Overnight attacks by Russia and Ukraine left at least seven people dead and dozens injured across both countries, while drone incidents also reached Moldova and Bulgaria as the conflict continued to spill across borders.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
Russia and Ukraine launched another round of overnight missile and drone attacks that killed at least seven civilians and injured dozens more, as Kyiv continued to confront a shortage of Patriot air-defense interceptors and Ukrainian forces maintained long-range strikes against targets inside Russia.
Five people were killed in Russia’s Belgorod border region when Ukrainian drones struck overnight, according to the regional administration. About two dozen others were injured, including a 4-year-old boy.
Authorities in Belgorod also reported widespread property damage. The strikes damaged 29 apartment buildings, five private homes, administrative buildings and unspecified “commercial facilities.”
Across the border in Ukraine, Russian missiles struck a high-rise residential building in Kharkiv, the country’s second-largest city.
Oleh Syniehubov, head of the regional administration, said two people were killed and 13 injured when missiles hit the apartment building in Kharkiv’s Saltivskyi district.
Another eight people were injured in Odesa after “dozens of missiles and drones” struck the Black Sea port city and surrounding region, according to regional administration head Oleh Kiper.
Russia has conducted large-scale missile attacks against Ukrainian cities with increasing frequency in recent weeks while Ukraine faces a critical shortage of interceptors for its U.S.-made Patriot systems. Patriot remains the only air-defense system in Ukraine’s arsenal capable of intercepting ballistic missiles.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has spent months urging other countries, particularly the United States, to provide additional Patriot systems and ammunition.
Those weapons have become scarcer because of the Iran war, adding to Ukraine’s difficulties maintaining sufficient stocks to defend its cities.
Zelenskyy has also sought alternatives if additional Patriot systems cannot be obtained. He wants Ukraine to manufacture Patriot ammunition domestically or receive authorization from Elon Musk to use the Starlink satellite communications system to guide Ukrainian strikes deeper inside Russia against missile-launching positions.
Ukraine, meanwhile, has continued long-range drone operations against Russian targets.
Those attacks have included Russian energy infrastructure, the country’s largest online retailer, Wildberries, and other facilities deep inside Russian territory. The campaign has contributed to a fuel crisis in Russia.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said Sunday that its overnight attacks struck Ukrainian drone warehouses in the Kharkiv region, along with fuel depots and other stores of military materiel belonging to Ukraine’s armed forces at the port of Odesa.
The ministry also claimed Russian forces intercepted 153 Ukrainian drones overnight, including drones over Russian-occupied Crimea and the Black and Azov seas.
Additional Ukrainian drone activity was reported in the Russian port city of Novorossiysk.
Mayor Andrey Kravchenko said debris from Ukrainian drones fell on two enterprises and a private residence Sunday. He did not identify the commercial facilities involved.
Regional authorities later said falling debris injured one person, damaged two private homes and shattered a window in an apartment building.
Novorossiysk is home to a major fuel terminal connecting Kazakhstan’s oil fields with international markets. The facility has previously been targeted by Ukrainian strikes.
The overnight drone activity also extended beyond Russia and Ukraine.
Police in Moldova said a “powerful explosion,” believed to have been caused by a combat drone, occurred in the southeastern village of Crocmaz near the Ukrainian border.
The blast caused a vegetation fire in the Stefan Voda district but resulted in no injuries.
“Fragments of a combat drone were found at the scene,” Moldovan police said, adding that specialists would examine the debris.
Authorities did not identify the drone’s origin.
Moldova has experienced multiple violations of its airspace by drones since Russia launched its full-scale war against neighboring Ukraine.
Bulgaria also reported a drone incursion, prompting the government to summon Ukraine’s ambassador.
According to Bulgarian public broadcaster BNT, a drone entered Bulgarian airspace and exploded Saturday near an international natural gas pipeline shortly after crossing the border from Romania.
No injuries or property damage were reported.
Bulgaria’s Defense Ministry said the aircraft appeared to be a type used by Ukraine’s armed forces and indicated that the incursion was probably accidental.
Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhii Tykhyi said Kyiv was examining the incident and denied that Bulgaria had been deliberately targeted.
Ukraine and Bulgaria were in “close contact” as officials worked to determine what occurred, Tykhyi said.
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