Zelensky: Russia’s Overnight Missile and Drone Attacks Strike 10 Ukrainian Regions, Damage Odesa Apartment Block

President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia carried out near-continuous missile and drone strikes across 10 Ukrainian regions overnight into Saturday, killing and wounding civilians in several areas as rescue crews searched a damaged apartment building in the Black Sea port city of Odesa.

In a Telegram post published the morning of Sept. 12, Zelensky said the attacks had been “effectively constant” since nighttime. In Odesa, he said a Russian missile strike damaged a multi-story residential building, with rescue and search operations still underway Saturday morning. Zelensky said 37 people were injured there and two people were still missing. Independent regional and international reporting corroborated the strike on the building, the injuries and the continuing rescue work, though casualty counts were still being updated through the morning. Zelensky also said a drone strike in Chornomorsk, in Odesa region, hit a hotel and injured 11 people, including six people with limited mobility. Independent reporting also confirmed a strike in Chornomorsk with civilian injuries, though local descriptions of the damaged site varied.

Elsewhere, the Zaporizhzhia regional administration said an overnight Shahed-type drone strike on residential buildings killed two civilians and injured four others. Zelensky said six people were wounded in Zaporizhzhia and said there were also casualties from a strike on an enterprise there, indicating the toll was still being updated. In Kryvyi Rih, in Dnipropetrovsk region, regional authorities and Zelensky said a strike on critical infrastructure killed one person and injured three others. Zelensky also said two people were injured in the Kyiv region.

Zelensky said Ukrainian air defenses had shot down more than 200 aerial targets since the start of the day. A separate early summary based on Ukrainian Air Force and air defense data put the number of destroyed or suppressed targets in the overnight wave at 110. The figures were not directly comparable and likely reflected different reporting windows as well as preliminary battlefield data, which often shifts through the day during large-scale attacks.

The strikes fit a pattern seen repeatedly during the war, with Russia launching combined salvos of Shahed-type drones and missiles at Ukrainian cities and infrastructure in an effort to stretch Ukraine’s air defenses through volume. In such attacks, casualty totals and interception counts often change as emergency crews clear rubble, hospitals report admissions and military officials update assessments.

Zelensky used Saturday’s statement to renew his appeal to allies for more anti-ballistic and other air defense support, as well as stronger pressure on Russia. His account underscored the scale of the latest wave not only in the number of regions hit, but in the civilian harm reported across multiple cities by midmorning, with search teams in Odesa still looking for people trapped or missing.