Russian attacks on Tuesday kill five in Dnipro, damage a hospital in Kherson and target a dam in Kharkiv region. The Kremlin is downplaying Orban’s election defeat to project confidence that Ukraine will still face pressure, ISW says. Ukraine strikes Russian drone storage outside Donetsk with SCALP missiles.
Russian attacks on Tuesday kill five in Dnipro, damage hospital in Kherson, target dam in Kharkiv region
A Russian missile strike on the city of Dnipro on Tuesday killed five people and injured 25 others. Twenty-one people were taken to hospital, of whom 10 were in grave condition, head of the regional military administration, Oleksandr Hanzha said.
Overnight on Tuesday, Russia launched at Ukraine a total of four Kh-59/69 air-launched missiles and 129 attack drones of the Shahed, Gerbera and Italmas types as well as other types of drones, the Ukrainian Air Force said.
Twelve drones hit target in eight locations and the falling debris fell in five places, it added.
In Kherson, four hospital personnel were injured as a Russian drone hit a medical facility in the city’s central part. In a separate episode, a 62-year-old man was injured as a Russian drone dropped explosives on a civilian car in the Central district of Kherson. The man was taken to hospital with shrapnel injuries to his head, a concussion, blast injury and closed head injury.
Russia dropped six glide bombs on the Pechenihy dam in Kharkiv region on Tuesday, head of the regional military administration, Oleh Synehubov said on national television. The Pechenihy reservoir is the region’s largest and is of critical importance to the area. Russia also launched a drone attack on Kharkiv almost simultaneously with the dam strike, using Molniya and Shahed drones, Synehubov continued. First responders were working at the damaged sites, he added.
Russia has targeted the Pechenihy reservoir throughout the war a number of times. One of the recent attacks on it occurred in December 2025.
Russia is preparing operations to disrupt Ukraine’s water supply system in the coming months, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi said in a nightly address on March 25.
Kremlin downplaying Orban’s election defeat to project confidence that Ukraine will still face pressure, ISW says
The Kremlin is downplaying Viktor Orban’s election defeat as Russia loses a key European ally, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said in an update on Monday. The paragraphs below are quoted from the report.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban conceded defeat after 16 years in power to Hungarian lawyer Peter Magyar, who won an overwhelming victory for the opposition Tisza party, securing over two-thirds of Hungarian parliamentary seats.
Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told a Russian journalist on April 13 that the Kremlin will not congratulate Magyar as Hungary remains an “unfriendly country” that supports sanctions against Russia. Peskov told a journalist on the Russian state TV program Vesti on April 13 that relations between Russia and the European Union (EU) cannot worsen after Hungary’s elections, as they are already at rock bottom. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov emphasized that Russia is ready to build a relationship with the new Hungarian government, depending on how the Hungarian government “understands its own national interests.”
Prominent Russian milbloggers expressed mixed reactions ranging from downplaying Orban’s defeat and questioning his alignment with Russia to voicing concerns that the Kremlin has lost its main ally in the EU, who vetoed decisions unfavorable to Russia.
Orban consistently opposed and undermined the EU’s efforts to provide military and financial assistance to Ukraine, aligning with the Kremlin’s interests, and Russian President Vladimir Putin personally endorsed Orban in the 2026 Hungarian parliamentary election. The Kremlin is likely downplaying the loss of its key ally in Europe to project confidence that Ukraine will still face pressure to accept Russia’s terms to end the war.
Hungary held a parliamentary election on April 12. With 98.9 per cent of votes counted, Péter Magyar’s Tisza party is set to secure 138 seats in the parliament, Fidesz gets 55 seats and Our Homeland Movement (Mi Hazánk Mozgalom) gets six seats.
Ukraine strikes Russian drone storage outside Donetsk with SCALP missiles
Ukraine struck a storage site of Russian attack drones near the Donetsk airport, using SCALP cruise missiles and GBU-39 precision-guided bombs, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said Tuesday.
Ukrainian drones also hit Russia’s ammunition depots near the village of Azovske in Zaporizhzhia region and close to the village of Urzuf and the town of Kulykivske in Donetsk region, the statement reads.
“The enemy’s losses and the extent of damage are being assessed. Ukraine’s defense forces will continue to take measures to reduce the offensive potential of Russian forces and stop Russia’s armed aggression against Ukraine,” the General Staff said.
Ukraine’s military also struck a number of Russian radar and air defense systems, the Ukrainian General Staff said in a separate statement on Tuesday.
A Nebo-U radar system in Feodosia, in Crimea is among the targets that were hit.
Ukraine also hit a radar station near Nikolayevka and a Kasta-2E radar near Lubyanoye-Pervoye in Russia’s Belgorod region on Tuesday.
The Ukrainian military also struck a Tor-M1 Russian air defense system near the village of Lozove in the occupied part of Luhansk region, the message reads.
