Ten civilians killed in Ukraine, as Zelensky says troops fend off major Russian advance on frontline regions
Russia pummeled Ukraine overnight, killing 10 and injuring as many as 61 civilians, in part of a ramped up aerial campaign to advance strongman Vladimir Putin’s war into the Eastern European country.
The Kremlin targeted Ukraine’s frontline regions with 208 drones and 27 missiles Saturday. In the southern Dnipro region, at least three Ukrainians were killed and six others wounded in the barrage, local officials on the ground reported.
The strikes shattered windows in a residential building, torched cars — and on the outskirts of the city flames engulfed an obliterated shopping center obliterated by a Russian missile, causing an apocalyptic-like scene on the streets of the war-torn country.
The Kremlin targeted Ukraine’s frontline regions with 208 drones and 27 missiles, according to officials.
“A scary night. A massive attack on the region,” Serhiy Lysak, Dnipro’s regional governor, said on Telegram.
In the northeastern Sumy region, another person was killed and three others injured, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said troops blocked Russian troops from gaining ground deeper into the battleground region.
Russia opened a new front in Sumy in early June, deploying 50,000 troops — three times the size of Kyiv’s forces in the key battleground — and capturing around a dozen border villages.
The region, a priority for the Kremlin, continues to face near-daily strikes. But, up until this point, Ukrainian forces have managed to maintain control over a bulk of the region.
Meanwhile, Kharkiv faced a sustained aerial bombardment on Saturday.
Ukraine’s second-largest city was pounded by four guided aerial bombs, two ballistic missiles and 15 drones over a three-hour period.
As many as 29 people were injured, including a child, Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said.
The offensive inflicted damage on high-rise apartment buildings, roadways and communication networks in the area.
Four of the injured were first responders — hit in a second strike targeting emergency crews helping help people wounded in the initial attack, Ukraine’s State Emergency Situations Service said.
Zelensky vowed swift retaliation.
“Russian military enterprises, Russian logistics, and Russian airports should feel that Russia’s own war is now hitting them back with real consequences,” he posted on X.
“There can be absolutely no silence in response to such strikes, and Ukrainian long-range drones ensure this.”
Zelensky also said Saturday he received a report from the head of the Foreign Intelligence Service claiming sanctions have significantly slowed Russia’s economic potential.
He also said Kyiv’s drone production this year will exceed projections from January.
Some of those drones targeted multiple regions in Russia, as Ukraine’s attacks on Moscow have heated up in recent months along the more than 620-mile frontline of the war.
A drone attack on the Rostov region, near the Ukrainian border, killed two people, officials reported.
Another strike hit an unspecified industrial facility in the neighboring Stavropol region.
Drones also targeted Moscow but were shot down, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin reported. Russia’s Defense Ministry said its air defenses shot down or intercepted 54 of Kyiv’s drones in total overnight.
The more than three-year-old war continued to rage on this week as both sides ended a failed third round of cease-fire talks in less than an hour Wednesday — but agreed to another planned prisoner swap.
With wires
Credit to Nypost AND Peoples
