Seven people killed in attack on Ukraine: "Russia is deliberately prolonging terror against our people..."

A major Russian nighttime attack on Ukraine killed seven people and injured dozens as Moscow launched more than 660 drones and missiles in a barrage targeting the city of Dnieper in southeastern Ukraine and hitting several other regions, Reuters reported.

A large part of an apartment building in Dnipro collapsed after being hit during the attack. Four bodies were pulled from the rubble, regional governor Oleksandr Hanzha said.

The site was hit again in a daytime attack, authorities said, as rescue workers worked there. The second attack killed one person and injured seven.

Moscow carries out smaller barrages of a few dozen drones into Ukraine every night, occasionally combining them with large-scale attacks using hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles.

Thick columns of black smoke could be seen rising into the sky this morning, as local media warned residents of Dnipro of deteriorating air quality, Reuters reports.

A Reuters reporter saw a Russian drone destroyed in the sky above a destroyed apartment building as rescue workers worked through the rubble. More than 30 people were injured in the city, officials said.

Grieving residents

"Russia is deliberately prolonging the terror against our people, continuing to target critical infrastructure and residential buildings," said Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Sviridenko.

At the destroyed apartment building in Dnipro, which had a population of almost a million before the war and has suffered numerous deadly attacks over the past four years, residents were overcome with grief and anger.

"Let their children sleep in their warm beds in Russia and let everything be fine for them. Let them watch as Russia 'liberates' us from our apartments and houses," said 37-year-old Alena Katrushova, who lives in the building across the street.

She watched in her dressing gown as survivors were pulled from the rubble. Saturday is her husband Oleh's birthday.

"It's like I've been given a second life," he said after surviving the attack, although the couple's apartment was damaged.

In the northern Chernihiv region, missile and drone attacks killed two people and wounded seven others, the governor there said.

"Every such strike must remind our partners that the situation requires urgent and decisive action, a rapid strengthening of our air defense," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

Parts of a drone damaged an electricity pole and a household outbuilding in Romania, a NATO member that borders Ukraine, authorities there said, adding that there were no casualties.

Ukraine has recently stepped up its own drone attacks on Russian territory. Authorities in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg said today that a Ukrainian drone had crashed into a residential building, causing minor injuries.

Ukrainian experience in air defense

Zelensky is visiting Azerbaijan today to sign cooperation agreements in the fields of defense and energy.

Kiev is seeking to strengthen diplomatic and security alliances by using wartime experience in countering massive air strikes, particularly experience in shooting down hundreds of drones using cheap methods, according to Reuters.

Zelensky posted a photo from his meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and said he also met with a Ukrainian military team "who share Ukraine's experience in protecting the sky."

Azerbaijan shares a long border with Iran, with which it has tense relations. Azerbaijan has also fought several wars with its other neighbor, Armenia, since 1991.

Since the United States and Israel attacked Iran earlier this year, triggering a war in the Middle East, Kiev has been working intensively to build security cooperation with Middle Eastern states concerned about Iranian drone and missile attacks.

The Russian night attack on Saturday used 619 drones and 47 missiles, the Ukrainian Air Force said on Telegram, adding that it shot down 580 drones and 30 missiles.

The Russian Defense Ministry said it had struck military-industrial and energy targets in Ukraine overnight. It did not comment on the strike on the apartment building in the Dnieper.