AFP, Kyiv

Russian drones killed one person and wounded two dozen others in cities across Ukraine, local authorities announced yesterday, as Kyiv and Moscow step up long-range strikes with peace talks stalling.

One person was killed in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson and eight people were wounded in the northern town of Chernigiv, where power was cut to 10,000 people, authorities said.

Emergency services published images from Chernigiv showing teams of firefighters dousing a large blaze in the middle of the night following the attacks.

The Ukrainian air force said Russian forces had launched 265 combat drones in the barrage, and that its air defence units had downed 228 of the unmanned aerial vehicles.

Seven people were wounded in Russian strikes in the Black Sea port city of Odesa, four more in the central city of Kharkiv, one in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia and at least two more were hurt in Kherson.

Moscow launches attacks almost nightly on Ukraine, which has stepped up its retaliatory strikes in recent months, mainly targeting Russian energy infrastructure.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine launched in February 2022 has become the bloodiest conflict in Europe since World War II, killing hundreds of thousands of people and displacing millions.