Russia launches the biggest aerial attack since the start of the war, Ukraine says

KYIV Ukraine AP Russia launched its biggest aerial attack against Ukraine overnight a Ukrainian official stated Sunday part of an escalating bombing campaign that has further dashed hopes for a breakthrough in efforts to end the -year-old war Russia fired a total of aerial weapons at Ukraine including drones and decoys and missiles Ukraine s air force revealed Of these were shot down and were lost likely having been electronically jammed The onslaught was the majority massive airstrike on the country since the beginning of Russia s full-scale invasion in February taking into account both drones and various types of missiles Yuriy Ihnat head of communications for Ukraine s air force stated The Associated Press The attack targeted several regions including western Ukraine far from the front line Poland and allied countries scrambled aircraft to ensure the safety of Polish airspace the country s air force noted Three people were killed in each of the drone strikes in the Kherson Kharkiv and the Dnipropetrovsk regions according to the three governors Another person was killed by an airstrike in Kostyantynivka local authorities announced In addition to aerial attacks a man died when Russian troops shelled the city of Kherson and the body of a -year-old woman was exposed under the rubble of a nine-story building hit by Russian shelling in the Zaporizhzhia region In the far-western Lviv region a large fire broke out at an industrial facility in the city of Drohobych following a drone attack that also cut electricity to parts of the city Ukraine s air force stated one of its F- warplanes supplied by its Western partners crashed after sustaining damage while shooting down air targets The pilot died Russian troops reportedly advance in Donetsk Russia s Defense Ministry explained it had shot down three Ukrainian drones overnight Two people were wounded in another Ukrainian drone attack on the city of Bryansk in western Russia regional Gov Alexander Bogomaz declared Sunday morning adding that seven more Ukrainian drones had been shot down over the region Meanwhile Russia claimed Sunday that it had taken control of the village of Novoukrainka in the partially Russian-occupied Donetsk region Russian forces have been slowly grinding forward at particular points on the roughly -kilometer -mile front line though their incremental gains have been costly in terms of troop casualties and damaged armor In other developments Russia s foreign intelligence chief Sergei Naryshkin mentioned he had spoken on the phone with his U S counterpart CIA Director John Ratcliffe I had a phone call with my American counterpart and we reserved for each other the possibility to call at any time and discuss issues of interest to us Naryshkin announced in remarks to state TV reporter Pavel Zarubin who posted them on his Telegram channel on Sunday Sunday s attacks follow Russian President Vladimir Putin s comments two days ago that Moscow is ready for a fresh round of direct peace talks in Istanbul Two latest rounds of talks between Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Istanbul were brief and yielded no progress on reaching a settlement Zelenskyy withdraws Ukraine from an anti-land mine pact Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a decree to withdraw Ukraine from the Ottawa Convention banning antipersonnel land mines a Ukrainian lawmaker revealed Sunday The move follows similar latest procedures by the Baltic states and Poland The treaty prohibits the use production stockpiling and transfer of antipersonnel land mines in an effort to protect civilians from explosives that can maim or kill long after fighting ends This is a step that the reality of war has long demanded explained Roman Kostenko secretary of the Ukrainian parliamentary committee on national assurance defense and intelligence He noted that Russia is not a party to the convention and is massively using mines against our military and civilians