Ukraine says Russian forces advanced near Donetsk and Sumy as drones, missiles hit Dnipro

Russian drone and missile strikes killed eight people in Dnipro on April 25 as Russian forces kept pressing in Donetsk and along the Sumy border. (aljazeera.com) (understandingwar.org) Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 619 drones and 47 missiles at eight regions, and said air defenses shot down or suppressed 610 of them. Dnipro was the hardest-hit city, with Mayor Borys Filatov reporting eight dead and 49 wounded, including two children. (aljazeera.com) The same wave of strikes also killed two people in Nizhyn in Chernihiv region and one person in Zaporizhzhia region, according to Ukrainian officials cited by Al Jazeera. Donetsk Governor Vadym Filashkin said attacks wounded civilians in Sloviansk and Kramatorsk. (aljazeera.com) On the ground, the Institute for the Study of War said Russian forces were still attacking in Sumy Oblast on April 21, with Russian military bloggers claiming advances southeast of Myropillya and northeast of Petrushivka. The group also said Russian units were pushing near Pokrovsk in Donetsk Oblast. (understandingwar.org) ACLED, the conflict-monitoring group, said Russian forces advanced along the international border in Sumy region and near Pokrovsk in Donetsk in its mid-April weekly update. Its monitor also logged at least 52 long-range missile and drone attacks in the same period. (acleddata.com) The fighting fits Russia’s stated 2026 aims. Ukrainian presidential office official Pavlo Palisa said on April 8 that Moscow planned to focus on the rest of Donbas and intensify efforts near the Dnipropetrovsk-Zaporizhia border while seeking buffer zones in Sumy, Kharkiv and Chernihiv. (understandingwar.org) The Institute for the Study of War said Palisa also argued Russia lacked the offensive strength for major breakthroughs, even as it kept broad territorial goals. That leaves Ukraine facing simultaneous pressure from long-range strikes on cities and grinding assaults at several points on the front. (understandingwar.org) For Dnipro, the April 25 barrage turned a city far from some of the heaviest trench fighting into the deadliest point of that day’s attack. For the front, the same day underscored how Russia is combining attritional ground pushes in Donetsk and Sumy with repeated mass drone-and-missile raids. (aljazeera.com) (acleddata.com)