Overnight attacks kill children in Ukraine, Russia

A firefighter and a medic carry an injured person to the ambulance following a drone strike in Nikopol, Ukraine on April 7, 2026. [AFP]

Two boys were killed in Russia and Ukraine overnight, officials said Tuesday, as the two sides exchanged latest strikes more than four years after Moscow sent troops into its neighbour.

Moscow has been launching drones and missiles at Ukraine almost nightly throughout its offensive -- the bloodiest conflict in Europe since World War II.

Ukraine has stepped up attacks on Russian energy infrastructure in recent weeks in a bid to reduce Moscow's earnings from oil exports, as the Middle East war pushes up prices.

As a result of the latest strikes, in Russia a boy born in 2014 was among three people killed in the Vladimir region after a drone struck a residential building, the regional governor said.

In Ukraine, an 11-year-old boy died and five others were wounded when a house caught fire as a result of a drone strike in the Dnipropetrovsk region, the head of the regional military administration said.

In Russia's Vladimir region, two adults and their son, born in 2014, were killed, governor Alexander Avdeev said on Telegram, adding that the couple's five-year-old daughter was in hospital with burns.

According to the Russian defence ministry quoted by media, Russia shot down 45 Ukrainian drones over the country overnight.

In Ukraine, "the enemy attacked four districts of the region more than 10 times with drones," Oleksandr Ganzha, the head of the regional military administration said on Telegram.

A house caught fire while three other homes and a vehicle were damaged in the Synelnykove district, Ganzha said.

"An 11-year-old boy was killed," he added, saying two women and a man were hospitalised. In other areas, strikes sparked fires and damaged an administrative building and power lines, wounding two men.