Russia and Ukraine Trade Strikes, Seven Killed
Russia and Ukraine have traded strikes, with a Russian attack killing three people in Ukraine’s eastern Dnipropetrovsk and Poltava regions, while a Ukrainian assault killed four in Crimea. Moscow and Kyiv have intensified attacks on each other in recent weeks, even as US-led talks on ending the conflict that began in February 2022 remain stalled.
One person was killed and nine others wounded in a Russian strike across three districts of Dnipropetrovsk, regional military administration head Oleksandr Ganzha wrote on Telegram. The fatality was a 70-year-old woman in the Nikopol district. Poltava regional military administration head Vitali Dyakivnych said a Russian attack on Saturday night killed two people and injured 13, including six children.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said it shot down 239 Ukrainian drones overnight. Additionally, a Ukrainian strike killed four people and halted fuel sales in Russian-occupied Crimea. Ukraine said it targeted military and energy facilities in Crimea, Moscow’s key logistics hub for its four-year military campaign, in one of the largest attacks on the peninsula in recent months.
‘As a result of an enemy drone attack on the Kerch peninsula, unfortunately, there are casualties among the civilian population,’ said Russian-backed Crimea Governor Sergey Aksyonov, referring to the part of Crimea bordering Russia. ‘According to the latest information, four people were killed and 28 wounded,’ he added.
The mass attack also killed one person aboard a ferry and struck an oil terminal in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region bordering Crimea. Parts of the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Russia in 2014, suffered power outages following the strikes.
‘Overnight, our long-range sanctions targeted the military logistics, oil industry, and air defences of the occupiers,’ Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on social media. Ukraine refers to its retaliatory strikes against Russia and occupied territories as ‘long-range sanctions’ and denies targeting civilians. He said the attacks were a response to Russian strikes. ‘All of this is a just response to Russia’s brutal attacks on our people,’ Zelensky stated.
He noted that Ukrainian forces also struck the Crimean Bridge connecting the peninsula to Russia. Having enhanced its long-range drone capabilities, Kyiv now says it can strike at will along the land corridor through Russian-occupied southeastern Ukraine, which Russia uses to supply Crimea and its troops stationed there.