Putin’s revenge: Six dead, including a baby, as Russian drones pound Ukraine hours after Vladimir told Trump he would make Zelensky pay for Operation Spiderweb humiliation

By ELENA SALVONI and WILL STEWART

Published: 07:02 BST, 5 June 2025 | Updated: 07:10 BST, 5 June 2025

At least six people, including a one-year-old child, were killed in a Russian drone strike on the northern Ukrainian city of Pryluky overnight, regional governor Viacheslav Chaus said Thursday.

The attack came just hours after Donald Trump spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

According to Trump, Putin ‘very strongly’ said that Russia will retaliate for Ukraine’s weekend drone attacks on Russian military airfields.

Crushing strikes on civilians in Chernihiv and Kharkiv came after Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Putin ‘feels impunity’ and ‘is showing the middle finger to the entire world’. 

Six more people were wounded in the attack and have been hospitalized, Chaus said. According to him, six Shahed-type drones struck residential areas of Pryluky early Thursday morning, causing severe damage to residential buildings.

Hours later, seventeen people were wounded in a Russian drone strike on the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv early Thursday, including children, a pregnant woman, and a 93-year-old woman, regional head Oleh Syniehubov wrote on Telegram.

At around 1.05 am, Shahed-type drones struck two apartment buildings in the city’s Slobidskyi district, causing fires and destroying several private vehicles.

‘By launching attacks while people sleep in their homes, the enemy once again confirms its tactic of insidious terror,’ Syniehubov wrote on Telegram.

Russian aircraft were damaged but not destroyed in a June 1 attack by Ukraine, and they will be restored, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said in an interview with the state news agency TASS.

A firefighter stands by a fire and points to a hole following a drone strike in Kharkiv on June 5

According to authorities, six Shahed-type drones struck residential areas of Pryluky early Thursday morning, causing severe damage to residential buildings

Firefighters put out the fire following Russia’s overnight drone attack in the Pryluky, Chernihiv region

A satellite image shows a destroyed TU 22 aircraft in the aftermath of a drone strike at the Belaya air base, Irkutsk region, Russia

The attack came just hours after Donald Trump spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin

‘The equipment in question, as was also stated by representatives of the Ministry of Defence, was not destroyed but damaged. It will be restored,’ Ryabkov said.

The United States assesses that Ukraine’s drone attack over the weekend hit as many as 20 Russian warplanes, destroying around 10 of them, two US officials told Reuters, a figure that is about half the number estimated by Zelensky.

Russian President Vladimir Putin told U.S. President Donald Trump in a telephone conversation on Wednesday that Moscow would have to respond to the June 1 attack.

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Putin’s revenge: Six dead, including a baby, as Russian drones pound Ukraine hours after Vladimir told Trump he would make Zelensky pay for Operation Spiderweb humiliation

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