These are the key events on day 1,164 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Here is where things stand on Saturday, May 3:
Fighting
- A resident was killed in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region when a fallen attack drone detonated as the victim was trying to carry it away from a residential house.
At least 46 people were injured after Russia launched a mass drone attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, hitting a high-rise apartment block and triggering fires.
Kharkiv’s Mayor Ihor Terekhov said there had been Russian strikes on 12 locations in four central districts of the city.
- Terekhov said an 11-year-old child was among those injured in the latest Russian attack, and eight of the injured were being treated at a hospital.
Russia said its forces were continuing to create a “security strip” in border areas of Ukraine’s Sumy region after driving Ukrainian troops out of the Kursk region, just across the border in western Russia.
- More than 20 people were injured after Russian strikes hit the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia.
- Ukrainian regional authorities said four people were also injured in a Russian joint drone and artillery attack on localities east of Nikopol city in southeastern Dnipropetrovsk region.
- Russia’s Ministry of Defence reports that its air defence units destroyed 10 Ukrainian drones in an hour. Eight of the drones were intercepted over the border region of Bryansk and two over Russian-annexed Crimea.
- Yury Slyusar, acting governor of Russia’s Rostov region, located on Ukraine’s eastern border, said Russian air defence units destroyed Ukrainian drones over five districts. Falling fragments from the destroyed drones had damaged some homes, he said, but there were no casualties.
- Ukraine’s internal security agency, the SBU, accused Russian intelligence of orchestrating an attempt to assassinate prominent Ukrainian blogger Serhii Sternenko, accusing an unnamed 45-year-old woman of carrying out the failed gun attack that injured the target.
Military aid
- President Volodymyr Zelenskyy denounces the latest barrage of drone strikes on civilian areas of Ukraine, while complaining that the country’s allies were moving too slowly in helping beef up his country’s air defence capability.
- The United States Department of State has approved the potential sale of F-16 training and sustainment, along with related equipment, to Ukraine for $310m, according to the Pentagon. The sale could include aircraft modifications and upgrades, flight training and maintenance.
Sanctions
New economic sanctions are being readied against Russia to intensify pressure on Moscow to embrace US President Donald Trump’s efforts to end its war on Ukraine, three US officials said. The targets include the state-owned Russian energy giant Gazprom.
Politics and diplomacy
- Ukrainian armed forces will take part in a British military procession on Monday celebrating the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe (VE) Day, which marks the end of fighting on the continent during World War II.
US Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have renewed calls on Russia and Ukraine to reach a peace deal, saying there was no clear end in sight to the conflict and warning that Trump needed a breakthrough “very soon”.
