Russia launched at least 800 drones at nearly 20 regions across Ukraine on Wednesday, killing at least six people and injuring dozens, including children, in one of the longest and most extensive attacks of the four-year war, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
The barrage began in midmorning and continued for hours, targeting Kyiv, the western city of Lviv near Poland and the Black Sea port of Odesa, along with other population centers, Zelenskyy said on Telegram.
“Our soldiers are defending Ukraine, but Russia’s clear goal is to overload our air defenses,” he said, warning that cruise and ballistic missile strikes could follow.
Zelenskyy described it as “one of the longest, massive Russian attacks against Ukraine.”
The assault also heightened tensions in neighboring Hungary. Prime Minister Péter Magyar said his government had summoned the Russian ambassador after a drone strike near Hungary’s border in Ukraine’s Transcarpathia region.
“The Hungarian government strongly condemns the Russian attack on Transcarpathia,” Magyar told reporters. He said Foreign Minister Anita Orbán would ask Moscow when Russia and President Vladimir Putin plan to end what he called a “bloody war.”
Zelenskyy later thanked Hungary on X for its “compassion and strong position.”
In Kyiv, debris from intercepted drones fell in an open area in the Obolonskyi district, but no casualties were reported, city officials said. Mayor Vitali Klitschko said emergency services were sent to the site. Explosions were heard across the capital earlier in the day.
In the Rivne region west of Kyiv, three people were killed in a drone strike, according to regional governor Oleksandr Koval.
The attacks came despite renewed optimism about a possible end to the war. On Tuesday, Zelenskyy said 14 Ukrainian regions had come under attack, including overnight strikes on residential areas, energy facilities and railway infrastructure.
“It is important to support Ukraine and not remain silent about Russia’s war,” Zelenskyy said, suggesting that global attention has shifted to the conflict involving Iran. “Every time the war disappears from the headlines, it encourages Russia to become even more savage.”
US President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he believes Russia and Ukraine may soon reach a deal.
“The end of the war in Ukraine is getting very close,” Trump said as he left the White House for a summit in Beijing.
Putin said last weekend that Russia’s invasion may be “coming to an end.”
Neither leader explained why they believe peace could be near. US-led diplomatic efforts over the past year have made little progress on key issues, including whether Russia will keep the Ukrainian territory it has seized and what guarantees can prevent another invasion.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday that Moscow’s core demands remain unchanged.
Russia continues to insist that Ukraine withdraw its forces from the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, which Moscow illegally annexed in September 2022 but does not fully control.
“At that point, a ceasefire will be established, and the parties can calmly engage in negotiations,” Peskov said, adding that any talks would be complex and involve many important details.
Speaking in Bucharest, Romania, to representatives of countries on NATO’s eastern flank, Zelenskyy said Ukraine would continue pressing Moscow through diplomacy and other means.
“We’re not giving up on diplomatic efforts, and we hope that pressure on Russia, together with negotiations in different formats, will help bring peace,” he said.
“Sanctions are working, our long-range capabilities are working, and every form of pressure is working.”
European governments are also considering whether to reopen talks with Putin after years of isolating him and imposing broad sanctions on Russia.