Russia is advancing around Kostyantynivka and in the Sumy region with small, fast-moving units as both sides try a new tactic of using motorcycles and civilian cars to quickly cross open terrain.

Ukrainian officials say three people were killed and 13 were wounded when Russia attacked the country with waves of drones and missiles.

KYIV (Reuters) -Ukrainian forces have stopped Russian troops advancing in the northeastern Sumy region and are now battling to regain control along the border with Russia, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said.

Russia launched one of its largest air strikes on Kyiv in over three years of war and struck a maternity ward in the southern city of Odesa, officials said.

One of the hardest-hit areas was the city of Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine, where 17 attack drones struck two residential districts, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said. Emergency crews, municipal workers and volunteers worked through the night to extinguish fires, rescue residents from burning homes, and restore gas, electricity and water services.

Ukraine's surprise drone attack was bold and creative and a disaster for Russia, but the strategic implications extend beyond the conflict between those two countries. Rachel Maddow explains why the attack puts nuclear strategy in a new light and makes the lack of competent leadership in the United States particularly painful.

With 41 military aircraft impacted, the Ukrainian drone attack was described by some commentators as Russia's "Pearl Harbor." The attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 was a surprise air raid by Japan on the U.S. during World War II. Kyiv's assault follows ground advances by Moscow troops in recent days in Ukraine's Sumy border region.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he was sending a Ukrainian delegation to Istanbul for another face-to-face with Russian representatives.

Russia’s Defense Ministry in a statement confirmed the attacks, saying they damaged aircraft and sparked fires on air bases in the Irkutsk region, as well as the Murmansk region in the north. It said strikes were also repelled in the Amur region in Russia’s Far East and in the western regions of Ivanovo and Ryazan, the ministry said.

TRUMP: THEY GAVE PUTIN A REASON TO BOMB THE HELL OUT OF THEM’: As is President Donald Trump’s habit, when Ukraine takes action to strike back at Russia, Trump finds a way to accuse Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of undermining peace efforts by provoking the Russians.