Weekend of Russian airstrikes kills at least 10 across Ukraine

Russian airstrikes in several Ukrainian regions Saturday killed 10 people, injured dozens and damaged residential buildings and infrastructure, local officials said.

The civilian death toll rose sharply in Ukraine in the past two months as Russia stepped up attacks on power plants and other infrastructure. Ukraine hit energy facilities and warehouses in Russia and both sides targeted each other’s shipping.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, writing on Telegram, said Russia deployed nearly 500 drones against Ukrainian targets since morning.

“The Russians expanded the war from the front, where they are unsuccessful, into the economy, and their tactics are as basic as it gets: destroying every site that could help people cope with the conditions of war,” Zelenskyy wrote.

“Russia wants to kill the Ukrainian economy and break our resistance,” Zelenskyy added.

The city council in Kramatorsk, one of Ukraine’s frontline “fortress cities” that Russia wants to capture, said Russian forces attacked private cars, killing three people and injuring four in three incidents over a 90-minute period.

“These are not military targets,” the council said. “They are ordinary civilian cars. People were going about their business.”

The governor of Ukraine’s Zhytomyr region, west of Kyiv, Vitaliy Bunechko, said a Russian strike on a grocery store killed two people in the town of Zvyahel.

Bunechko said two petrol stations also were attacked, as well as an unidentified “enterprise with foreign investment.”

Earlier, Zelenskyy reported attacks on the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia and Kryvyi Rih, his hometown.

The governor of Zaporizhzhia region, Ivan Fedorov, said two people were killed and 11 injured in assaults on Zaporizhzhia and other localities.

Oleksandr Vilkul, head of Kryvyi Rih’s military administration, said two people were killed in overnight attacks on the city by drones and missiles.

The Russian military said its forces hit Ukrainian steelmaker Zaporizhstal in Zaporizhzhia, an Interpipe Steel complex in Dnipro and several plants in Kryvyi Rih, including the Northern Iron Ore Beneficiation Works complex.

Reuters could not independently verify accounts from either side.

In the Black Sea port of Odesa, regional Gov. Oleh Kiper said nearly 40 people were injured in attacks that extended from overnight into Saturday evening.

The Russia-installed head of areas of eastern Donetsk region under Moscow’s control said three people were killed in Ukrainian drone attacks.

In Moldova, on Ukraine’s western border, authorities closed national airspace for nearly an hour after a drone was detected near the border. Seven border crossings were temporarily closed.

Russian drones have regularly entered Moldovan airspace despite official protests. In one instance this week, the departure of Zelenskyy’s aircraft to Norway was delayed.

Strikes on Ukrainian port

The Russian Defense Ministry said Russia’s forces maintained their strikes on Ukrainian ports, hitting a cargo ship in Odesa that it said was carrying goods for military use.

Earlier, the ministry said its forces struck two cargo vessels overnight in the port of Chornomorsk.

Ukraine’s military said it hit one of Russia’s largest synthetic rubber producers in Togliatti in the Samara region, causing a fire.

The Togliattikauchuk plant specialized in the production of synthetic rubbers and fuel additives used in fuel for Russian missiles, it said.

Russian regional governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev said industrial facilities in the Samara region were attacked by Ukrainian drones, without specifying which facilities or whether they were damaged, Interfax news agency reported.

Ilya Sukhikh, mayor of Togliatti in the Samara region, said several residential buildings were damaged and one person was injured.

DAILYSABAH