At least 14 people have been killed in overnight attacks on Ukraine’s eastern region, where Russia has intensified its assault in recent days.
Ukraine’s emergency service said on Saturday that Russian forces hit the town of Dobropillia in the eastern Donetsk region on Friday night, killing 11 people and wounding 30.
Emergency services added that eight five-storey apartment buildings, an administrative building, and 30 cars were damaged.
“We understand a number of buildings were hit. And as the rescue teams were pulling people out of the rubble, searching for them, other strikes took place,” Al Jazeera’s Assed Baig reported from the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.
“Dobropillia is around 20 kilometres [12 miles] from the front line in the east. It’s not far from the hotly contested town of Porkovsk, where tense fighting has been taking place for months now,” he said.
“Russian forces have been trying to take that town and there are reports that they’ve reached the southern outskirts.”
Meanwhile, to the north in the Kharkiv region, at least three people were killed and seven injured after a Russian drone attack on a civilian building in Bogodukhiv, the governor of Kharkiv, Oleh Synehubov, wrote on Telegram.
In Odesa, a drone attack resulted in several fires, which affected a hangar with agricultural equipment, a service station building, a car parts store, solar panels mounted in an open area and a four-storey industrial building.
At the same time, Alexander Drozdenko, governor of the Leningrad region, said on Saturday that a tank at the Kirishi refinery, one of Russia’s largest, was damaged by falling debris after a Ukrainian drone was shot down.
The EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas swiftly condemned the attacks, saying that they show Putin “has no interest in peace”.
“We must step up our military support,” she added.
Striking a similar tone, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk slammed Russia’s attack calling it the result of “what happens when someone appeases barbarians”.
“More bombs, more aggression, more victims. Another tragic night in Ukraine,” Tusk wrote on X.
‘Accelerate peace’
The overnight attacks came as Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he was working with the United States to “accelerate peace”, even as the administration of US President Donald Trump has signalled a major shift in Washington’s support for Kyiv.
That pivot has included upping rhetorical pressure on Kyiv to make a deal with Russia, as well as pausing aid and intelligence sharing with the war-torn country. Critics have accused Trump of repeatedly targeting Zelenskyy while striking a markedly more conciliatory tone with Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.
“We will do a lot of work here in Europe, with the US, and in Saudi Arabia – we are preparing a meeting to accelerate peace and strengthen the foundations of security,” Zelenskyy wrote on X on Friday night.
“Today, intense work with President Trump’s team has been ongoing at various levels – numerous calls. The topic is clear – peace as soon as possible, security as reliably as possible. Ukraine is fully committed to a constructive approach.”
On Friday, Trump told reporters that it was “easier” to deal with Russia to secure an end to the three-year-long war than Ukraine, but he had said earlier that he was “strongly considering” sanctions on Russia due to its attacks.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha spoke to his US counterpart, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, before the planned Ukraine-US negotiations in Saudi Arabia.
During the call, Sybiha wrote on X on Friday that the two officials discussed the upcoming meeting and ways to “advance our bilateral cooperation”.
Zelenskyy is expected to arrive in Saudi Arabia on Monday to talk to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
On Tuesday, Ukrainian officials are expected to hold new talks with their US counterparts in the country following a tense televised dispute between Trump and Zelenskyy at the end of February.
We continue working with partners who seek peace just as we do, focusing on the necessary steps. Next week, there will be a lot of work here in Europe, with the U.S., and in Saudi Arabia – we are preparing a meeting to accelerate peace and strengthen the foundations of security.… pic.twitter.com/RDoGpHNwUl
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) March 7, 2025
The latest air raids come after European Union leaders agreed to boost the bloc’s defences, shaken by the prospect of US disengagement.
Among the proposals on the table from EU countries, the UK and France have been leading efforts to form a so-called “coalition of the willing” – a group of countries prepared to protect an eventual ceasefire in the Russia-Ukraine war.
Several European states have said they would be willing to deploy troops to Ukraine as a “security guarantee”.
Key details about the “coalition of the willing” have not been specified, but the grouping was mentioned by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer during a summit of European leaders in London on March 2 aimed at guaranteeing “lasting peace” in Ukraine.
On Saturday, the UK said that Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was considering joining the group.
Starmer “spoke to the Prime Minister of Australia Anthony Albanese this morning,” the UK leader’s office said on Saturday.
“He welcomed Prime Minister Albanese’s commitment to consider contributing to a Coalition of the Willing for Ukraine and looked forward to the Chiefs of Defence meeting in Paris on Tuesday.”
