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Russian artillery and missile strikes in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro have killed at least five people and wounded 34, local authorities said Saturday.
The bodies of four people were found in the ruins of a house destroyed in the night attack, said the head of Dnipropetrovsk region, Oleksandr Hanzha.
“The Russians have been hitting Dnipro and other cities and communities almost all night,” Hanzha wrote on the Telegram social media site about the attack, which sparked fires across Dnipro and destroyed dozens of apartments, businesses and a private home, injuring 27 people.
Another person died in a separate incident of Russian attack in Dnipro on Saturday afternoon, according to Hanzha, in the same area that was hit by the night strikes. Seven other people were injured.
In the southwest, two people were injured during a night drone attack in Odesa region. Residential buildings, port infrastructure and vehicles were damaged in the south of the region, said the head of the region, Oleh Kiper, on Saturday.
One was killed in Russia
In Russia, a woman was killed and a man was seriously injured in a Ukrainian airstrike on the border of Belgorod, local officials said.
After the overnight attack, Romania's Defense Ministry said on Saturday that pieces of a drone had been found in a residential area southeast of the city of Galatia, near the border of NATO member Ukraine. No injuries were reported.
Romania has confirmed drone fragments on its territory several times.
The overnight attack follows a prisoner exchange on Friday, in which Russia and Ukraine exchanged 193 prisoners.
The occasional prisoner exchange has been one of the few positive outcomes of months of fruitless US talks between Moscow and Kyiv. The talks did not bring progress on key issues preventing an end to Russia's invasion of its neighbour, which is now in its fifth year.
Zelenskyy meets his Azerbaijani counterpart
While meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Ukraine is open to continuing peace talks with Russia in Azerbaijan.
“We have already held such talks – in Turkey and with our American partners in Switzerland,” he said. “We are also ready for future negotiations in Azerbaijan, if Russia is ready to negotiate.”
Zelenskyy also signed agreements on security and energy cooperation with Aliyev in Baku, he said, as Kyiv seeks to increase its experience in protecting its airspace in Russia.
Following the latest wave of conflict in the Middle East that began with the US-Israeli airstrikes on Iran in late February, many countries have sought Ukraine's help and technology to shoot down Iran's long-range drones.
Zelenskyy said that these countries have signed an agreement on military and industrial cooperation.
Aliyev said that military-industrial relations between the two countries have “various perspectives” and that the two leaders discussed joint defense production. He did not specify if there are any deals he has signed.
