Ukraine and Russia trade strikes as Kyiv inches closer to EU membership

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Wednesday that 11 regions of Ukraine had come under Russian attack since the start of the week. Kyiv and Moscow traded strikes overnight and into Saturday morning, local authorities said, with multiple people injured in southeastern Ukraine and one killed in southern Russia. Oleksandr Hanzha, the head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional State Administration, said nine people were injured in an attack on Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. Russia targeted three districts with more than 20 strikes, using drones and aerial bombs, Hanzha said in a post on Telegram. One 40-year-old man was taken to hospital and is in a critical condition, he added. The local governor of Russia's Krasnodar Krai region, Veniamin Kondratyev, reported that one person had died and three others were wounded following a Ukrainian drone attack on the Temryuk district. "Falling debris" from the drones caused a fire at a sea terminal in the area, per Kondratyev. He added that 96 firefighters were called out to tackle the blaze. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Wednesday that 11 regions of Ukraine had come under Russian attack since the start of the week. "The Russians used nearly 530 drones and two air-launched guided missiles against Ukraine," Zelenskyy wrote on X, adding that the attacks had injured "dozens of people". Ukraine's air force said local air defences had also intercepted 110 Russian Shahed attack drones on Friday night. Kyiv's forces have been increasingly targeting the Russian energy industry in recent weeks, carrying out a number of long-range strikes on oil facilities. Earlier this week, Zelenskyy announced that Ukrainian forces had struck the Kuibyshev oil refinery in Russia's Samara region, as well as two oil infrastructure facilities in the Vladimir region. Ukrainian FP-5 Flamingo cruise missiles also hit a military plant in Cheboksary, Zelenskyy said, adding that the facility was used to supply Russian forces with drones and missiles. It comes as Ukraine edged closer to its EU membership ambitions this week. On Friday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said EU member states had agreed to open the first cluster of membership negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova. "At the first Intergovernmental Conference on Monday, we will open the cluster on fundamentals; the backbone of the accession process," von der Leyen wrote on social media. "This is a recognition of the determination, courage and hard work shown by both countries in advancing reforms, even in the face of immense challenges," she continued. Both Ukraine and Moldova have been at the forefront of Russian aggression and see joining the bloc as a way to strengthen their security. Moscow has long warned the two EU hopefuls against moving closer to Europe. It has cited Kyiv's deepening relations with the West and its NATO ambitions as part of its reasoning for launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which began in February 2022. Speaking about Moldova's growing ties with Brussels in October, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said its government was making a "serious mistake". "This is the continuation of rather confrontational line in respect of our country," Peskov told Russian news agency Tass. "They believe the line of building up relations with Europe implies full antagonization of Russia. One country has already made such a mistake. It did not bring any good to this one country," he added.