• Massive daytime drone attack rocks Ukrainian cities.
• Unesco World Heritage Site targeted in attack.
• Russia attacking crowded city centre: Ukrainian PM. 

A rare Russian daytime drone attack on Ukraine killed at least three people, wounded 30 and set a building in the centuries-old centre of western Lviv aflame on Tuesday, officials said, following an overnight bombardment that killed five people across the country.

Over 400 drones were launched at Ukraine in the middle of the day, Ukraine’s air force said, an abrupt change from Russia’s usual tactic of launching similarly massive aerial attacks at night during its more than four-year-old war.

Video footage posted online showed a drone crashing into an old building next to a church in the historic centre of Lviv, some 60 kilometres (37 miles) from the Polish border.

Unesco site hit, casualties mount

In another western Ukrainian city, Ivano-Frankivsk, two people were killed and four injured, according to regional Governor Svitlana Onyshchuk. City mayor Ruslan Martsinkiv said windows at a maternity hospital had been blown out, but that nobody in the hospital was harmed.

Vinnytsia Governor Natalia Zabolotna said on Telegram that one person had been killed and 11 wounded in her region.

Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said a residential building was hit by a second drone, while debris from a third drone fell in a street.

“Russia is attacking a crowded city centre in broad daylight,” Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko wrote on X.

Lviv regional governor Maksym Kozytskyi said part of the Unesco World Heritage Site around the 17th-century St. Andrew’s Church had been damaged.

Air defences also engaged drones throughout the day near Kyiv.

Ukraine’s air force posted warnings on social media of drones overhead in more than a dozen areas across the country.

Officials in Vinnytsia and Ternopil, both several hundred kilometres from the frontline, said explosions were heard in their cities and told residents to remain in shelters.

Overnight attack

The daytime strikes came after a wave of overnight strikes that killed five people across Ukraine and caused disruption to power supplies in Moldova. Ukraine’s air force said Russia had launched 34 missiles and 392 drones overnight and that 25 missiles and 365 drones had been downed or neutralised.

Two people were killed and 12 injured, including a five-year-old child, in the attack near the eastern city of Poltava, a regional official said.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said damage had been reported in 11 regions and issued a new appeal for allies to supply Kyiv with air defence munitions.

He has repeatedly warned that Kyiv, whose main supplier of air defence systems against ballistic missiles is the United States, will face a deficit of missiles while Washington is focused on the US-Israeli war on Iran.

“It’s important to continue supporting Ukraine. It’s important that all agreements on air defence are implemented on time,” he said on X.

Moldovan Foreign Minister Mihai Popsoi said the Isaccea–Vulcanesti power line, Moldova’s key link with Europe, had been affected.

Moldovan President Maia Sandu wrote on X: “Alternative routes are in place, but the situation remains fragile. Russia alone bears responsibility.”

Iran’s Army says its drone fleet has delivered precision strikes on Israel’s key aerospace and weapons manufacturing industries.

Iran’s Army said in a statement on Tuesday that it successfully launched a series of drone strikes early in the morning.

The attacks targeted Rafael’s weapons industries in Haifa and aerospace facilities near Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv.

The Iranian drones also hit several refueling aircraft stationed at the airport.

Rafael Weapons Industries is a key military technology developer responsible for advanced systems such as the Iron Dome and David’s Sling, according to the statement.

The Rafael logistics and military center had previously been targeted by ballistic missiles launched by the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC).

Over the past 25 days, the Iranian Army conducted multiple operations as part of Operation True Promise 4, which was launched immediately after the US-Israeli joint military aggression against Iran on February 28.

The Army has vowed to continue its operations with determination and remain steadfast in “its sacred mission to defend the country’s “independence and territorial integrity.”

• Family of US detainee urged Afghan leader to release him for Eid.
• Afghan top court deems detention sufficient, orders release.
• Coyle, 64, arrested by Afghan authorities in January 2025.
  

KABUL: Afghanistan’s Taliban government announced on Tuesday that it was freeing a US national who had been detained for more than a year.

The foreign ministry said the family of linguist and researcher Dennis Coyle had written to the supreme leader of Afghanistan, requesting his release for Eid.

“The Supreme Court of the Islamic Emirate deemed his period of detention sufficient and decided on his release,” a statement read.

The announcement came after a meeting of Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, US former special envoy to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad, the UAE ambassador to Kabul Saif Mohammed Al-Ketbi, and a member of Coyle’s family.

The UAE facilitated the release, the ministry said, adding that Coyle had been reunited with his family in Kabul on Tuesday.

Coyle, 64, was arrested by the Afghan authorities in January 2025, according to the Foley Foundation, which advocates for the release of Americans taken hostage or arbitrarily detained abroad.

A website set up by his family, freedenniscoyle.com, said he was “legally working to support Afghan communities as an academic researcher” when he was detained.

They said he had been held in “near-solitary conditions, requiring permission even to use the bathroom, and without access to adequate medical care”.

Coyle first travelled to Afghanistan in the early 2000s “to survey Afghanistan’s rich linguistic diversity and help Afghan communities develop resources in their own languages”, they added.

“Throughout his years of service, Dennis maintained a home in Kabul and built deep, meaningful relationships with the Afghan people,” the website read.

“Those who know him speak with profound appreciation for both the man and his work. Dennis has always embraced Afghan culture with genuine warmth – sharing cups of traditional green tea, enjoying dried fruit snacks, and engaging in the kind of heartfelt conversations that bridge cultures.

“His love for the Afghan people isn’t just professional; it’s personal and deeply felt.”

Earlier this month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States had formally placed Afghanistan on its list of countries engaged in “wrongful detentions”.

The Afghan authorities called that “regrettable” and pointed to talks between the two sides and previous releases with mediators from Qatar.

In 2025, five American citizens were released in what the Taliban authorities said was a “goodwill gesture”.