File photo
Kyiv:
Ukraine launched a wave of drones against Russia in the early hours of Saturday, setting a fuel depot on fire, officials said, as both sides accused each other of deadly attacks on civilians.
The governor of Russia’s Belgorod region said cross-border Ukrainian attacks left at least three people dead, while a Russian strike killed two in northeastern Ukraine.
A Ukrainian defense source told AFP that Kiev targeted eight Russian regions in the “large-scale” drone strike, which targeted “the energy infrastructure that powers Russia’s military-industrial complex.”
“At least three electrical substations and a fuel storage base were hit and caught fire,” the source said, calling it a “joint operation” by Ukraine’s SBU security service, the army and military intelligence.
The Russian Defense Ministry said it intercepted 50 Ukrainian drones overnight, some of them hundreds of kilometers from the border, including near the capital Moscow.
Video on social media reportedly showed a massive fire at a fuel depot in the Smolensk region of western Russia, an attack the governor confirmed was caused by drones.
“The air defense forces shot down the air vehicles. However, as a result of falling debris, a tank with fuel and lubricants caught fire,” said Governor Vasily Anokhin.
Kiev has stepped up attacks on Russian oil and gas facilities in recent months, part of what it calls “just” retaliation for infrastructure used to fuel Russia’s war.
Ukrainian drones left two people dead in Russia’s Belgorod border region, its governor said Saturday morning, while shelling later in the day killed a pregnant woman.
A residential building and a barn in the village of Poroz, less than two kilometers from the border, were “completely burned down”, said governor Vyacheslav Gladkov. Another building was severely damaged.
“As a result of the launch of two explosive devices, a private residential building caught fire. Tragically, two civilians died – a woman recovering from a fractured femur and a man caring for her,” Gladkov wrote in Telegram. .
He later said that Ukraine bombed the village of Novaya Tavolzhanka, killing a pregnant woman and her unborn child.
“The doctors did everything possible to save the mother and child. But, to great sadness, the woman and the fetus died from their injuries,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ukraine said Russia launched attacks on residential buildings in the northeastern city of Vovchansk, killing two people and wounding two others.
“A direct impact was recorded on a nine-story residential building. A woman and a man were injured. Both victims are 61 years old. At other addresses, two men aged 50 and 84 died as a result of bombings in the city,” he said . regional prosecutors said.
The region’s governor, Oleg Sinegubov, shared a photo showing a pile of rubble next to the collapsed section of a multi-story residential block.
Russia fired at least seven missiles at Ukraine overnight, two of which were shot down by air defenses, the Ukrainian Air Force said.
Ukraine has in recent months asked its Western allies for more air defenses as it struggles to defend itself from a wave of deadly attacks on civilian infrastructure.
The attack in its northeast comes a day after President Volodymyr Zelensky urged NATO to quickly provide more aid to help his struggling forces, which have ceded ground to Russia in recent months.
“This year, we can’t wait for the decisions to be made,” he told NATO defense ministers.
“We need seven more Patriots or similar air defense systems – and it is a minimum number. They can save a lot of lives and really change the situation,” Zelensky said.
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