Russia unleashes deadly barrage across Ukraine as drone, missile onslaught sparks mayhem, casualties
The latest attacks came amid continued exchanges of long-range strikes between Russia and Ukraine, with drones and missiles being used extensively by both sides.
Russian forces launched fresh attacks across several Ukrainian regions on Monday, killing at least five people and injuring others, according to Ukrainian regional officials and a Reuters report. The strikes affected areas including Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk and Mykolaiv as fighting continued along the roughly 1,200-kilometre frontline.
In northeastern Kharkiv Region, prosecutors said a drone strike on the town of Lozova killed one person and wounded three others.
Further south, in Dnipropetrovsk Region, a drone attack killed a motorist in Nikopol, a city on the western bank of the Dnipro River, opposite the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.
Donetsk Region also came under renewed attack. In Kramatorsk, a Russian strike severely damaged an apartment building and killed one person, while another person was reportedly killed in a nearby village.
One of the reported casualties was a three-year-old child in Mykolaiv Region, where a sustained attack on a village near Ukraine’s Black Sea coast resulted in the child’s death, according to regional officials cited by Reuters.
The latest attacks came amid continued exchanges of long-range strikes between Russia and Ukraine, with drones and missiles being used extensively by both sides.
Separate attacks were also reported in Zaporizhzhia. The Associated Press reported that Russian drones struck the southern city on Monday, damaging civilian infrastructure including apartment buildings, a university and a shopping centre, with five people wounded. Ukrainian authorities said air defences had downed or suppressed 148 Russian drones during the wider attack.
Ukrainian authorities have continued to report extensive damage to residential and civilian infrastructure from Russian strikes. Ukrainian sources also reported attacks involving drones, missiles, artillery and guided aerial bombs across several regions.
The attacks followed a weekend in which Ukraine launched more than 1,000 drones against targets in Russia, according to Russian and Ukrainian officials cited by AP. The escalation has underscored the continuing intensity of the conflict despite ongoing diplomatic efforts.
The latest violence is unfolding as world leaders gather in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, with diplomatic efforts to end the war continuing alongside the military confrontation.
However, the precise circumstances surrounding individual strikes remain disputed. Reuters said it could not independently verify the battlefield reports, while both Russia and Ukraine deny deliberately targeting civilians.
The reported deaths bring further attention to the continuing civilian cost of the war, now in its fifth year, as attacks continue to hit communities far from the immediate frontline.
