KYIV: Russian and Ukrainian strikes killed at least 10 people in total across both sides of the border on Friday, local officials in the respective territories said.
More than four years after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, strikes from both sides have been intensifying for several months, causing a growing number of civilian casualties.
In Ukraine, two people were killed and eight wounded when a missile hit a residential building in the Black Sea port city of Odesa, said deputy mayor Oleksandr Filatov.
“Among those killed was a woman who was walking in a park with children at the time of the attack. The children survived and are receiving the necessary assistance,” emergency services said.
Residential buildings, a religious institution, a pre-school facility, vehicles and other civilian infrastructure were damaged in the bombardment, Filatov said.
In a later attack on the nearby port city of Mykolaiv, two more people were killed aboard a foreign-flagged civilian vessel, and two other foreign-flagged ships were damaged, local prosecutors said.
Russia denies targeting civilians and said it struck military-related infrastructure across Ukraine’s south. Moscow has stepped up air raids on Ukrainian Black Sea ports in recent weeks.
Farther south, in the frontline city of Kherson, a 70-year-old woman was killed and five others, all elderly, were wounded in Russian attacks, said the city’s military administration.
Two other people were killed in a Ukrainian drone strike on a freeway in one of the Russian-occupied parts of the Kherson region, according to the Moscow-appointed governor there, Vladimir Vasilenko.
In Russia itself, a man was killed after a drone hit his car in the Belgorod region, on the border with Ukraine, the regional government said.
Another person was killed in a Ukrainian attack on Gorlivka, a town in eastern Ukraine controlled by Russia, said Moscow-installed governor Ivan Prikhodko.
Drone strike on logistics centre kills ten
Easrly on Saturday morning Russua said a Ukrainian drone attack on a logistics center in western Russia killed seven people and wounded 24, the regional governor said, as the Moscow region was again targeted by a wave of drones.
Ukraine has been striking a range of targets in Russia, which Kyiv says is fair retribution for Moscow’s more than four-year barrages against its territory.
“Seven night-shift employees were killed when enemy UAVs hit a Wildberries logistics center,” Governor of the Tambov region Evgeny Pervyshov said.
“According to preliminary information, 24 people were wounded” in the attack that took place in the town of Kotovsk, he added.
Russian firm Wildberries said in a statement that its logistics complexes in Kotovsk and Elektrostal, in the Moscow region, came under attack.
“The fire that broke out at the facility in Tambov region has been contained,” while firefighters are still working in Elektrostal, the company said.
More than 370 drones were launched toward the Moscow region overnight, the Russian capital’s mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Saturday.
“Most were neutralized by air defense forces at distant approaches. 64 enemy UAVs were destroyed on approach to Moscow,” Sobyanin wrote on the state-backed MAX platform.
US-led diplomatic efforts to end the fighting have stalled in recent months, as Washington has shifted focus to its conflict with Iran.
According to the UN, June was the deadliest month for civilians in Ukraine since April 2022, with at least 293 people killed.
