The China Mail - Russian strikes kill three across Ukraine

Russia has escalated long-range aerial attacks on Ukrainian cities as well as frontline assaults and shelling over recent months, defying US President Donald Trump's warning that Moscow could face massive new sanctions if no peace deal is struck.

Two people died after a Russian missile hit Ukraine's central Dnipropetrovsk region, an important industrial hub, which Russia's forces have recently advanced into.

According to the regional governor Sergiy Lysak, the strike destroyed "an outpatient clinic, a school and a cultural institution" in the Vasylkivska township, with some private houses and cars damaged as well.

Russia, meanwhile, had to suspend trains for about four hours overnight in the southern Rostov region when it came under a Ukrainian drone attack which injured one railway worker.

Many passengers remained stranded, and the suspension caused mass delays of trains in the region, which borders Ukraine and over which air traffic has been halted since the beginning of the war three years ago.

Separately, the Russian military said it had intercepted six aerial bombs and 349 drones on Saturday.

An earlier Russian salvo of 20 drones on the Ukrainian port city of Odesa killed at least one person overnight, its mayor said.

"Civilian infrastructure was damaged as a result of the attack. A residential high-rise building is on fire" and rescuers were pulling people out, mayor Gennadiy Trukhanov wrote on Telegram.

The Black Sea port, a UNESCO World Heritage listed city known for picturesque streets and 19th-century buildings, has been regularly targeted by Russian strikes.

The European Union on Friday agreed an 18th package of sanctions on Moscow that targets Russian banks and lowers a price cap on oil exports, in a bid to curb its ability to fund the war.

T.Luo--ThChM