Russia launched its most intense overnight assault of the entire conflict, firing 476 strike and decoy drones together with 48 missiles of various types, killing at least 10 civilians and wounding more than 80 across multiple Ukrainian regions. The heaviest blow fell on Ternopil in western Ukraine, where two nine-storey residential buildings were reduced to rubble, trapping residents beneath tons of concrete and twisted metal.

Rescue operations continued throughout Wednesday morning in Ternopil, a city previously considered relatively safe and home to many internally displaced families from the east. Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko confirmed 37 people were hospitalised, including 12 children, while emergency crews used cranes and sniffer dogs in a desperate search for survivors. Additional waves of drones hammered Kharkiv, damaging 16 apartment blocks, a school, an ambulance station, and other civilian infrastructure, leaving 46 injured, among them two young girls.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the barrage as deliberate terror against ordinary life and evidence that international pressure on Moscow remains inadequate. “Every brazen attack against civilians indicates that the pressure on Russia is insufficient,” he wrote, before boarding a flight to Ankara for urgent talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan aimed at accelerating diplomatic efforts to force Russia to the negotiating table.

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The Ukrainian leader said the Ankara discussions would focus on “maximum capabilities to ensure Ukraine achieves a just peace,” leveraging Turkey’s unique position as a NATO member maintaining working relations with both Kyiv and Moscow. Zelenskyy also hinted at evolving U.S. policy, stating “we see some positions and signals from the United States – let’s see tomorrow,” just 48 hours before sweeping new American sanctions targeting Russia’s oil exports are scheduled to take effect.

As NATO airspace came under direct threat, Romania scrambled two Eurofighter Typhoons and two F-16s after a Russian drone breached its territory, while Poland activated air defences and temporarily closed civilian airports near the border. In a separate escalation, Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed all four U.S.-supplied ATACMS missiles launched at Voronezh oblast on Tuesday were intercepted, though falling debris damaged an orphanage and elderly-care facility, underscoring how the conflict continues to widen even as diplomatic channels flicker back to life.

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