Six killed in Ukrainian drone and missile strikes on Russia
The Russian ministry of defence said 33 drones were shot down overnight into Sunday.
Six people have died in Ukrainian drone and missile attacks, while the second day of Russia’s aerial bombing of Ukraine’s second largest city of Kharkiv has killed at least one person.
Among the dead were five people – including two children – were killed by falling debris when five Ukrainian missiles were shot down on Sunday in Sevastopol, a port city in Russia-annexed Crimea, said Mikhail Razvozhayev, the city’s Moscow-installed governor. More than 100 others were injured.
One person was killed and three were injured in Russia’s Belgorod region, bordering Ukraine, when three Ukrainian drones attacked the city of Grayvoron, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.
Russian state news agency RIA Novosti said 124 people were wounded in Sevastopol, citing the Health Ministry.
The agency said falling rocket fragments caused a forest fire of more than 150 square meters (1,600 square feet) and set a residential building alight. It added that a fifth missile had exploded over the city.
Russia’s ministry of defence said both Ukraine and the US bore “responsibility for a deliberate missile strike on civilians”. It said that US-supplied ATACMS missiles were used in the Ukrainian attack.
Air defence forces shot down 33 Ukrainian drones over the country’s western Bryansk, Smolensk, Lipetsk and Tula regions. No casualties were reported.
A fresh attack on Kharkiv killed at least one person and injured 10 on Sunday, according to local officials. Mayor Ihor Terekhov said the city was attacked by a guided bomb and around half of Kharkiv was without electricity because of the strike.
Sunday’s attacks came after Russia struck Kharkiv on Saturday afternoon with four aerial bombs, hitting a five-storey residential building and killing three people.
Regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said 41 people were still being treated for injuries on Sunday.
In a video address following Saturday’s attack, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged Ukraine’s partners to bolster its air defences.
“Modern air defence systems for Ukraine – such as Patriots, accelerated training of our pilots for F-16s, and most importantly, sufficient range for our weapons – are truly necessary,” he said.
Meanwhile, two people were injured by falling debris when two Russian missiles were shot down over the Kyiv region overnight, Ukraine’s air force commander Mykola Oleschuk said.
Regional Governor Vadym Filashkin of Ukraine’s partly occupied Donetsk region said that Russian attacks on Saturday killed two people and wounded four.
In other developments, the Ukrainian Navy released photos on Sunday that it says confirm the destruction of a warehouse in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region used to launch and store Iranian-designed Shahed drones.
Navy officials said training instructors and cadets were killed in the attack on Friday night. Moscow has not yet commented on the reports, but officials said air defences shot down a number of drones in the region overnight on Friday.
