THIS is the terrifying moment Vladimir Putin’s shahed suicide drones blitzed a hotel resort and a restaurant sparking a massive explosion.
At least four people have reportedly been killed and 15 others injured so far in the mass drone attack that rocked Dnipro late on Friday night.
Horror footage showed flames and large plumes of smoke wafting skyward in the cityX
Horror footage showed flames and large plumes of smoke wafting skyward in the city
XDashcam video of drone strike at the street in Dnipro city[/caption]
ReutersA fire burns in a restaurant in the aftermath of a Russian drone attack[/caption]
Picture of the resort before the strike
Horror footage showed flames and large plumes of smoke wafting skyward in the city.
Other pictures shared on social media showed the shattered interior of a building, the badly damaged upper floors of a high-rise apartment block and streets strewn with smashed glass and building materials.
Firefighters rushed to the scene to bring the blaze under control.
Serhiy Lysak, governor of the surrounding Dnipropetrovsk region, said the casualty toll was likely to rise, with three of the injured in serious condition.
He wrote in a post on Telegram: “It is also now known that the enemy directed more than 20 drones toward the city. Most of them were downed.
The strike comes just hours after a menacing Putin defied Donald Trump and declared he can “finish off” Ukraine despite an impending ceasefire.
The brutal tyrant has also unleashed a wave of fresh strikes on civilian targets and retaken a border village in Kursk.
Putin made the threat while visiting a nuclear submarine base in Russia’s frozen north – just a week after Sir Keir Starmer had a similar visit.
He launched a new nuclear submarine named the Perm – the first of its kind to be equipped with hypersonic Zircon missiles as a standard feature.
Vlad brushed aside peace moves, declaring: “Not long ago I said we’d grind them [Ukraine] down — now it looks like we’ll finish them off.”
Putin also called for Volodymyr Zelensky to be ousted by generals and replaced by an internationally-supervised provisional government to hold elections.
The tyrant’s threats come as his forces bombed a liquid gas facility in the latest violation of pledges to halt such strikes.
Vlad’s forces also bombed a hospital in what Kyiv labelled as a “war crime”.
Russia also claims to have retaken the border village of Gogolevka from Ukraine in its Kursk region.
Meanwhile, Zelensky said that the country’s military has taken “certain steps” in Russia outside the Kursk region.
He said this was done to ease pressure on Ukrainian troops in the area.
XThe massive inferno could be seen from miles away[/caption]
XThe deadly attack sparked a massive blaze[/caption]
XRescue forces rushed to the scene[/caption]
It comes after reports emerged suggesting Ukrainian troops were inside the adjacent Belgorod region and were fighting the Russians.
Meanwhile, after a long marathon of negotiations, the White House confirmed that both the warring nations have agreed to halt strikes in the Black Sea region and on energy infrastructure.
Washington also agreed to lift some sanctions against Moscow in its latest step towards endorsing Russia‘s positions.
The agreements were struck by US negotiators who met separately over three days in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, with delegations from Ukraine and Russia.
While the full details of the ceasefire deal are yet to be revealed by top diplomats of the nations, experts fear that the deal hugely benefits Russia in the war.
The dictator has now succeeded in stopping the fighting on one of Ukraine most successful fronts – as well as halting more crippling attacks on Russian oil plants in another side deal.
Putin is now expected to stall further peace deals for months until he has grabbed more swathes of invaded land and pushed Ukrainian forces out of Russia’s Kursk region.
Former Nato chief and British Army Colonel Hamish de Bretton-Gordon told The Sun: “This is a deal that’s been written by Russia because actually they get most out of it.”
During the peace talks, the US committed to help seek the lifting of international sanctions on Russian agriculture and fertiliser exports, long a persistent Russian demand.
The deals were reached after parallel talks in Saudi Arabia that followed separate phone calls last week between Trump and the two presidents, Zelenskiy and Putin.
EPAUkrainian rescuers working at the site of a drone hit[/caption]
EPAPicture shows the aftermath of the deadly strike[/caption]