Russia said a Ukrainian strike killed two people in a border region on Monday, after Kyiv launched one of its largest overnight attacks of the war and both sides reported power outages.
Kyiv has vowed to increase its strikes on Russian territory, particularly on Russia’s oil infrastructure, in what it sees as a legitimate response to Moscow’s daily barrages of Ukrainian cities and its energy network that have at times cut off heating and power to millions.
Russia’s defence ministry said it had downed 251 Ukrainian drones overnight — one of the highest daily tolls since Russia launched its offensive in February 2022.
A rocket strike on the Russian city of Belgorod, about 30 kilometres (18 miles) from the border with Ukraine, killed two people, officials said.
“A man died as a result of the strike before the ambulance crew arrived,” Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on social media, adding that another man later succumbed to his wounds in hospital.
Ukraine also struck a refinery in the southern Krasnodar region, wounding two people, local Russian authorities said.
Kyiv’s army claimed responsibility for a separate attack on an explosives plant in the Nizhny Novgorod region, east of Moscow.
“The plant is one of the largest Russian producers of explosives. It is capable of equipping practically all types of ammunition,” Ukraine’s General Staff said in a statement.
An oil terminal and an ammunition depot in the Russian-annexed Crimean peninsula were also hit, it added.
– Woman killed in Kherson shelling –
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia targeted a maternity hospital in the northeastern city of Sumy.
“Fortunately, people were in the shelter: staff, 35 women, and 11 children. Fortunately, this time there were no casualties,” Zelensky said on social media.
Moscow fired 116 drones at Ukraine overnight, Kyiv’s air force said, hitting an energy facility in the northern Chernigiv region.
One woman was also killed in the frontline city of Kherson in morning shelling, local authorities said.
Ukraine says Russia is intensifying its targeting of the country’s power grid, repeating a tactic of previous winters that at times left millions without heating or lighting in sub-zero temperatures.
Ukraine’s retaliatory strikes on Russia’s oil refineries over recent months have triggered fuel shortages in several Russian regions and pushed up petrol prices.
Kyiv aims to cut off vital energy revenues for Moscow that it says fund the Russian army.
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© Agence France-Presse
