Zaporizhzhia: Russian missiles hit Ukraine apartment complex as China's Xi departs Moscow - CNN

Russia unleashed a wave of deadly attacks on towns and cities across Ukraine on Wednesday as Chinese leader Xi Jinping departed from Moscow following talks with President Vladimir Putin.

As Xi flew back to Beijing, Russia’s military launched a barrage of strikes with Iran-made Shahed drones on Ukraine’s Kyiv region, killing at least nine people, according to Ukrainian authorities.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the attack “bestial savagery” on social media app Telegram and later said the wave of Russian strikes Wednesday would be met with a reply from Ukraine.

The strikes came as Zelensky made an unannounced visit to Ukrainian troops on the front lines in the eastern Donbas region, where some of the fiercest fighting is raging with Russian forces.

Video from the Ukrainian Presidential Office shows Zelensky awarding medals to soldiers in Kharkiv and visiting wounded servicemen at a hospital near the front lines in the Donetsk region.

According to the Ukrainian military, Moscow’s forces are expending large numbers of men trying to re-take Bakhmut and the offensive capacity of Russian troops in and around the city is diminishing.