A Ukrainian firefighter battles a blaze at the site of a drone strike in Kharkiv early Wednesday. Photo by Sergey Kozlov/EPA-EFE
Three people were killed and at least 68 injured in Ukraine overnight after Russian forces hit civilian targets across the frontline regions of Kharkiv and Kherson with artillery fire, guided bombs and drones, authorities said.
Two of the fatalities and 60 of the injuries, including nine children, occurred in Kharkiv city but seven other communities were also attacked, with at least five people injured, Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said in an update on Telegram on Wednesday morning.
The third person killed was a 65-year-old man who died in a specialist burns unit in the hospital after being seriously injured in drone strikes on Kharkiv that damaged nine apartment buildings, three private homes, a factory and more than a dozen cars.
Eight houses were damaged in Tsupivka, a village 20 miles north of Kharkiv, while 40 homes were damaged around the city of Kupiansk, 60 miles southeast of Kharkiv, amid clashes after Russian forces mounted a dozen ground sorties from the east.
All the assaults by Russian units were repelled by Ukrainian forces, according to Syniehubov, who said Russian forces also launched unsuccessful offensives in the border districts of Vovchansk and toward Lyptsy, which is within striking distance of Kharkiv.
Ukrainian troops also fought back a Russian sortie in the far east of the province near Dvorichnaya, close to Russian-occupied Luhansk province.
A 63-year-old woman and a 61-year-old man were hospitalized Wednesday morning with blast injuries and concussion in Kherson after the vehicle they were riding in was struck by a drone, just northeast of the city.
A second local woman sustained a shrapnel wound to her leg and was being treated in the hospital.
The latest attacks were the seventh night in a row that Russia has deployed significant airborne forces against Ukrainian towns and cities since U.S. President Donald Trump revealed Russian President Vladimir Putin had told him during a call that he would have to retaliate over Ukrainian attacks targeting warplanes on the ground at airfields deep inside its territory.
A so-called “Spiderweb” operation on June 1 by Ukrainian special forces destroyed or damaged dozens of aircraft, including strategic bombers, using drones to attack multiple military bases as far away as Siberia, which is 3,800 miles from Ukraine.
Trump appeared to blame Ukraine for Russia’s renewed onslaught. Speaking aboard Air Force One on Friday night, he told reporters he thought Kyiv had made a misstep.
“They gave Putin a reason to go in and bomb the hell out of them last night. That’s the thing I don’t like about it. When I saw it I said ‘here we go now it’s going to be a strike,'” said Trump.
