Ukraine updates: 4 dead in widespread Russian air attack

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that Russia would respond to Ukraine's ongoing incursion into the Kursk region, which he said had made the idea of ceasefire talks irrelevant.

"Such hostile actions cannot remain without an appropriate response," he told reporters. "There will definitely be a response."

Russian President Vladimir Putin has also promised a "worthy response" but is yet to elaborate.

Peskov also dismissed reports of any potential ceasefire negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv, saying: "The topic of negotiations at the moment has pretty much lost its relevance."

Meanwhile, the incursion into Kursk continued into a fourth week with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claiming on Sunday evening that Ukrainian forces had advanced a further "1 to 3 kilometers" (roughly 0.6 to 1.9 miles) and occupied "two more settlements," with "active actions underway in one more settlement."

Kremlin spokesman Peskov said Putin was "receiving regular updates from those in the field." 

Ukrainian officials have revised the death toll from a series of Russian missile and drone attacks on Monday morning to four, adding a fatality from the central region of Zhytomyr.

"Russian terrorists have once again targeted energy infrastructure," Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said. "Unfortunately, there is damage in a number of regions."

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia deployed "over 100 missiles" and "about 100 drones" in its nationwide attack. "A lot of damage in the energy sector," he wrote on Telegram.

Ukrainian air defense forces in Kyiv said they shot down around 15 missiles and 15 drones targeting the capital.

"It was very scary, to be honest. You don't know what to expect," 34-year-old lawyer Yulia Voloshyna told the AFP news agency while taking shelter in the Kyiv metro. "We are always worried. We have been under stress for almost three years now."

The Russian Defense Ministry said it had "carried out a mass strike using long-range high-precision weaponry ... on critically important energy infrastructure facilities" and claimed that "all the set targets were hit."

The regional airport in the central Russian region of Saratov restricted flight traffic for around one hour on Monday morning as a result of a Ukrainian drone attack, Russian officials and news agencies reported.

The Russian Defense ministry said its air defense systems had destroyed nine drones over the Saratov region, some 900 kilometers (560 miles) from Ukraine.

A residential complex in Saratov city was reportedly damaged by falling debris, leaving a woman "in a serious condition" in hospital, according to regional governor Roman Busargin. "Doctors are fighting for her life," he said.

The Russian military maintains a strategic bomber base in Engels, a town just over the river from Saratov, which Ukraine has attacked on several occasions since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

There was no immediate information on the success of this latest attack, but flight traffic at Saratov regional airport was up and running again after approximately one hour.

A foreign national killed in eastern Ukraine on Sunday has been named as Ryan Evans, a former British soldier who had been working for the Reuters news agency in a safety advisory role since 2022.

Evans, 38, was one of a six-person Reuters team staying at the Hotel Sapphire in the city of Kramatorsk when it was struck by what Ukrainian officials say was a Russian Iskander ballistic missile on Sunday morning.

"We send our deepest condolences and thoughts to Ryan’s family and loved ones," said a Reuters spokesperson. "Ryan has helped so many of our journalists cover events around the world; we will miss him terribly."

Kramatorsk is located in north-west of the partially-occupied eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk, not far from the frontline towns of Chasiv Yar and Pokrovsk.

The city is a hub not only for the Ukrainian Army, but also for journalists, aid organizations and other officials.

A top Ukrainian official has demanded that Kyiv's allies allow Ukraine to use long-range western weapons to strike targets further inside Russia.

"Permission to strike deep into the territory of the Russian Federation is necessary," wrote Andriy Yermak, the chief of staff to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, on Telegram on Monday.

"Such a decision will accelerate the end of the Russian terror."

Yermak's comments came after a Russian drone and missile strike targeted 15 Ukrainian regions on Monday morning, killing at least three people.

Ukraine is in possession of a large inventory of long-range western weaponry, but allies have so far asked that Kyiv does not use them to strike too far inside Russia's borders. Only comparatively recently did NATO countries start approving of striking targets a short distance inside Russia.

At least three people have been killed in a large-scale Russian missile and drone attack which targeted regions across Ukraine on Monday morning.

The Ukrainian Air Force reported groups of Russian drones heading towards eastern, northern, southern and central areas of the country, followed by cruise and ballistic missiles.

Ukraine's Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said 15 regions were targeted in total.

Civilian fatalities were reported in central Dnipropetrovsk, the partially occupied southern Zaporizhzhia region and the northwestern city of Lutsk. An attack on an industrial facility in the eastern region of Poltava wounded five people, the local governor said.

Energy infrastructure was targeted in the western city of Lviv, while air raid sirens and explosions were heard in the capital, Kyiv, which also reported localized power cuts.

Ukraine's largest private energy producer DTEK said it was implementing emergency power outages following the attacks.