Russian strikes kill 3 in Ukraine, say regional authorities

Russian missile and drone strikes prompted air raid alerts across Ukraine on Tuesday, killing two people in Poltava and another in Zaporizhzhia, regional military administrations reported.

Air raid alerts were issued in the early hours across all of Ukraine except the Odesa region, according to local authorities.

“As a result of the enemy attack on the Poltava community, residential buildings and a hotel were damaged, and fires broke out,” Vitali Dyakivnych, head of the Poltava regional military administration, wrote on Telegram.

“Unfortunately, two people died and seven were wounded as a result of the attack,” he added, later revising the number of wounded to 11.

Further south, Russia launched a “massive combined missile-drone strike” on Zaporizhzhia, according to Ivan Fedorov, head of the regional military administration.

“One person died, five were wounded; the number of victims of the nighttime enemy attack on Zaporizhzhia is increasing,” Fedorov posted on Telegram.

He said six apartment buildings, two private houses, a shop, other non-residential buildings, and an industrial infrastructure facility were damaged.

On the eve of the strikes, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned in his daily televised address that “there is information from our intelligence that the Russians may be preparing a massive strike.”