Russian strike on Kyiv region kills 4 and wounds 15 : NPR

KYIV, Ukraine — A combined missile and drone attack on the Kyiv region killed at least four people and wounded at least 15 overnight into Saturday, an official said, after the U.S. postponed Russia-Ukraine talks due to the war with Iran.

The attack hit four districts, damaging residential buildings, educational institutions, enterprises and critical infrastructure, the head of the regional administration, Mykola Kalashnyk, wrote in a social media post. He said three of the wounded were critical.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the main target of the strikes was the energy infrastructure of the Kyiv region. He said Russia launched around 430 drones and 68 missiles.

Russia’s Defense Ministry on Saturday said the nighttime strikes targeted energy and industrial facilities serving Ukraine’s armed forces, as well as military airfields.

Russia hopes to gain from the Iran war

The U.S. has postponed its sponsored talks planned this week between the two sides due to the war in the Middle East.

As U.S. and Israeli missiles and bombs rain on Iran, Russia has responded with words of indignation but no action to support its ally. Moscow’s failure to help another ally, after the 2024 ouster of former Syrian ruler Bashar Assad and January’s U.S. arrest of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, highlighted the limits of its influence — but the Kremlin expects to reap benefits from the Iran war.

Russia is already profiting from a surge in global energy prices, and could hope that the Mideast war will detract attention from Ukraine, deplete Western arsenals and force NATO allies to reduce military support for Kyiv.

Zelenskyy on Saturday called on Kyiv’s Western partners to pay “one hundred percent attention” to the need to boost the production of air defense missiles.

“Russia will try to exploit the war in the Middle East to cause even greater destruction here in Europe, in Ukraine,” he said in a post on social media.