KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A major Russian drone and missile attack on civilian areas of Ukraine killed four people and injured at least 27, officials said Tuesday, while Moscow’s army stepped up efforts to break through Ukrainian front-line defenses in what could be the start of an anticipated spring ground offensive.
Russia fired almost 400 long-range drones at Ukraine overnight, Ukraine’s air force said, in its biggest attack in weeks. The onslaught continued into Tuesday morning as dozens of drones targeted the capital Kyiv during daylight.
Russia also launched 23 cruise missiles and seven ballistic missiles at Ukraine during the night, hitting at least 10 locations across the country, according to the air force.
Ukrainian civilians have endured relentless barrages since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of its neighbor more than four years ago. U.S-brokered talks between Moscow and Kyiv over the past year have brought no respite, with Russia rejecting Ukraine’s offer of a ceasefire, and in recent weeks the Iran war has diverted international attention from Ukraine’s plight.
On the roughly 1,250-kilometer (750-mile) front line snaking along eastern and southern parts of Ukraine, the short-handed defenders have been bracing for a new offensive by Russia’s bigger army as the weather improves.
The Commander-in-Chief of Ukraine's armed forces, Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, said Russian troops in recent days have made simultaneous attempts to break through defensive lines in several strategic areas.
“Fierce fighting unfolded along the entire line of contact,” Syrskyi said Monday on the Telegram messaging app, with Russia launching 619 attacks in four days.
“The occupiers are attempting to bring up new units and are preparing to continue attacks,” Syrskyi said, adding that Ukraine had deployed reinforcements to counter the assaults.
The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said Syrskyi’s report backed up its assessment that Russia’s spring-summer offensive is now underway.
Russia has escalated its strikes since March 17 and has moved heavy equipment and more troops to the front line, the ISW said late Monday.
Each year, as the weather improves, Russia has moved its grinding war of attrition up a gear. However, it has been unable to capture cities and has made only incremental gains across rural areas. Russia occupies about 20% of Ukraine. That includes the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia seized in 2014.
Ukraine has developed advanced drone technology to make up for its shortage of infantry.
Amid the Middle East conflict, Kyiv is offering Ukraine’s battle-tested drone defenses to U.S. and Gulf partners, hoping to trade that know-how for scarce Patriot air defense missiles it needs to fend off Russia’s barrages.
Ukraine has also used its domestically produced long-range drones to hit areas of Russia that support Moscow’s war effort. Russian air defenses intercepted 55 Ukrainian drones overnight over Russian regions, the annexed Crimea and the Black Sea, the Russian Defense Ministry reported Tuesday.
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Rescue workers try to put out a fire of a residential building burning after a Russian drone attack on Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Kateryna Klochko)
Rescue workers try to put out a fire of a residential building burning after a Russian drone attack on Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Kateryna Klochko)
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Danish voters went to the polls Tuesday in a general election, with Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen seeking a third term at the helm of the Scandinavian country after a standoff with U.S. President Donald Trump over the future of the kingdom’s semiautonomous territory of Greenland.
More than 4.3 million people are eligible to have their say in the vote for the new Folketing, or parliament, in Copenhagen, which is elected for a four-year term.
Frederiksen called the election in February, several months before she had to in apparent hopes that her resolute image in the crisis over Greenland would help her with voters in the European Union and NATO member country.
In her second term, her support had waned as the cost of living rose — something that, along with pensions and a potential wealth tax, has been a prominent campaign issue.
The 48-year-old center-left Social Democrat is known for strong support of Ukraine in its defense against Russia’s invasion and for a restrictive approach to migration — continuing a tradition in Danish politics that now goes back two decades.
Seeking to counter pressure from the right and pointing to a possible surge in migration because of the Iran war, Frederiksen announced proposals this month that include a potential “emergency brake” on asylum and tighter controls on criminals who lack legal residence. Her government had already unveiled a plan to allow the deportation of foreigners who have been sentenced to at least one year in prison for serious crimes.
Two center-right challengers hope to oust Frederiksen as prime minister. One is in her current government — Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen of the Liberal, or Venstre, party, which headed several recent administrations.
The other is Alex Vanopslagh, 34, of the opposition Liberal Alliance, which calls for lower taxes and less bureaucracy, and for Denmark to abandon its refusal to use nuclear power. But a recent admission from Vanopslagh to taking cocaine earlier in his time as party leader may have dented his chances.
Further to the right, the anti-immigration Danish People’s Party looks well-placed to bounce back from a very weak showing at the last election in 2022.
No single party is expected to come anywhere near winning a majority. Denmark’s system of proportional representation typically produces coalition governments, traditionally made up of several parties from either the “red bloc” on the left or the “blue bloc” on the right, after weeks of negotiations.
Frederiksen’s outgoing three-party administration was the first in decades to straddle the political divide. It remains to be seen whether this election will result in a repeat, with the centrist Moderate party of Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen possibly acting as the kingmaker.
Speaking to reporters after he had voted, Rasmussen said that “this is basically about Denmark preparing itself to a world which is absolutely more uncertain than we were used to in the past.”
Greenland, which took up much of the government’s energy in recent months, hasn’t been a significant issue in the campaign because there is broad agreement on its place in the kingdom.
Frederiksen warned in January that an American takeover of Greenland would amount to the end of NATO. But the crisis has simmered down, at least for now.
After Trump backed down on threats to impose tariffs on Denmark and other European countries that opposed the U.S. taking control of the vast Arctic island, the U.S., Denmark and Greenland started technical talks on an Arctic security deal.
Peter Mortensen, a lawyer, speaking just after he had voted, told The Associated Press that, “I would like some politicians who have a vision for our country."
“What are we supposed to do in this world with war and our neighbors and perhaps our allies are threatening us instead of being allies?” he added. “I don’t have the answers, but the politicians don’t have it either.”
Denmark’s single-chamber parliament has 179 seats. Of those, 175 go to lawmakers from Denmark itself and two each for representatives from thinly populated Greenland and the kingdom’s other semiautonomous territory, the Faroe Islands.
Moulson reported from Berlin.
A man casts a ballot at a polling station at City Hall in Copenhagen, Denmark, on Tuesday, March 24, 2026, during the general election. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)
A woman holds a ballot at a polling station at City Hall in Copenhagen, Denmark, on Tuesday, March 24, 2026, during the general election. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)
People line up to receive their ballots at a polling station at City Hall in Copenhagen, Denmark, on Tuesday, March 24, 2026, during the general election. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)
FILE - Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen arrives for the EU summit in Brussels, Jan. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert, File)
FILE - Denmark's Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen speaks with the media as he arrives for a meeting of European Union defense ministers at the European Council building in Brussels, Feb. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Harry Nakos, File)
Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, center, Lars Loekke Rasmussen, right, and Pia Olsen Dyhr, left, attend the party leader debate Democracy's Evening on DR1 at the Concert Hall, DR City in Copenhagen, Sunday, March 22, 2026. (Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)
Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, left, and Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen, right, attend the party leader debate Democracy's Evening on DR1 at the Concert Hall, DR City in Copenhagen, Sunday, March 22, 2026. (Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)
