Indian national among 12 killed in Russian strikes on Ukraine

An Indian national was among 12 people killed in a fresh wave of Russian drone and ballistic missile attacks on Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Tuesday. The strikes, which began Monday evening, targeted several cities and damaged residential buildings and civilian infrastructure.

The deceased was identified as Sudarshan Bhabhilala, 40, from Gujarat, who died from a severe head injury in Kyiv, according to sources in the Indian diaspora community. Another Indian, Ganesh Kalleda, 35, from Telangana, was injured with bleeding in the leg and is in stable condition.

Zelenskyy said the attacks hit Kyiv, Odesa, Kherson, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Zhytomyr, Sumy, and Dnipro regions. In Kyiv, seven people were killed in a strike on a railway depot. In Boryspil, a five-storey residential building was damaged, forcing the evacuation of 50 people; four people were killed and 13 injured there.

Nearly 350 first responders were involved in rescue operations in Kyiv and the surrounding region. The attacks also continued against Odesa and its region, leaving thousands of families without electricity. A border crossing with Romania and export infrastructure were also deliberately damaged, Zelenskyy said.

The Ukrainian president blamed Russia for deliberately targeting civilians and called for increased air defence assistance. "Russia always plans its strikes specifically to cause as much destruction to people's lives as possible, and it succeeds only when air defence capabilities are insufficient," he said, adding that the number of victims depends on every new package of assistance.