Zelensky says 3 killed, dozens wounded in 'massive' Russian attack

Ukrainian law enforcement officers evacuating an injured person following an air attack in Dnipro on September 20, 2025. [AFP]

Russia fired 40 missiles and around 580 drones at Ukraine in a "massive attack" -- one of the largest in past weeks -- killing three people and wounding dozens, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday.

Despite US-led attempts to broker peace, Russia has been shelling Ukraine with drones and missiles and Kyiv has blamed Moscow for deliberately stalling any peace efforts.

In the overnight attacks, "a missile with cluster munitions directly struck an apartment building" in the eastern city of Dnipro, Zelensky said on social media.

"All night, Ukraine was under a massive attack by Russia. The enemy launched 40 missiles -- cruise and ballistic -- and about 580 drones of various types," Zelensky said.

"As of now, we know of dozens of people injured from the shelling, and, unfortunately, three people killed," he added.

Sergiy Lysak, the head of the military administration in the Dnipropetrovsk region, said the strikes killed one person and wounded 26, with one man in a serious condition.

Vyacheslav Chaus from the regional administration in Chernigiv in northern Ukraine said a 62-year-old man died in a drone attack.

Ukraine issued a nationwide air alert, with officials reporting other strikes in the region around the capital Kyiv.

Around 20 residential buildings were damaged in the Khmelnytskyi region, local official Sergiy Tyurin said on Telegram, adding that one body was found "during the extinguishing of a fire in one of the houses."

Russian officials meanwhile said their forces had repelled "massive" Ukrainian attacks in the Volgograd and Rostov regions, while one person was wounded in the nearby region of Saratov.

The Russian defence ministry said on Saturday its air defence alert systems "intercepted and destroyed" 149 Ukrainian drones overnight.

Russian forces have been grinding across eastern Ukraine for months, trying to take control of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions.

Hopes of a truce have faded since US President Donald Trump held separate high-profile meetings with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and Ukraine's Volodomyr Zelensky last month.

On Friday, Estonia said three Russian air force planes violated its airspace, triggering fears in the EU and NATO of a dangerous new provocation from Moscow, which denied the allegation.

The alleged Russian incursion came with tensions high on NATO's eastern border, after Warsaw last week complained that around 20 Russian drones overflew its territory -- though the Kremlin denied targeting Poland.

The UK, Germany and France have announced plans to reinforce joint air patrols with more jets based on NATO's eastern flank.