ukrainian air defenses. The attacks have disrupted public services and educational institutions.
Poland scrambled fighter jets in response to the activity of Russian long-range aviation striking Ukrainian territory; the Polish military said duty jets were airborne and ground-based air defense and radar reconnaissance were at maximum readiness.
The Russian Defense Ministry claimed it intercepted 192 Ukrainian drones overnight, saying their flight paths suggested possible targets near oil export facilities by the St. Petersburg area. In Moscow, former president Dmitry Medvedev warned against a tolerant attitude toward possible Ukrainian EU membership, arguing the EU could evolve into a militarized bloc hostile to Russia and speculating about divisions within NATO and symbolic US moves.
Zelenskyy said the roughly 1,200-kilometer frontline in eastern Ukraine was largely stable and “slightly in the positive” for Ukraine. He reported no current large-scale threat, asserting Ukrainian forces repelled a planned Russian offensive last month and predicting Moscow would intensify assault operations. Russia controls just under 20% of Ukraine’s territory, much of it seized before the 2022 full-scale invasion; open-source analysis indicates Russian advances have slowed, with around 500 square kilometers gained since January. Zelenskyy said overall the front line is holding and the situation is the best it has been in the past 10 months.
Edited by: Karl Sexton