Russian drone strikes on the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv wounded dozens of people, local officials said on the evening of May 2, one day after at least 31 people were injured in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhya.
Kharkiv regional Governor Oleh Synyehubov said the number of wounded in the massive drone attack on Kharkiv increased to 35 people.
A private house, a high-rise building, a shop, and a parking lot were damaged in the drone strikes, he said on Telegram.
Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said the strikes occurred at 12 locations in four districts of the city. He put the number of people injured at 46 and said eight of the victims had been hospitalized.
Russian attacks on Ukrainian civilian areas have killed dozens of people in recent weeks despite the United States efforts to get the two sides to the negotiating table to end Moscow's full-scale invasion.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy denounced the drone strikes and issued a fresh appeal to beef up Ukraine's air defense capability.
"There were no military targets, nor could there be any. Russia strikes dwellings when Ukrainians are in their homes, when they are putting their children to bed," Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram.
"Ukraine needs stronger air defenses. Stronger and real decisions from our partners: the United States, Europe, all our partners who seek peace."
The Russian drone attack on Zaporizhzhya occurred late on May 1, local authorities said.
"Two children are among the injured. Hospitals in Zaporizhzhya continue to receive patients affected by yesterday's attack," regional Governor Ivan Fedorov said on May 2 on Telegram.
Pictures posted online showed a fire burning at a collapsed apartment building.
Russian forces made at least 10 strikes on the city, targeting private homes, high-rise apartment buildings, educational institutions, and infrastructure sites, Fedorov added.
Ukraine's state railway company, Ukrzaliznytsya, said its locomotive repair plant located in the city was also attacked.
"This is a purely civilian facility specializing in the repair of electric passenger locomotives," Ukrzaliznytsya's post on Telegram said.
The attack followed a widescale onslaught of Russian drones on several regions of Ukraine on April 30. At least two people were killed in Odesa after air alerts were activated in 11 regions of Ukraine.
The "large-scale" attack on the Black Sea port of Odesa, as described by the Ukrainian State Emergency Service in a Telegram post, killed two people and injured 15 others.
Odesa Governor Oleh Kiper said on Telegram that the Russian attack on Odesa damaged high-rise buildings, houses, a supermarket, and a school.
Andriy Yermak, the Ukrainian president's chief of staff, responded to the Russian attack on Odesa by calling for a "complete cease-fire" in a Telegram post.
"We must push for it together with the United States and Europe," he wrote, saying that Russian President Vladimir Putin "will always have the desire to kill."
"But diplomacy, force, and economic pressure will compel Russia to end the war," he added.
The United States and Ukraine on April 30 signed a minerals deal that US President Donald Trump's administration said was an economic partnership in recognition of the “significant financial and material support that the people of the United States have provided to the defense of Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion.”
After initial hesitation, Ukraine accepted the agreement as a way to secure long-term investment by Washington amid moves by Trump and his administration to curtail US security commitments around the world.
Meanwhile, a group of 72 US senators has thrown its support behind a bill threatening Russia with severe new sanctions if it refuses to engage in serious negotiations to end the war in Ukraine.
The announcement was made by Senator Lindsey Graham (Republican-South Carolina), one of the bill's sponsors, Bloomberg reports.
According to a draft obtained by Bloomberg News, the proposed measures include a sweeping 500 percent tariff on imports from countries that continue to buy Russian oil, gas, petroleum products, or uranium.
Graham said he has enough support in the House to bring the sanctions bill to the floor there as well, according to Bloomberg.
