Six killed in Russian attacks on Ukraine as Kyiv continues drone counterstrikes
Six people had been killed in Russian attacks on Ukraine in the past 24 hours, local officials reported on Sunday.
Two people were killed and three more were injured in the Kherson area after more than 100 shells hit the region over the weekend, local governor Oleksandr Prokudin wrote on social media.
Two guided bombs later struck key infrastructure in Kherson city, sparking a partial blackout and disruption to the area’s water supply, the head of the city’s military administration, Roman Mrochko, reported.
Local officials said two more people had died in the Donetsk area and that a 57-year-old man and a 54-year-old woman had been killed by an airstrike that destroyed their home in the Kharkiv region.
In a separate incident, a 14-year-old boy was killed by a mine in a field in Ukraine’s Mykolaiv region, interior minister Ihor Klymenko said. The explosion also injured another 12-year-old boy.
Meanwhile, the Russian defence ministry announced on Sunday that Ukraine had launched 27 drones in an overnight attack on western Russia.
Officials said that 18 drones were shot down over the Kursk region, leading to speculation in the Russian press that the attack could have been targeting the nearby Khalino military airfield.
Images on social media showed burning debris a mile (1.5km) from the airbase, which was previously attacked by Ukrainian forces at the end of September.
Writing on social media, Kursk governor Roman Starovoit said that debris had fallen in the region’s namesake capital and the nearby village of Zorino. No casualties were reported.
Officials also said that two more drones had been shot down over Russia’s Belgorod region, but did not confirm the fate of the remaining seven drones. Ukrainian media outlets later said that Kyiv’s forces had carried out a successful strike on Russia’s Krasnaya Yaruga electrical substation, close to the Ukrainian border.
The Associated Press could not independently verify the reports.
Moscow also said on Sunday that it had intercepted a Global Hawk drone close to Russia’s Black Sea border.
A Su-27 fighter was scrambled to intercept the drone, which turned away and ultimately did not cross into Russian airspace, the Russian defence ministry said in a statement on social media.
Press Association – AP