KYIV(National Times)- Russian strikes killed at least 10 people in Ukraine on Friday, officials said, as Moscow launched the latest in an increasing number of daytime barrages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Moscow has been firing aerial broadsides at Ukraine throughout its more than four-year invasion, mostly at night, but in recent weeks it has stepped up daytime attacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Russian military used more than 500 drones and dozens of missiles in its salvo on Friday, according to the Ukrainian air force. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of intensifying attacks ahead of Catholic Easter on Sunday, \u201cturning what should have been silence in the skies into an Easter escalation\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Images from Ukrainian emergency services showed damaged residential buildings, with a block of flats ripped open and rubble strewn on a street. The attack killed one person and left eight wounded in the capital region of Kyiv, said regional governor Mykola Kalashnyk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cUnfortunately, animals were also affected by the attack \u2014 approximately 20 animals died due to damage to a veterinary clinic,\u201d Kalashnyk added. Some residents of the capital sheltered in the metro or in basements, reporters saw, but many people sat in cafes unfazed by the attacks and despite blaring air raid sirens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the Kyiv region, \u201ca drone struck a residential building in Obukhiv, and another attack occurred between a kindergarten and a school in Vyshneve, damaging homes,\u201d said Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Three people were killed in Ukraine\u2019s northern Sumy region, according to authorities. One person was killed in the northwestern Zhytomyr region, while attacks on the frontline Kharkiv, Donetsk and Kherson regions killed five others, local officials said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Easter truce?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The barrage prompted emergency power outages in several regions, operator Ukrenergo said. \u201cThis is how Moscow responds to Ukraine\u2019s Easter ceasefire proposals \u2014 with brutal attacks,\u201d said Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Zelensky said earlier this week he was ready for a truce over the Easter holidays, but the Kremlin said it had not received \u201cclearly formulated\u201d proposals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ukraine has accused Russia of prolonging the war to capture more territory, and says Moscow is not interested in peace. Talks between the two warring parties, mediated by the United States, have been stalled by the war in the Middle East.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In comments to reporters published on Friday, Zelensky said he had invited an American delegation to Ukraine to relaunch negotiations with Moscow. \u201cThe delegation will do everything possible in the current conditions \u2014 during the war with Iran \u2014 to come to Kyiv,\u201d Zelensky said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe American group can come to us and, after us, go to Moscow. If it does not work out with three parties, let\u2019s do it this way,\u201d he added. US President Donald Trump\u2019s envoys have been engaged in three-way shuttle diplomacy with Ukrainian and Russian teams in a bid to end the war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But these have stalled as Washington has been occupied with the aerial campaign on Iran it launched in late February. Amid the Middle East war, Ukraine has sought to leverage its expertise in fighting off Russian drones similar to those Iran has been using in retaliatory attacks across Gulf nations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Last week, Zelensky visited several Middle Eastern countries and signed defence agreements with Qatar and Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" KYIV(National Times)- Russian strikes killed at least 10 people in Ukraine on Friday, officials said, as Moscow launched the latest in an increasing number of daytime barrages. Moscow has been firing aerial broadsides at Ukraine throughout its more than four-year invasion, mostly at night, but in recent weeks it has stepped up daytime attacks. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":123661,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-123660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n