Russia, Ukraine trade massive strikes

Overnight strikes killed 12 people in Russia and Ukraine, authorities said yesterday, as waves of drones and missiles pummelled civilian infrastructure on both sides.

With fighting at the front at a near standstill and talks frozen, the warring countries have significantly stepped up long-range attacks deep behind each other’s lines, pushing the civilian death toll to its highest levels since the war’s first months in 2022.

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In Russia, swarms of Ukrainian drones killed five people in a residential area of the southern Rostov region, regional governor Yuri Slusar said. Two more people were killed in the Belgorod and Moscow regions.

Moscow regional governor Andrey Vorobyov described the assault as “one of the most massive drone attacks in recent memory”. Russia’s defence ministry said it had intercepted 822 drones across the country overnight.

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In Ukraine, a barrage of Russian drones and missiles killed two people and wounded 14 at ArcelorMittal’s steel plant in Kryvyi Rih, President Volodymyr Zelensky’s hometown. The plant, one of Ukraine’s biggest steel producers, said it partially halted operations after the strike damaged its core production facilities.

Strikes also hit other regions, killing two people in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region and one in the border region of Sumy.

In Kyiv, a popular outdoor book market at Pochaina, long the place to find rare and antiquarian volumes, was struck. Bookseller Dmytro Semenukha saw all four of his stalls burn to the ground.

“There used to be a store. And books, and flags of all the countries, all the countries. Tons of everything. And that’s it,” the 45-year-old told AFP.

In a social media post on the overnight raid, Zelensky said “wherever the Russians can reach with their ballistic missiles, they strike civilian infrastructure.”

Meanwhile, a Spanish fighter jet yesterday shot down a drone that breached Romania’s airspace near the border with Ukraine and Moldova, Romania’s defence ministry said, in the latest incident to highlight the challenges facing Nato states bordering Ukraine.

Over the past week, Zelensky said, Ukrainian cities had been pummelled by “more than 1,550 attack drones, nearly 1,560 guided aerial bombs, and 62 missiles”, as he renewed his appeal to allies for more air defence.

Russia has carried out near-daily missile and drone strikes across Ukraine since launching its full-scale invasion in early 2022. It has recently intensified attacks using hard-to-intercept ballistic missiles, exploiting Ukraine’s air-defence shortages after the US-Israeli war against Iran diverted supplies.

“When North Korean ballistic missiles destroy infrastructure and claim lives here in Europe, European interceptors cannot simply be allowed to sit in storage,” Zelensky said. Kyiv has recently renewed claims that Moscow is receiving more missiles and troops from its ally North Korea.