KYIV: Russian strikes on the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson wounded at least six people on Tuesday, after Moscow said it had shot down drones headed for annexed Crimea at night.
The attacks came as Russia’s offensive drags on for almost 20 months and with Kyiv waging a counteroffensive launched during the summer.
The head of Kherson, Roman Mrochko, said the southern city saw “massive” Russian shelling that wounded five people.
Another strike on a nearby transport company wounded two more people, the region’s governor, Oleksandr Prokudin said.
Kyiv also said it had shot down six Iranian-made Shahed drones that were launched from Moscow-controlled Crimea for the port city of Odesa.
Several hours earlier, Russia said it had shot down eight drones over Crimea, which regularly comes under Ukrainian attacks.
“Tonight air defense shot down eight enemy drones as they approached Crimea,” the Moscow-installed head of the peninsula, Sergei Aksyonov, said on social media.
Russia also said three other drones were shot down over its western region of Belgorod, bordering Ukraine.
Ukrainian attacks on Russian and Russian-held territory have increased since Kyiv launched a counteroffensive to reclaim territory lost to Moscow.
Kyiv has said that it not only plans to retake territory lost since Russia invaded in February 2022, but also Crimea, annexed by Moscow in 2014.