Russia hammers Ukraine port in overnight attack days after Trump sanctions threat
Russia, in the face of President Trump’s recent sanctions threat, attacked Ukraine with over 300 drones overnight, hammering the port city of Odesa.
The attacks targeted about 10 regions in the war-torn nation late Friday, with Russia launching 344 drones, of which around 200 were Shahed drones and 45 missiles, according to Ukraine’s Air Force. Ukraine intercepted about 185 drones and 23 missiles.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an online update Saturday morning that six people were injured, including a child in the strike on Odesa, a port city on the Black Sea. One person was killed in the attack.
In Sumy, a city located in the northeast, “critical” infrastructure was damaged in the overnight attack that left “several thousand” families without electricity.
“My condolences to their family and loved ones. Missiles and drones also struck Pavlohrad, damaging a residential building and vital infrastructure,” Zelensky wrote on social platform X. “All relevant services are now on the ground wherever needed, restoring affected areas and assisting people after the attack.”
Russia has been bombarding Ukraine in recent weeks with drone attacks, firing as many as 700 in a single night. On Wednesday, the Kremlin’s military launched another large-scale attack, with Ukraine able to shoot down nearly 200 drones.
The latest attack comes less than a week after Trump threatened to impose “severe” sanctions on Moscow if Russian President Vladimir Putin does not end the military offensive against Ukraine within a certain timeframe.
“We’re very, very unhappy with [Russia], and we’re going to be doing very severe tariffs if we don’t have a deal in about 50 days,” Trump said on Monday during a meeting at the White House with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte. “We are very unhappy — I am — with Russia.”
During Rutte’s visit to Washington, Trump also announced that more weapons would be supplied to Ukraine, but that the U.S. would not bear the brunt of the cost. As part of the deal, weapons would be sourced from various NATO allies in Europe.
Trump, who campaigned on ending the largest land conflict in Europe since World War II, has recently taken a tougher stance against Russia, criticizing its leader after the two spoke over the phone earlier this month. Following that conversation, he signaled Putin was not prepared to end the more than three-year-long war and conceded that they had made “no progress” on peace talks.