"Kyiv reports Russia's largest aerial assault in Ukraine since war began"

Russia launched over 500 aerial strikes against Ukraine overnight, in what officials in Kyiv called the largest air assault since the conflict began three years ago.

Ukraine's air force reported that Russian forces fired 477 drones and decoys along with 60 missiles. Although 475 were intercepted or lost, the attack represented the most intense bombardment since Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, said Yuriy Ihnat, a spokesperson for Ukraine's air force, in a statement to the Associated Press.

The strikes appeared to focus on regions distant from the frontlines, including western Ukraine. Russian officials stated that their attacks targeted Ukrainian military-industrial sites and fuel depots while also claiming to have intercepted three Ukrainian drones.

The scale of the assault contradicted remarks made by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, in which he expressed readiness for renewed peace negotiations in Istanbul.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy argued that the strikes demonstrated Putin's determination to continue the war. "Russia will not halt its aggression as long as it has the capability to carry out such large-scale attacks," Zelenskyy wrote in a social media post.

He noted that in the past week alone, Russia had launched over 114 missiles, 1,270 drones, and nearly 1,100 glide bombs at Ukraine.

"This conflict must end—pressure on the aggressor is essential, as is further defence support," Zelenskyy added. "Ukraine must enhance its air defence systems, which save lives more effectively than anything else."

He reaffirmed Ukraine's intent to acquire advanced air defence systems from the U.S., while stressing the necessity of continued backing from America, Europe, and allied nations.

In a separate incident, Ukraine's air force announced that an F-16 fighter jet provided by Western allies had crashed after being damaged while engaging hostile aircraft, resulting in the pilot's death. "The pilot exhausted all available weaponry and destroyed seven airborne targets. While intercepting the last one, his aircraft sustained damage and began to descend," the air force stated in a Telegram post.

The pilot did not survive the crash.

Local officials confirmed that the overnight strikes killed at least two people and wounded 12 others, including two children. Air raid alarms sounded nationwide, sending residents of Kyiv into underground shelters and metro stations. In Drohobych, located in western Ukraine's Lviv region, a drone strike triggered a massive fire at an industrial site and cut power to parts of the city.

Explosions were reported in Kyiv, Lviv, Poltava, Mykolaiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Cherkasy, and the Ivano-Frankivsk regions, according to witnesses and regional authorities.

The intensifying attacks coincide with stalled diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict. Two recent negotiation rounds between Russian and Ukrainian representatives in Istanbul failed to produce any breakthroughs.