Kyiv, 17 April (H.S.):
Russia hammered Ukraine with over 700 drones and missiles in relentless overnight waves, inflicting the most devastating aerial assault in months and killing at least 18 civilians. The onslaught shattered a fragile Easter truce, targeting key cities and leaving rescuers silhouetted against raging fires in Kyiv, Odesa, and Dnipro.
At 02:30 local time on Thursday in Kyiv,mere hours into the pre-dawn darkness ,warning sirens pierced the silence, heralding the first thunderous explosions that jolted residents awake. In the capital's central Podil district, a 16-storey residential block partially collapsed, claiming four lives including a 12-year-old boy, with Mayor Vitali Klitschko reporting 45 injuries and harrowing rescues of a mother and child from the rubble. Odesa bore the heaviest toll with nine dead in its southern port, while Dnipro mourned five—its count rising as another body emerged from the debris—and Kharkiv saw two elderly residents wounded.
Ukraine's air defenses, strained by dwindling Patriot missile stocks diverted to Middle East conflicts, intercepted 636 drones and 31 missiles yet suffered direct hits across 26 sites, plunging Mykolaiv and Kherson into blackout. President Volodymyr Zelensky decried the barbarity on X, insisting it validates unyielding Western sanctions: Russia is betting on war... we must protect lives with all our might and press for peace.
Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha branded it a war crime, pleading for expedited €90 billion in EU aid now unblocked by Hungary's political shift.
Russia countered with its own grievances, reporting two deaths—a 14-year-old girl among them—in a Ukrainian drone strike on Tuapse in the Krasnodar region. This escalation, erupting post-Orthodox Easter weekend despite mutual accusations of truce breaches, underscores the war's fifth year: Kyiv demands a stable ceasefire as a peace precursor, while Moscow prioritizes a comprehensive pact amid stalled US-mediated talks overshadowed by Middle East priorities.
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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar
