Ukrainian drones kill four in Russia, Kyiv hospital hit

Updated / Friday, 13 Nov 2026 09:36

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Russia said that it shot down nearly 1,200 Ukrainian drones overnight, one of the largest swarms sent by Kyiv that resulted in the deaths of four people.

Ukrainian authorities reported that another night of Russian attacks had set a hospital ablaze and killed at least three people.

The deadly attacks came a day after intense diplomacy in US-led talks to end the war approaching its fifth year.

US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner held hours of talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow yesterday before jetting to Dublin to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

"In the course of the previous night... aerial defence systems intercepted and destroyed 1,198" Ukrainian drones over more than 15 Russian regions, Russia's defence ministry said in a statement.

Four people working in an industrial zone, home to an oil refinery and a chemical factory, died in the southern Volgograd region, local authorities said.

In Ukraine, a hospital in Kyiv was damaged after a Russian attack triggered a fire and forced people to seek shelter. One person was wounded.

In Odesa, two people were killed and five wounded in the overnight barrage, with "private residential houses and cars" damaged, regional governor Oleg Kiper said on Telegram.

A Russian attack on Zaporizhzhia in the southeast killed a 17-year-old boy, acting regional governor Mykhailo Semikin said.

Four people, whom rescuers managed to pull from under the rubble, were wounded.

Another Russian strike hit the city of Rivne, in a northwestern region far from the front line, damaging a pre-school and wounding six people, including two children.

Ukraine has intensified its retaliatory drone attacks on Russia's energy industry over the past year-and-a-half, seeking to cut the Kremlin's revenues and undermine its ability to finance the war Moscow launched in February 2022.

Russia is heavily targeting Ukraine's own energy grid with aerial barrages, leaving residents across the country without power as temperatures plunge.

Exiled Ukrainian political aide targeted in Moscow - media report

Meanwhile, Russia's Investigative Committee, which handles serious crimes, said ⁠today that it had opened an investigation into the explosion of a car in Moscow that Russian media reported belonged to an exiled Ukrainian political ‌aide.

Russian ⁠media reported the car belonged to Sergei Zavorotniy, a onetime spokesman for former Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov, who has been ‌living in Russia since fleeing Ukraine amid anti-government ⁠protests in 2014.

Russian ‌newspaper Kommersant reported that Mr Zavorotniy was hospitalised.

It ⁠is ‌the latest in a series of apparent assassination attempts inside Russia. Yesterday, ⁠a member of the Russian military ⁠was killed after the car he was driving was blown up in St Petersburg, investigators said.