According to Ukrainian sources, Russia shelled more than 100 locations in Ukraine within 24 hours. Apparently there were several fatalities. It was said from Kiev that these were the most violent attacks since the beginning of the year.
According to Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko, the Russian army has shelled more Ukrainian cities and towns in the past 24 hours than at any time since the beginning of the year.
The Russians attacked a total of 118 towns in ten regions, Klymenko wrote on Telegram. According to authorities, at least four people were killed and 14 injured.
Sirens in large parts of the country
In Kherson, southern Ukraine, a Russian missile struck in the immediate vicinity of residential buildings this morning and killed a city administration employee. According to the local military authorities, two of their colleagues were injured, some seriously. Video footage from the site released by authorities suggested a drone attack due to the severity of the damage and the suspected impact crater.
A Russian drone also killed a 59-year-old woman and injured six people in the Dnipropetrovsk region northeast of Kherson, the regional prosecutor’s office said. There had previously been further victims in the east and northeast of the country.
The deputy head of the Ukrainian presidential office, Oleksiy Kuleba, said Russian attacks were increasing. In many areas of Ukraine, sirens were turned on at night to warn of air strikes.
Conflict parties as a source
In the current situation, information on the course of the war, shelling and casualties provided by official bodies of the Russian and Ukrainian parties to the conflict cannot be directly verified by an independent body.
Kamikaze drone attacks central Ukraine
In the embattled Donetsk region, a 58-year-old man was killed by Russian shelling, while four people between the ages of 54 and 73 were wounded, according to regional authorities. According to the Ukrainian Interior Minister, there was one dead and one injured near the front-line town of Kupyansk in the northeast of the country, which was liberated last year.
In central Ukraine, a so-called Shahed-type kamikaze drone also hit a refinery at dawn and caused a fire. The fire was quickly extinguished and operations are currently shut down, wrote the military governor of the Poltava region, Filip Pronin, on Telegram. So no one was injured.
The Ukrainian Air Force said it shot down 18 of 20 Russian drones launched during the night. The Russian Defense Ministry said it had shot down two Ukrainian drones over the Bryansk and Kursk regions. Both regions border Ukraine.
Russian military threatens to shoot down F-16 quickly
Meanwhile, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu threatened to quickly shoot down the Western F-16 fighter jets that are to be delivered to Ukraine. Last month, Russian anti-aircraft defense “shot down more than 1,400 enemy air attack targets, including 37 aircraft and six ATACMS tactical missiles,” Shoigu claimed on Tuesday at a ministry meeting. At this rate, the F-16 fighter jets would be destroyed within 20 days, he said.
Shoigu’s information on past shootings cannot be independently verified. So far, the Russian military has been noticed several times for exaggerating its own successes. According to its own count, the Ministry of Defense has now shot down more than 500 Ukrainian aircraft – more than the neighboring country has ever had, even with the previous deliveries of old MiG and Sukhoi fighter jets from the allies, especially in Eastern Europe.