Five killed, dozens wounded Ukraine’s Donetsk region, as Russia claims new gains

Kyiv, Ukraine. Ukraine said on Sunday it had attacked an oil depot in southern Russia that supplies Kremlin troops as russian attacks in the eastern Donetsk region of Ukraine, where Moscow reclaimed new advances, left five civilians dead and another 15 wounded.

Ukraine’s General Staff said in a statement that kyiv’s security services were responsible for a drone attack in the Kursk region of southern Russia that morning against an oil depot used to meet the needs of the Russian Army, and containing 11 tanks with a total volume of 7,000 cubic meters (approximately 247,202 cubic feet), adding that the attack caused “powerful explosions and a fire… probably involving containers with petroleum products.”

“The defense forces continue to take all measures to undermine the military and economic potential of the Russian occupiers and force the Russian Federation to stop its armed aggression against Ukraine,” the statement said.

Early Sunday, Russian Ministry of Defense said seven Ukrainian drones were shot down overnight over Russian territory, while a regional official said a drone strike set the oil depot in Kursk province on fire. Firefighters were battling the blaze Sunday morning after three fuel tanks caught fire, according to acting regional governor Alexey Smirnov. Smirnov said no one was injured.

The Kursk region is located on the border with the Ukrainian province of Sumy, where in recent months Ukraine has repeatedly attacked several sites, including oil depots and other military infrastructure, within Russian territory, with drones and other weapons. Ukrainian officials have been putting pressure on Western allies to use their modern, more sophisticated weapons to attack more valuable targets inside Russian territory.

Also on Sunday, Russian troops continued to make gains in Ukraine’s war-torn eastern province of Donetsk as they pushed west toward the cities of Pokrovsk and Kurakhove. Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Sunday that its forces had taken control of two neighboring towns about 30 kilometers (19 miles) east of Pokrovsk, Prohres and Yevhenivka. The day before, Moscow claimed the nearby village of Lozuvatske, one of nearly a dozen it says it has captured in the province this month.

Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, causing millions of people to flee to neighboring countries. Taking control of all of Donetsk, part of the country’s industrial heartland that now bears the scars of years of fighting, is one of the Kremlin’s main war goals.

Five civilians were killed and 15 others injured following Russian attacks in the Donetsk region on Saturday and overnight, local governor Vadym Filashkin reported on Telegram on Sunday. Soon after, other Ukrainian officials said Russian bombings injured more civilians, including children, in the east and south.

At least eight people were injured after Moscow’s forces attacked the eastern Ukrainian city of Nikopol on Sunday, local governor Serhii Lysak said the same day. Lysak said the victims included a little boy and a 10-year-old girl, six of whom had to be hospitalized.

Russian bombing on Sunday also wounded eight more civilians, including a 10-year-old boy and two teenagers, in a village in Kherson province in southern Ukraine, local official Roman Mrochko said.

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