”The brutal Russian attacks destroyed entire residential buildings and damaged schools and hospitals", writes Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrij Sybiha on X.
At least 124 people are reported to have been injured in the drone attack, including ten children.
According to the Ukrainian military, a nine-story building collapsed after being hit by a drone. Many people were trapped under the rubble. During Thursday, rescue workers have continued to search for people under the debris.
Russia sent, according to Ukraine's air force, 309 drones and eight cruise missiles during the night. Most of the drones were stopped by Ukraine, but 21 drones and five missiles reached their targets.
The death toll may rise, estimates the head of the military administration Timur Tkatjenko.
”Generous and patient”
After the deadly attack, Foreign Minister Sybiha urges the international community to exert the greatest possible pressure on Moscow to put an end to the war.
”President Trump has been very generous and patient with Putin”, he writes and adds that the Russian president does not ”care about any attempts to stop the killing."
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyj calls the night's attacks "new, demonstrative murders” which he sees as a Russian response to Ukraine's, the US's and Europe's work for peace. He also urges Ukraine's allies to pressure Moscow to the negotiating table.
Claims control
Russia claims that the country has taken control of the strategically important community of Tjasiv Jar. Ukraine denies the claim.
If Russia were to have regained control of the town, it is after many months of intense fighting in the area. Tjasiv Jar had a population of around 12,000 people before the Kremlin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The battle for Tjasiv Jar began in earnest after May 2023, when Russian forces and units from the Russian-backed paramilitary force Wagner took the nearby city of Bachmut.
