Russian overnight strikes kill 12 in Ukraine, including a 3-year-old child

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Russian airstrikes across Ukraine have killed at least 12 people and injured dozens more in multiple drone and missile attacks overnight, according to local authorities.

The Ukrainian Air Force said Russia launched six missiles and 151 attack drones throughout Friday night, hitting 12 locations. Ukrainian authorities managed to down 135 drones.

The attacks came as Ukraine continues to urge Western allies to provide more air defense systems and interceptor missiles.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the drone attacks killed three people — a 3-year-old child and the child’s grandparents — in a village in the Kyiv region. The six ballistic missiles struck civilian infrastructure in Kyiv, killing one person, he said.

“More pressure is needed. New sanctions that will prevent the production of these ballistic missiles,” Zelenskyy said on X. “And we definitely need more protection for our people,” he added, appealing to allies to provide missile interceptors to strengthen Ukraine’s defenses against Russia’s aerial assault.

In the Zaporizhzhia region, in southeast Ukraine, three people were killed and four were wounded following the overnight attack, regional governor Ivan Fedorov said .

A further five people were killed and nearly 50 people wounded in the regions of Kharkiv , Donetsk and Kherson , according to regional authorities.

Separately, Zelenskyy visited Serbia on Saturday — his first trip to the country since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine — to meet with President Aleksandar Vučić and Prime Minister Đuro Macut.