Russia Fires 400 Drones, Kills 6 in Spring Offensive
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- Russia fired nearly 400 long-range drones, 23 cruise missiles, and 7 ballistic missiles at Ukraine overnight in its biggest aerial assault in weeks, killing six people and injuring at least 46, with Iranian-designed Shahed drones hitting at least seven cities.
- Daytime strikes wounded 13 people including three children in the central city of Dnipro and 13 more in Lviv near the Polish border, where the attack set fire to the 17th-century St. Andrew's Church, part of a UNESCO World Heritage site, according to Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko.
- Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander-in-chief of Ukraine's armed forces, reported 619 Russian attacks in four days along the 1,250-kilometer front line, while the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War said Russia escalated its strikes from March 17 and is now moving heavy equipment and more troops forward.
- A Ukrainian soldier with the call sign King, fighting near the eastern city of Lyman — a key Russian objective in Donetsk — said Russian forces have intensified assaults and bombardments but failed to break through, describing the situation as 'tense, but not critical.'
- Ukraine is offering its battle-tested drone defense know-how to U.S. and Gulf partners amid the Middle East conflict, hoping to trade that expertise for scarce Patriot air defense missiles needed to fend off Russia's barrages.
- Russian air defenses intercepted 55 Ukrainian drones overnight over Russian regions, annexed Crimea, and the Black Sea, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.
Why it matters: The Institute for the Study of War confirms Russia's spring-summer offensive is underway, with 619 attacks in four days along the 1,250km front and escalation from March 17 — yet Russia still occupies only about 20% of Ukraine and cannot capture cities. For Ukrainian civilians, the cost is direct: a UNESCO heritage church burning in Lviv, children wounded in Dnipro, while U.S.-brokered ceasefire talks have gone nowhere and the Iran war has diverted international attention from their plight.
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