Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks during a joint press conference with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis outside the Transfiguration Cathedral, destroyed by Russian bombing, in Odessa, Ukraine, on March 6, 2024.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky fired a longtime aide and several advisers on Saturday in an ongoing cabinet reshuffle as Russia launched new attacks overnight.
Zelensky fired his top aide, Serhiy Shefir, from the position of first aide, where he had worked since 2019. The Ukrainian president also let go of three advisers, and two of the president's representatives who oversee volunteer activities and soldiers' rights.
No explanation was immediately given for the latest changes in a widespread staff shake-up in recent months. This included the dismissal of Oleksiy Danilov, who served as Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, and Valery Zalozny as Commander of the Armed Forces on 8 February. Zalozny was appointed Ukraine's ambassador to the UK earlier this month.
The Ukrainian Air Force said on Saturday that Russia launched 12 Shahed drones overnight, nine of which were shot down, and fired four missiles at eastern Ukraine.
Russia launched a barrage of 38 missiles, 75 airstrikes and 98 attacks from multiple rocket launchers in the past 24 hours, Ukraine's armed forces said in social media posts.
The governor of the Ukrainian Donetsk region, Vadim Velashkin, said today, Saturday, that two people were killed and another was injured in Russian bombing of the partially occupied Donetsk region.
The Ukrainian energy company Centernergo announced on Saturday that the Zmiev Thermal Power Plant, one of the largest thermal power plants in the eastern Kharkiv region, was completely destroyed after the Russian bombing last week. Power outage schedules remain in place for about 120,000 people in the region, with 700,000 people losing power after the plant was bombed on March 22.
Russia has escalated its attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure in recent days, causing severe damage in several regions.
Officials in the Poltava region said on Saturday that an infrastructure facility had been subjected to “several strikes,” without specifying whether it was an energy facility.
Meanwhile, the toll from Friday's mass bombing of 99 drones and missiles hitting areas across Ukraine came to light on Saturday, with local officials in the Kherson region announcing on Saturday morning that one civilian had been killed. A resident of the Dnipropetrovsk region died in hospital from his injuries, according to the region's governor, Serhiy Lysak.
