UKRAINE LAUNCHED DRONES at eight Russian regions overnight, hitting three electrical substations and a fuel depot, a source in Ukraine’s defence sector told AFP.
Kyiv has ramped up strikes on Russian oil and gas facilities in recent months, part of what it calls “fair” retaliation on infrastructure used to fuel Russia’s war.
“At least three electrical substations and a fuel storage base were hit and caught fire. The target was the energy infrastructure that feeds Russia’s military-industrial complex,” the source said.
The strike was a “joint operation” of Ukraine’s SBU security service, military intelligence and armed forces, the source added.
The governor of Russia’s western Smolensk region said earlier that Ukraine had fired drones at a “fuel and energy facility” but they had been shot down.
“Air defence forces shot the aerial vehicles down. However, as a result of falling debris, a tank with fuel and lubricants caught fire,” governor Vasily Anokhin said.
Russia’s defence ministry said it had intercepted 50 Ukrainian drones overnight, including one over the Smolensk region, without going into detail.
The governor of Russia’s Belgorod region said today that the shelling killed a pregnant woman in a village close to the border.
“The village of Novaya Tavolzhanka in the Shebekinsky urban district came under Ukrainian shelling. To great grief, a woman and unborn baby died from their wounds,” Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.
Russia’s Izvestia newspaper has said that one of its military correspondents was killed in a Ukrainian drone attack in the southeastern region of Zaporizhzhia.
The attack took place as the journalist Semyon Eremin and his film crew returned from a reporting trip to the frontline village of Pryiutne, Izvestia said.
“Eremin’s film crew was attacked by several enemy drones at once. The first strike missed, but during the second, the journalist was wounded and died as a result,” it reported.
The 42-year-old had previously reported from behind frontlines in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, including the embattled city of Mariupol, the newspaper said.
At least 15 journalists have been killed while covering the Ukraine conflict, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, a press freedom organisation.
Meanwhile, Russian forces shelled two residential buildings in Ukraine’s north east Kharkiv region today, killing one person and injuring another, authorities said.
The attack took place in Vovchansk, a city that lies about five kilometres from the Russian border and has been frequently targeted throughout the war.
“Russian troops hit a nine-storey building and private home. A 50-year-old civilian man died on the spot as a result of the hit to the home,” regional governor Oleg Sinegubov said.
He said a 60-year-old woman was also injured in the attack, sharing a photo that showed a pile of rubble next to the collapsed section of a multi-storey residential block.
The attack came hours after Russia fired at least seven missiles at Ukraine overnight, two of which were shot down by air defences, Ukraine’s air force said.
Ukraine has in recent months pleaded for more air defences from its Western allies as it struggles to fend off a surge in deadly Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure.
President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday also urged NATO to step up arms deliveries to his struggling forces, which have ceded ground to Moscow in recent months.
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